Amazon is now monetizing fan-fiction. I mean, I guess? The press release (with scads more detail) is right here. I am of two minds on this. Maybe three minds. MAYBE… Read The Rest I don’t even know, man.
This is madness, of both the good and bad sort.
Amazon is negotiating with copyright holders for licensing permissions, and then yes, allowing fanfic writers to publish their works through Amazon for money.
Assuming you fit all the licensing requirements and whatever contract details Amazon includes, of course.
My thoughts go as follows:
1: HOLY SHIT, THEY’VE ACTUALLY GOT THE BALLS TO START PUBLISHING FANFIC FOR MONEY.
2: Not sure I like the sounds of the contract. Before you publish a work, always always ALWAYS double-check who retains the rights! A license to publish your work is one thing; an exclusive license may be something else, if you ever want to maybe move your work to someone else. If the publisher retains any or all rights to your work, then damn well look carefully because that’s talking about the ownership of the words and the ideas behind it.
3: It looks like they’re setting up shared fanfic worlds for the properties they get licensing permission to—like Star Wars Extended Universe maybe? Which could be weird again, if you’re not okay with ONLY writing in this one shared world.
And the 20%-30% royalty is…well, I suppose that compared to traditional book publishing it’s not too bad, but on the other hand THOSE guys typically get paid an up-front advance. If you’re looking for loose pocket change, this might not be bad, but only a small fraction of people who do it would see a significant profit.
4: Holy crap, what sort of backlash and repercussions might this have? If our little fanfic-writing minds are boggled, you can bet that copyright holders are going to be experiencing epidemics of exploding brain matter.
And once Amazon starts doing this, I expect that we’ll start seeing other companies—ones with a better deal for writers—begin breaking through that wall too.
I…am kind of excited but also wary. Because I know a lot of fanfic writers blow off issues of information policy and intellectual property, but we may be on the brink of finding out just how much they really matter. I’m not 100% certain that the “pay the studio, then earn money off your work” model is one we want trickling through fandom, especially when there have been noises in the legal world that actually lean in favor of NOT NEEDING permission from the copyright holder to create transformative works from their original material. (Before you go out and sell your fanfic on your own terms, though, I’ll also note that it’s early enough in THAT discussion that the leaders in the crowd are still moving targets. If you’ve got the guts and you’re willing to sweat the legal fees, more power to you!)
All Your Fanfiction Belong To Us: What the Fuck is Kindle Worlds?