Fellow Writers: Beware of Amazon's Kindle Worlds
"In case you’ve been living under a rock, Amazon has dropped the bombshell otherwise known as Kindle Worlds, a new partnership with Alloy Entertainment (and soon other franchise owners) to allow-”allow”-fans to write tie-in novels and get paid for them if they sell.
This scheme is being touted as a way to allow fanfiction authors to write and get paid for approved fanfic, but make no mistake: fans would be writing series tie-ins and would have as little control over their own stories as any other tie-in novelist. The content guidelines are strict-no crossovers with outside universes, or stories with too much hanky panky-and authors would have absolutely no ability to retain their copyright for their own work. Anyone writing in Alloy’s 3 available fandoms-The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, andPretty Little Liars-would rescind their copyright and be giving the company permission to take any elements of their story, work it into their shows, and make money off of it for eternity, without ever owing the original author another cent.
Don’t think Alloy won’t do it, either. In the 90’s, they hired author LJ Smith to write The Vampire Diaries novel series-and got her to sign over her copyright to her own works. In 2011, after two decades of a successful franchise, they fired her from her own series and brought in ghostwriters to keep it going.
Kids, seriously, don’t fall for this B.S. You can write transformative fanfiction without using the Kindle Worlds model. Fic responsibly, and don’t get scammed by corporations and bookstores that just want to exploit you and your love for canon."
-- http://www.thebacklot.com/the-shipping-news-hannibal-and-other-slashy-serial-killers/06/2013/