In which I have thoughts on Amazon trying to monetize fanfic (shocking, I know)
Oh look, it's 2007 all over again. Well done, Amazon.
Having read a few articles (and a whole bunch of incredulous Tweeting), I'm not feeling as worried as I was when first I opened up Twitter at lunch. The DailyDot article has the best analysis so far of why this may (hopefully will) just sink like a lead brick. I saw a lot of comments on the various tech blogs and news site articles, most of them stating that they assumed fic writers would jump for it because they'll love all that exposure and potential money.
Hahaha, no.
Most fic writers aren't in this for money. We're not looking to become the next E. L. James. Hell, that's the last thing most of us want (even if the money would be nice) because 99% of fan writers didn't get into fanfic for the adulation and money.
We write because it's fun, we enjoy it, it's creative and expressive and there's a freedom to being able to write whatever we want.
Yup, some people do use it as a writing exercise with the aim of graduating to original fiction and publishing eventually. And some of those people have continued to write original published work *and* write fanfic just because the fanfic is so much fun.
For most of us, writing fanfic isn't done with an eye to a publishing contract. So the Amazon thing isn't going to tempt the majority of fanwriters.
And when you actually read the nitty gritty of the restrictions and licenses, it all starts to look deeply fishy and really not much better than the Fanlib debacle. Only certain fandoms are licensed, no cross-overs or explicit sex, no accidental copyright infringement of anything else - so that's a huge segment of fanfic already not permitted. If you also consider that any elements you add (original characters, for example) become the property of the licensing 'World' creator to be used as they want with no further money paid to the creator, the whole thing just seems like a bad deal.
So really, I don't predict many fic writers will be jumping to sign up. Only the really new ones who don't know any better and maybe the odd writer who already works in those fandoms and gets tempted by the prospect of some royalties.
As for readers...
Again, I don't see the readership being huge. When there is an excellent source of fanfic (Archive of Our Own!) for free, with works in any fandom you can think of and no restriction on what the content can be, the only people likely to pay for these Kindle books are the new fans who don't know about the AO3 and other archives.
I mean, if I want fanfic on my Kindle then I can just download the .mobi file from AO3 and put it on my Kindle. Ta da! Ridiculously easy.
(Let's not discuss how much fanfic is on my Kindle. It's bad numbers. BAD.)
My only slight concern is what the creators of, say, Pretty Little Liars will do about all that free fanfic lurking on the net after this goes live. Will they leave it alone or decide that now there's a 'legal' route for it, they can issue a bunch of C&D letters to the writers and archives?
And what will happen in the unlikely event that creators for the truely huge fandoms (Marvel, Teen Wolf, Sherlock) sign up?
Hopefully Kindle Worlds will go the way of Fanlib and die a quiet, ignomnious death. At the moment that seems the most likely future for it, given the level of uproar and the fact that 99% of readers/writers are already planning to simply pretend it doesn't exist. Fingers are all firmly crossed.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/494420.html. There are currently
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Having read a few articles (and a whole bunch of incredulous Tweeting), I'm not feeling as worried as I was when first I opened up Twitter at lunch. The DailyDot article has the best analysis so far of why this may (hopefully will) just sink like a lead brick. I saw a lot of comments on the various tech blogs and news site articles, most of them stating that they assumed fic writers would jump for it because they'll love all that exposure and potential money.
Hahaha, no.
Most fic writers aren't in this for money. We're not looking to become the next E. L. James. Hell, that's the last thing most of us want (even if the money would be nice) because 99% of fan writers didn't get into fanfic for the adulation and money.
We write because it's fun, we enjoy it, it's creative and expressive and there's a freedom to being able to write whatever we want.
Yup, some people do use it as a writing exercise with the aim of graduating to original fiction and publishing eventually. And some of those people have continued to write original published work *and* write fanfic just because the fanfic is so much fun.
For most of us, writing fanfic isn't done with an eye to a publishing contract. So the Amazon thing isn't going to tempt the majority of fanwriters.
And when you actually read the nitty gritty of the restrictions and licenses, it all starts to look deeply fishy and really not much better than the Fanlib debacle. Only certain fandoms are licensed, no cross-overs or explicit sex, no accidental copyright infringement of anything else - so that's a huge segment of fanfic already not permitted. If you also consider that any elements you add (original characters, for example) become the property of the licensing 'World' creator to be used as they want with no further money paid to the creator, the whole thing just seems like a bad deal.
So really, I don't predict many fic writers will be jumping to sign up. Only the really new ones who don't know any better and maybe the odd writer who already works in those fandoms and gets tempted by the prospect of some royalties.
As for readers...
Again, I don't see the readership being huge. When there is an excellent source of fanfic (Archive of Our Own!) for free, with works in any fandom you can think of and no restriction on what the content can be, the only people likely to pay for these Kindle books are the new fans who don't know about the AO3 and other archives.
I mean, if I want fanfic on my Kindle then I can just download the .mobi file from AO3 and put it on my Kindle. Ta da! Ridiculously easy.
(Let's not discuss how much fanfic is on my Kindle. It's bad numbers. BAD.)
My only slight concern is what the creators of, say, Pretty Little Liars will do about all that free fanfic lurking on the net after this goes live. Will they leave it alone or decide that now there's a 'legal' route for it, they can issue a bunch of C&D letters to the writers and archives?
And what will happen in the unlikely event that creators for the truely huge fandoms (Marvel, Teen Wolf, Sherlock) sign up?
Hopefully Kindle Worlds will go the way of Fanlib and die a quiet, ignomnious death. At the moment that seems the most likely future for it, given the level of uproar and the fact that 99% of readers/writers are already planning to simply pretend it doesn't exist. Fingers are all firmly crossed.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/494420.html. There are currently
babbles on the entry on Dreamwidth