Amazon Kindle is going to be opening up a commercial market for fan fiction.
Yep, that's right, folks.
They're going into contracts with the publishers/creators of the media and literary worlds we fan fiction writers love to write in, and they'll pay the creators and the fan fiction writers for new stories in those worlds.
You can read all about it
here.
Currently, only three TV shows are covered: Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girls. However, Amazon promises to sign up more creators, so I'm hopeful that, eventually, Supernatural fan fiction will be included.
Of course, I couldn't publish something commercially and still put it up on fanfiction.net, right? Would you, as a reader, pay for a story if you could find it online for free? So whatever stories I submitted would then not be available on my fanfiction.net, twistingthehellmouth, archiveofourown, or LiveJournal accounts, or even on the positively_spn community, where I've been publishing my Buffy/Supernatural crossover.
Also, a friend of mine has informed me, the rates they're charging for fan fiction are miniscule, no one will be editing your story to make sure it's the best it can be (which you'd get with traditional publishing), and by publishing with them, you'll be giving up all rights to the story. This means that you don't own the story any more, and if it doesn't sell, you can't republish it on your own blog or on any of the fan fiction sites.
There are other questions this opens up. How will this change the relationship of the creators of these properties with sites like Fanfiction.net? (I could see certain creators demanding money from these sites, now that Amazon Kindle is paying.) What will fans think of this? Will authors who publish for pay be praised by the fan community or stigmatized?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter, dear reader. Please comment below!