I know. Once I found out some of the terms, I actually modified my blog entry, which didn't originally have the stuff about them owning the rights.
And, like I said, note the terms: "Authors who create works of at least 10,000 words in length will receive 35 percent of the net revenue based on the actual sales price, with royalties paid each month. Those who write shorter pieces between 5,000 and 10,000 words will receive a digital royalty of 20 percent of the sales price."
Okay - so if nobody buys your story, you get nothing. And if they do like your story and it's popular and they want to republish it/use it? Hey, they own it now, you get nothing if they republish.
bad idea all around. Yes it may give some a momentary "thrill" to think they may get paid for their efforts and recognized as more of a "professional", but in the end I think it will cause a lot of problems. I can see the free fanfic sites getting a lot of legal trouble and the communities becoming splintered. Also, I can see a loss of creativity if paid fanfic becomes the norm. I would be greatly surprised if the owners of the source material did not restrict content to certain ratings and outright forbid certain themes. Honestly if I was a creator, I wouldn't want to get a dime from some of the darker themes I've seen in the fandom (parental rape, for example). And what would happen to crossovers? I can imagine that would be forbidden, especially if the fandoms being crossed were owned by different and/or competing companies. Bad, bad, bad, bad idea.
Well, I don't really see that this will become the norm (paid fanfic). Most writers who look at the terms won't want to take them. So I don't think it'll go that far, as a commercial venture.
Crossovers won't be allowed on the Kindle Worlds system, I believe. Neither will any stories with sex. At least that's my understanding.
Well, actually, it's not clear that shipping would be banned under the Worlds system. But I agree with John Scalzi (thank you, cuddyclothes, for that link) that it's a really screwed-up system.
"Fanfiction isn’t just something people write - it’s a community, largely a community of women. It has norms and values and offers benefits that only exist in the context of a gift economy, where what is created is offered up freely and shared in order to perpetuate that sense of community. We wrote an entire book (Fandom At The Crossroads) about the power of the fandom community and the ways in which fanfiction functions as beneficial both psychologically and socially. Turning fanfiction into a market economy will stifle the very things that make fanfic so powerful - and that would be a damn shame." @FangasmSPN
(I really need to get that book - Fandom at the Crossroads. LOL Just one more thing to read.)
I queried my initial reluctance to this idea - surely it's a good thing to have tacit approval to write fanfic and even make some money for both me and the original author? Plus, I don't own the rights to the original idea anyway, so what am I really giving away
( ... )
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I urge everyone to read it!!!
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And, like I said, note the terms: "Authors who create works of at least 10,000 words in length will receive 35 percent of the net revenue based on the actual sales price, with royalties paid each month. Those who write shorter pieces between 5,000 and 10,000 words will receive a digital royalty of 20 percent of the sales price."
Okay - so if nobody buys your story, you get nothing. And if they do like your story and it's popular and they want to republish it/use it? Hey, they own it now, you get nothing if they republish.
I don't think that's a great deal.
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Crossovers won't be allowed on the Kindle Worlds system, I believe. Neither will any stories with sex. At least that's my understanding.
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"Fanfiction isn’t just something people write - it’s a community, largely a community of women. It has norms and values and offers benefits that only exist in the context of a gift economy, where what is created is offered up freely and shared in order to perpetuate that sense of community. We wrote an entire book (Fandom At The Crossroads) about the power of the fandom community and the ways in which fanfiction functions as beneficial both psychologically and socially. Turning fanfiction into a market economy will stifle the very things that make fanfic so powerful - and that would be a damn shame."
@FangasmSPN
(I really need to get that book - Fandom at the Crossroads. LOL Just one more thing to read.)
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