Fanfiction for sale

[ellyfanfic]

Unfiltered post. Wow, this is huge:

"Amazon announced a new publishing platform today called Kindle Worlds, which will give both established authors and aspiring fan fiction writers the chance to earn royalties based on their work."So far there are only three licenced shows (Gossip Girls, Pretty Little Liars, and Vampire Diaries), but the list

Comments

[frelling_tralk]

Wow, that's strange to see after all the emphasis fandom always puts on you must not profit from fic based on someone elses work

[ellyfanfic]

I know, it's really weird, isn't it? The biggest concern that occurs to me is that there will be people trying to make a quick buck by swiping everything they see off archives (people are already doing this with work posted on LitErotica). How can I prove I'm ellyfanfiction and someone else isn't? KDP may make a rule that the work can't be available elsewhere, and have their spiders check it, but a lot of it is behind filters (like on KSite.) Even if I take all my fic down, how do I know someone hasn't already saved it to their harddrive and won't put it up on Amazon? There wouldn't be a damn thing I could do about it if they did.

[danceswithgary]

Wow, I really don't like this for the reasons you brought up, plus it seems counter to all the work OTW has been doing on fair use to protect fanworks from prosecution. :-/

[ellyfanfic]

The problem is that it's stirring a pot that's best not stirred. Amazon is approaching entities and saying, "Do you want to license fanfic?" If they say yes, well and good. If they say no, then Amazon will probably say, "But look at all this fanfic out there already!" This could cause companies to start coming after fanfic writers with renewed enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, the pot's already in the process of being stirred, and there's nothing to be done about it now. Amazon's spotted a chance for making lots of money, and they're not going to stop, I'm sure. So we'll have to wait and see what happens. It's pretty much out of our hands at this point.

[tkel_paris]

Holy f-ing s---! If Doctor Who ever joins this list... I'll have to go back over EVERYTHING I ever wrote! O.O

Well, this might force people to start polishing their work. If people are going to spend their money on something, I'd imagine they want something put together. :)

[ellyfanfic]

I don't know about that-- I see unpolished crap up on Amazon all the time. It's better than it once was, but I think people will pay 99 cents for stuff that's kind of rough if the story is good.

[tkel_paris]

But a story that isn't well put together, that has major plot holes... People will report on that big time and perhaps refuse to support that author any further. When you spend your own money on something, you expect some quality in the product. (Remind me to tell the story about me and the McDonald's ice cream cones from the early 90s.) The perfectionists who LIKE to produce pretty much polished work? Should do well enough by this method.

[ellyfanfic]

Hee hee, I should link you to some of the poorly-written jewels I've found:-). I agree that most people won't buy crap. There was a lady who did well on Amazon for about a year by putting up awful, awful stuff and giving herself numerous five-star reviews. This worked till enough people bought it and left angry one-star reviews. Amazon has become more aware of "sock puppet" reviews now, though, and it's a bit harder to game the system that way, because Amazon tends to remove dubious reviews now.

[monicaop]

Oh... this could be really, really bad or really really great... but if I have to start paying for my fix... is going to be awful... I hope they don't include Smallville, Merlin, The Tudors, Star Wars, Avengers and all in this... wow...

Thanks Elly, be well

[ellyfanfic]

I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon talked most of the bigger fandom rightsholders into it eventually. We'll see.

[legendarytobes]

I don't think Star Wars and Marvel will go that way cause Disney has the best lawyers on Earth. Also DC is too protective of Superman.

[ellyfanfic]

Boo, that sucks:-(. But I think you're probably right.

[ellyfanfic]

Oh, another issue that occurs to me is that I doubt they're aware of how vicious shipping wars can be. How many people will get one star reviews because they write about the wrong ship? If I ever pubbed any of my fanfic, I'd be damn sure to do it under a different name from my professional work, because the last thing I want is shipping wars spilling over into my other stuff.

[eevilalice]

I don't believe it can be considered fanfiction anymore if it's licensed. I feel like you're basically a paid writer, an employee, like authors who write books in any number of film and TV universes.

And that last bit, plus the content guidelines, are worrisome.

[ellyfanfic]

I don't mind the idea of being paid. It's always annoyed me that the authors who get paid for writing "expanded universe" stuff often clearly don't understand or love the universe as much as the fans do.

The content guidelines worry me. I'd hate to see all fanfic licensed and none of it be allowed sexual content. If they then tried to push all the slash and sexy stuff off the internet entirely-- well, the whole face of fandom could be completely altered by this. I wish Amazon had left it alone, but they're not a company to pass up a chance to make money, alas.

[eevilalice]

No one minds being paid, but to me the definition of fanfic has to do with writing without being licensed to do so.

Also, the idea of paying for what would otherwise be free makes no sense to me (granted, it's not a new concept). I can't imagine paying to read licensed fanfic.

[ellyfanfic]

If everyone puts up their fanfic on Amazon, then we'll all wind up paying. I imagine this is what Amazon has in mind, which is why I figure they'll be going after the free stuff, too. The old thing about not buying the cow when you can get the milk for free comes to mind. They won't want the milk out there.