People talk about Amazon a lot because they are the giant of booksellers. Some authors I know are upset that they dominate the market so much, while others are happy that we can focus on one place and optimize for that. I think it's pretty amazing that Amazon has continued to innovate and lead in the publishing revolution. As an author, I typically view them as making my life easier and creating products and features that help me. For the most part, I think of them as on my side.
Jeremy Greenfield wrote up something this week about Amazon that came out of left field. To wit, he writes:
"Amazon shocked and impressed the publishing world yet again yesterday with the launch of Kindle Worlds, a self-publishing platform specifically for fan fiction."
Wait, fan fiction? Is that a thing now? You bet it is. I have no idea how big the whole ecosystem is, but I do know that one website, FanFiction.net, has tons of categories of fan fiction. And in just one of those categories, there are hundreds of types. One type is Harry Potter fan fiction, clocking in at 643,354 entries. That's one type. In one category. So, if you don't know, now you know.
Amazon clearly knows. Kindle Worlds is actually designed for it. Authors who write it will get royalties.
This is certainly revolutionary thinking. Compare it to the way the music industry treats people who sample music. Those artists need to pay the original song creator. With Kindle Worlds, fan fiction authors will be able to write with permission from the original author and publisher of the base text (say, Harry Potter or Twilight), and everybody gets their cut of the profits. Each series will have its own set of specific rules, but all of it will rule out sexually based content. But it is the literary version of sampling, legally and with handshakes all around, or so it seems.
What do you think?
Image courtesy of Hash Milhan via flickr
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