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as_others_see_us2013-05-25 04:22 pm
wneleh) wrote in as_others_see_us2013-05-25 04:22 pm
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Media Refs 5/25/13 Part One: Kindle Worlds
Amazon has a plan to monetize fan fiction: It's called Kindle Worlds (Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times).
As described by The Guardian’s Alison Flood, Amazon announced yesterday that it had secured licences for the bestselling Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar, for Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars and for LJ Smith's Vampire Diaries from Alloy Entertainment. The licences will allow fans to publish authorised stories set in the different fictional universes as ebooks for the Kindle, with royalties paid to both the original author and the fan fictioneer.
According to Christian Science Monitor’s Husna Haq, Kindle Worlds will officially launch in June with more than 50 commissioned works from authors like Barbara Freethy, John Everson, and Colleen Thompson, according to Amazon. Amazon Publishing will set the price for the works, with most priced at $0.99 to $3.99.
BBC News reported that Kindle Worlds will initially only be available in America.
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, according to CNET News’s Lance Whitney.
Explained Casey Johnston on Ars Technica, Fan fiction has long existed at a murky copyright cross-section, where even fanfic-like works that have the strongest case for originality seem to anger rights-holders (see: The Wind Done Gone, a spinoff of Gone With the Wind that was targeted for copyright violation). There do exist cases where fan-fiction is legal, such as when it is sufficiently transformative or a parody. Even so, those arguments do little to settle the temper of authors who feel their creations are being tread upon.
Forbes’s Jeff Bercovici speculated that the site is a way for Amazon to identify promising undiscovered writers it can sign to its Amazon Publishing book imprint. Established authors have been wary of signing with Amazon after seeing the difficulties that Tim Ferriss and others have had in getting competing retailers to carry their books. (Bercovici gets a gold star for first misusing, but then correcting, ‘slashfic.’)
However, as The Guardian’s Mathilda Gregory observed, the royalty offered is a lot less than Amazon's normal cut for other self-published authors who use their own characters. Franchise owners will be getting a chunky cut and authors also won't own the copyright to their ideas. If the owners of the characters you play with produce something similar and earn squillions, you'll apparently have no comeback, it seems.
Telegraph’s Catherine Scott wrote Even for writers who are happy to sign up to these conditions, there remains a major question. If E L James made a fortune from unlicensed fan fiction without having to cede any royalties to the original author, why would anyone voluntarily credit and pay the author if they do not have to? Fan fiction writers may prefer to sell their work independently of Amazon, and simply gamble on the assumption that the original author won’t take legal action.
In the Toronto Star, Malene Arpe wrote Of course, one of the joys of fan fiction is the ability to play with the characters like little literary puppets. But once you step in into Kindle Worlds, there are strict guidelines to be adhered to. MSN was more blunt: But here comes the bad news — the fan fiction cannot include any sexually explicit material. Do they not know what fan fiction is?!
But, according to PC Magazine’s Chandra Steele, when asked if Fifty Shades of Grey would violate the "no pornography" clause, an Amazon spokesperson said, "Fifty Shades of Grey involves consensual sex between adults and does not violate our content guidelines." So how Amazon defines pornography is definitely somewhere outside the "I know it when I see it" dictum.
I liked Entertainment Weekly’s John Boone’s take: If only there was a way to obsess over vampires bangin' each other all day and make money for it. Oh wait, now you can! Just like E.L. James did with Fifty Shades of Grey! Except you'll be making millions and millions less!
Other overviews came from Angela Moscaritolo in PC Magazine (Amazon Launches 'Kindle Worlds' Publishing Platform for Fan Fiction), Tierney Sneed on U.S. News and World Reports (Amazon to Offer Platform for Fan Fiction Monetization), Matt Brownell on Daily Finance (Amazon to Turn Fan Fiction into a Money Maker with Kindle Worlds), Julianne Pepitone on CNNMoney (Amazon's "Kindle Worlds" lets fan fiction writers sell their stories), Martha C. White on NBC News (Amazon ventures into fanfic. But can it make money?), Mary Beth Quirk on Consumerist (Amazon Wants To Sell Your Vampire Fan Fiction To The World — If You Keep It Clean), Taylor Malmsheimer on New York Daily News’s Page Views (Amazon Publishing announces Kindle Worlds platform for fan fiction), Rachel Edidin on Wired (‘Kindle Worlds’ Lets Authors Publish Fan Fiction — At Dubious Cost), Carol Pinchefsky on Forbes (Fan Fiction Is Finally Legitimized With Kindle Worlds), Alexandra Alter on Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy (Amazon Rewrites the Rules of Fan Fiction), and Ian Steadman on Wired UK (Amazon lets fan fiction authors go legit and sell work legally).
I haven’t seen a lot of fannish reaction in the mainstream media or elsewhere yet, but what I have seen has been skeptical. For example, Malinda Lo wrote on Huffington Post Fan fiction is based on (let's face it) doing what the original author(s) would probably not do: slash pairings, crossover stories (who doesn't love a crossover?!), hot steamy sex, etc. Some of it is really incredibly well written; some of it is crap. Will Amazon actually succeed in getting anything good out of this? I don't know. I know that when I've read fan fiction, I've read it for all the things Amazon is not going to allow.
OTOH, Toronto Star’s Paul Irish interviewed Kira Embree, 24, who has been writing fan fiction since she was 13, [who] calls the Amazon announcement big news and a “new dimension” to something she already enjoys.
Finally, though his blog is outside the usual scope of these roundups, several of these articles reference it, so I will too: John Scalzi laid out his initial response to Kindle Worlds in Amazon’s Kindle Worlds: Instant Thoughts.
As described by The Guardian’s Alison Flood, Amazon announced yesterday that it had secured licences for the bestselling Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar, for Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars and for LJ Smith's Vampire Diaries from Alloy Entertainment. The licences will allow fans to publish authorised stories set in the different fictional universes as ebooks for the Kindle, with royalties paid to both the original author and the fan fictioneer.
According to Christian Science Monitor’s Husna Haq, Kindle Worlds will officially launch in June with more than 50 commissioned works from authors like Barbara Freethy, John Everson, and Colleen Thompson, according to Amazon. Amazon Publishing will set the price for the works, with most priced at $0.99 to $3.99.
BBC News reported that Kindle Worlds will initially only be available in America.
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, according to CNET News’s Lance Whitney.
Explained Casey Johnston on Ars Technica, Fan fiction has long existed at a murky copyright cross-section, where even fanfic-like works that have the strongest case for originality seem to anger rights-holders (see: The Wind Done Gone, a spinoff of Gone With the Wind that was targeted for copyright violation). There do exist cases where fan-fiction is legal, such as when it is sufficiently transformative or a parody. Even so, those arguments do little to settle the temper of authors who feel their creations are being tread upon.
Forbes’s Jeff Bercovici speculated that the site is a way for Amazon to identify promising undiscovered writers it can sign to its Amazon Publishing book imprint. Established authors have been wary of signing with Amazon after seeing the difficulties that Tim Ferriss and others have had in getting competing retailers to carry their books. (Bercovici gets a gold star for first misusing, but then correcting, ‘slashfic.’)
However, as The Guardian’s Mathilda Gregory observed, the royalty offered is a lot less than Amazon's normal cut for other self-published authors who use their own characters. Franchise owners will be getting a chunky cut and authors also won't own the copyright to their ideas. If the owners of the characters you play with produce something similar and earn squillions, you'll apparently have no comeback, it seems.
Telegraph’s Catherine Scott wrote Even for writers who are happy to sign up to these conditions, there remains a major question. If E L James made a fortune from unlicensed fan fiction without having to cede any royalties to the original author, why would anyone voluntarily credit and pay the author if they do not have to? Fan fiction writers may prefer to sell their work independently of Amazon, and simply gamble on the assumption that the original author won’t take legal action.
In the Toronto Star, Malene Arpe wrote Of course, one of the joys of fan fiction is the ability to play with the characters like little literary puppets. But once you step in into Kindle Worlds, there are strict guidelines to be adhered to. MSN was more blunt: But here comes the bad news — the fan fiction cannot include any sexually explicit material. Do they not know what fan fiction is?!
But, according to PC Magazine’s Chandra Steele, when asked if Fifty Shades of Grey would violate the "no pornography" clause, an Amazon spokesperson said, "Fifty Shades of Grey involves consensual sex between adults and does not violate our content guidelines." So how Amazon defines pornography is definitely somewhere outside the "I know it when I see it" dictum.
I liked Entertainment Weekly’s John Boone’s take: If only there was a way to obsess over vampires bangin' each other all day and make money for it. Oh wait, now you can! Just like E.L. James did with Fifty Shades of Grey! Except you'll be making millions and millions less!
Other overviews came from Angela Moscaritolo in PC Magazine (Amazon Launches 'Kindle Worlds' Publishing Platform for Fan Fiction), Tierney Sneed on U.S. News and World Reports (Amazon to Offer Platform for Fan Fiction Monetization), Matt Brownell on Daily Finance (Amazon to Turn Fan Fiction into a Money Maker with Kindle Worlds), Julianne Pepitone on CNNMoney (Amazon's "Kindle Worlds" lets fan fiction writers sell their stories), Martha C. White on NBC News (Amazon ventures into fanfic. But can it make money?), Mary Beth Quirk on Consumerist (Amazon Wants To Sell Your Vampire Fan Fiction To The World — If You Keep It Clean), Taylor Malmsheimer on New York Daily News’s Page Views (Amazon Publishing announces Kindle Worlds platform for fan fiction), Rachel Edidin on Wired (‘Kindle Worlds’ Lets Authors Publish Fan Fiction — At Dubious Cost), Carol Pinchefsky on Forbes (Fan Fiction Is Finally Legitimized With Kindle Worlds), Alexandra Alter on Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy (Amazon Rewrites the Rules of Fan Fiction), and Ian Steadman on Wired UK (Amazon lets fan fiction authors go legit and sell work legally).
I haven’t seen a lot of fannish reaction in the mainstream media or elsewhere yet, but what I have seen has been skeptical. For example, Malinda Lo wrote on Huffington Post Fan fiction is based on (let's face it) doing what the original author(s) would probably not do: slash pairings, crossover stories (who doesn't love a crossover?!), hot steamy sex, etc. Some of it is really incredibly well written; some of it is crap. Will Amazon actually succeed in getting anything good out of this? I don't know. I know that when I've read fan fiction, I've read it for all the things Amazon is not going to allow.
OTOH, Toronto Star’s Paul Irish interviewed Kira Embree, 24, who has been writing fan fiction since she was 13, [who] calls the Amazon announcement big news and a “new dimension” to something she already enjoys.
Finally, though his blog is outside the usual scope of these roundups, several of these articles reference it, so I will too: John Scalzi laid out his initial response to Kindle Worlds in Amazon’s Kindle Worlds: Instant Thoughts.