I’m not the type of person who pays a lot of attention to the news. For good or ill, most of my knowledge of what’s going on in the world around me comes from secondary sources (i.e. wherever I happen to be hanging out on the internet that day). So it was whilst browsing through some other blogs on WordPress that I happened to stumble across the news that Amazon is going to be paying authors to publish fan fiction.
People…I am beyond stoked about this, not because I think it might benefit me personally, but because it opens up a whole new world for writers who managed to put together excellent stories about characters who just happen to be copyright protected. Publishing fan fiction has been around for ages of course (what, did you think that the hundreds of Star Wars novels out there were all written by George Lucas?), but it has tended to be a very difficult world to get into. Amazon is going to widen that world, make it more accessible. They have garnered the rights to gather and publish fan fiction novels based on three popular television series (Gossip Girls, The Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liars), and it is my hope and belief that this list will grow exponentially in the future. This could present a huge opportunity for the thousands upon thousands of fans out there who have put great time and effort into their previously-doomed-to-never-be-published works. Of course, there are quite a lot of fans out there who have neither the skills nor the natural talent to write something that Amazon will consider publishing, but just the idea that this is now a real opportunity is amazing to me. Just think…someday soon you could write an amazing novel based on some of your all-time favorite characters and actually make money from it!
As a fangirl of many things myself, I really have to say, I’m pretty damn excited.
What do you think about this new development? Do you think it’s going to fly? Will it be a good thing or a bad thing for fan fiction writers? Please share!
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I don’t think skill is going to come into play. From what I can gather it will basically be the same as self-publishing with Amazon, they’ll let everything through as they usually do and ebook buyers will sort through the slush looking for gems.
What they’ve done (again, I think) is make it legal for authors to publish their fan fiction, where previously Amazon couldn’t allow it due to the copyright issue.
Still, it’s an interesting development. Amazon keeps changing the game.
Are you still working on the Zombie novel, Tore? I finished the first draft of TFS this week (104k), although I’m incredibly intimidated by the prospect of revisions.
If you’re right about that it’s definitely going to make things annoying for the readers…but at least it’s a starting point. We’ll have to see how it all turns out I guess, but for the time being I choose to be cautiously optimistic. lol
Yay for finished first drafts! I finished the zombie novel a little while back and have been dealing with the joy of revisions since then…so much less fun than writing. lol It has to be done though! Are you still on CC? I don’t really have time for it at this juncture, but if you are I’m totally going to read it. If not…want a beta reader? 🙂
I am still on CC. But I’ve found now that I’ve been buckling down (this month I wrote 24k to finally finish the draft) I don’t have the time to commit to critting as well as writing. It’s been worth it though to connect with a couple trusted crit partners. I might go paid for a couple months to put it through a free private queue, but I’m going to revise for June and July first so I can fix the problems I see before letting anyone else have at it.
I totally want a beta reader, and I’d love to return the favor because… zombies! Or anything else you want eyes on, I adore your flow and snark. Can I let you know when it’s a little more presentable?
Oh absolutely! I’d definitely love to read it and give my opinions! ^_^ And of course I’d love I have someone read through mine as well…but also, when it’s a bit more presentable. lol