14 DAY TRIAL // The Kindle Store is stocked with books from all genres in the world, but now Amazon takes it a step further and launches Kindle Worlds, a new publishing platform that promises to pay writers royalties for stories inspired by established works.
The company has partnered with Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment to open up three of its series to fanfiction writers, enabling these to write about Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars or The Vampire Diaries.
Additional licenses are on their way already, but for now, this is all that the list includes. However, with a platform as Kindle, the number of books and series that the Kindle Worlds supports is certain to increase at a rapid pace.
The service will pay royalties to both the rights holders of the works and the author of the fanfiction piece.
The standard author’s royalty rate for works of at least 10,000 words will be 35% of net revenue.
Amazon Publishing will also pilot an experimental program for short stories that go between 5,000 and 10,000 words. The royalties for this type of stories will only be of 20 percent.
Amazon says that this is an entirely new way to monetize valuable franchises that have millions of readers and thousands of fanfiction writers.
"Our books have generated a massive amount of fan fiction, and we see this as an evolution in publishing and a valuable way of broadening our brands and engaging fans," said Leslie Morgenstein, president of Alloy Entertainment.
"When working with Amazon Publishing on this scale, we know we're in good hands and everyone will benefit."
This doesn’t only mean that Kindle users will have access to more content, but more significantly it’s a big shift in the publishing world.
So far, fanfiction was most often viewed as something that readers shouldn’t pay for. While some authors have even published books (think about the Pride and Prejudice spin-offs that can be found in libraries) and others sold their works for a few bucks, a dedicated platform hasn’t been available up until now.