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selenayOh look, it's 2007 all over again. Well done, Amazon.
Having read a few articles (and a whole bunch of incredulous Tweeting), I'm not feeling as worried as I was when first I opened up Twitter at lunch. The DailyDot article has the best analysis so far of why this may (hopefully will) just sink like a lead brick. I saw a lot of comments on the various tech blogs and news site articles, most of them stating that they assumed fic writers would jump for it because they'll love all that exposure and potential money.
Hahaha, no.
Most fic writers aren't in this for money. We're not looking to become the next E. L. James. Hell, that's the last thing most of us want (even if the money would be nice) because 99% of fan writers didn't get into fanfic for the adulation and money.
We write because it's fun, we enjoy it, it's creative and expressive and there's a freedom to being able to write whatever we want.
Yup, some people do use it as a writing exercise with the aim of graduating to original fiction and publishing eventually. And some of those people have continued to write original published work *and* write fanfic just because the fanfic is so much fun.
For most of us, writing fanfic isn't done with an eye to a publishing contract. So the Amazon thing isn't going to tempt the majority of fanwriters.
And when you actually read the nitty gritty of the restrictions and licenses, it all starts to look deeply fishy and really not much better than the Fanlib debacle. Only certain fandoms are licensed, no cross-overs or explicit sex, no accidental copyright infringement of anything else - so that's a huge segment of fanfic already not permitted. If you also consider that any elements you add (original characters, for example) become the property of the licensing 'World' creator to be used as they want with no further money paid to the creator, the whole thing just seems like a bad deal.
So really, I don't predict many fic writers will be jumping to sign up. Only the really new ones who don't know any better and maybe the odd writer who already works in those fandoms and gets tempted by the prospect of some royalties.
As for readers...
Again, I don't see the readership being huge. When there is an excellent source of fanfic (Archive of Our Own!) for free, with works in any fandom you can think of and no restriction on what the content can be, the only people likely to pay for these Kindle books are the new fans who don't know about the AO3 and other archives.
I mean, if I want fanfic on my Kindle then I can just download the .mobi file from AO3 and put it on my Kindle. Ta da! Ridiculously easy.
(Let's not discuss how much fanfic is on my Kindle. It's bad numbers. BAD.)
My only slight concern is what the creators of, say, Pretty Little Liars will do about all that free fanfic lurking on the net after this goes live. Will they leave it alone or decide that now there's a 'legal' route for it, they can issue a bunch of C&D letters to the writers and archives?
And what will happen in the unlikely event that creators for the truely huge fandoms (Marvel, Teen Wolf, Sherlock) sign up?
Hopefully Kindle Worlds will go the way of Fanlib and die a quiet, ignomnious death. At the moment that seems the most likely future for it, given the level of uproar and the fact that 99% of readers/writers are already planning to simply pretend it doesn't exist. Fingers are all firmly crossed.
Having read a few articles (and a whole bunch of incredulous Tweeting), I'm not feeling as worried as I was when first I opened up Twitter at lunch. The DailyDot article has the best analysis so far of why this may (hopefully will) just sink like a lead brick. I saw a lot of comments on the various tech blogs and news site articles, most of them stating that they assumed fic writers would jump for it because they'll love all that exposure and potential money.
Hahaha, no.
Most fic writers aren't in this for money. We're not looking to become the next E. L. James. Hell, that's the last thing most of us want (even if the money would be nice) because 99% of fan writers didn't get into fanfic for the adulation and money.
We write because it's fun, we enjoy it, it's creative and expressive and there's a freedom to being able to write whatever we want.
Yup, some people do use it as a writing exercise with the aim of graduating to original fiction and publishing eventually. And some of those people have continued to write original published work *and* write fanfic just because the fanfic is so much fun.
For most of us, writing fanfic isn't done with an eye to a publishing contract. So the Amazon thing isn't going to tempt the majority of fanwriters.
And when you actually read the nitty gritty of the restrictions and licenses, it all starts to look deeply fishy and really not much better than the Fanlib debacle. Only certain fandoms are licensed, no cross-overs or explicit sex, no accidental copyright infringement of anything else - so that's a huge segment of fanfic already not permitted. If you also consider that any elements you add (original characters, for example) become the property of the licensing 'World' creator to be used as they want with no further money paid to the creator, the whole thing just seems like a bad deal.
So really, I don't predict many fic writers will be jumping to sign up. Only the really new ones who don't know any better and maybe the odd writer who already works in those fandoms and gets tempted by the prospect of some royalties.
As for readers...
Again, I don't see the readership being huge. When there is an excellent source of fanfic (Archive of Our Own!) for free, with works in any fandom you can think of and no restriction on what the content can be, the only people likely to pay for these Kindle books are the new fans who don't know about the AO3 and other archives.
I mean, if I want fanfic on my Kindle then I can just download the .mobi file from AO3 and put it on my Kindle. Ta da! Ridiculously easy.
(Let's not discuss how much fanfic is on my Kindle. It's bad numbers. BAD.)
My only slight concern is what the creators of, say, Pretty Little Liars will do about all that free fanfic lurking on the net after this goes live. Will they leave it alone or decide that now there's a 'legal' route for it, they can issue a bunch of C&D letters to the writers and archives?
And what will happen in the unlikely event that creators for the truely huge fandoms (Marvel, Teen Wolf, Sherlock) sign up?
Hopefully Kindle Worlds will go the way of Fanlib and die a quiet, ignomnious death. At the moment that seems the most likely future for it, given the level of uproar and the fact that 99% of readers/writers are already planning to simply pretend it doesn't exist. Fingers are all firmly crossed.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-23 02:32 am (UTC)I have the complete opposite problem for my auction fics - both recipients basically said "Keep doing what you're doing!" and I'm just... Noooo, this was not the deal. On a related note, I'm probably going to bug you to be a story beta for me when these get done, because I like your brain.
In terms of selling fanfic... I think I kinda want a Society6 type store, where writers could put up like a little compilation of their fics that I could buy in hardcopy book form, and the content is just of no concern whatsoever to the company. Publishers could stop trying to sell us content that we're happy generating ourselves, and look into supplying tools that are a pain in the butt for people to develop themselves. Hrm. Anyway.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-23 04:37 pm (UTC)Same :-D
Noooo, this was not the deal
That...seems like an unhelpful thing? Mine asked for a fic filled with all the angst, pain, and pining I could manage. Not in any way fluffy. I'm struggling with this because, uh, I keep wanting to make it flirty and bantery and adorkable and then I go back to the prompt and go "right, yes, guilt and pain not banter".
On a related note, I'm probably going to bug you to be a story beta for me when these get done, because I like your brain.
Sure! Let me know what you need when you need it :-D This is both flattering and slightly worrying - sure you're not a zombie?
I think I kinda want a Society6 type store, where writers could put up like a little compilation of their fics that I could buy in hardcopy book form, and the content is just of no concern whatsoever to the company
This is more-or-less what zines were once upon a time :-D I kind of miss them sometimes.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-28 10:03 am (UTC)And as for me being a zombie?
BraaiinnsNo comment.no subject
Date: 2013-05-28 04:46 pm (UTC)And I've always wanted to have a bunch of people do a story on the same theme or trope and collect them together. What a chance to indulge my typogaphy and graphic design geekery.
That would be a fantastic idea :-D
The thing that I loved about zines was that there was artwork as well as fic and they were something you could keep going back to. Plus, you know, an insistence on a certain level of decent editing and typo removal ;-) In my ideal scenario, there would be a zine with a collection of stories and art on a trope all beautifully laid out. Available in print (price covering costs) and also in some way on the web as a PDF, ePub and .mobi because so many of us now tote our fic around. But the electronic copies would include the art and wouldn't break on my Kindle because PDFs are so inflexible (I found a beautiful Star Trek zine a couple of years ago that was a PDF and they'd done a gorgeous job and it looks great on my iPad...and sucks piggy-wonks on all the ereaders I tried). I've seen some pro books with illustrations done fantastically on ereaders so I know it's possible. We just need to get fandom behind the idea :-D
I've always wanted to collect up some of my stories and format them into a zine.
I would be there buying/downloading that zine in a heartbeat :-D