Amazon launches Kindle Worlds for fanfiction publishing

23 May 2013 Books+Publishing

Amazon has launched a publishing model called Kindle World, which allows authors to write fanfiction stories inspired by book series via a licensing partnership with Warner Bros, said Amazon in a statement. Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment division has licensed the rights to Amazon for authors to create fanfiction works derived from the book series ‘Gossip Girl’ by Cecily von Ziegesar (Bloomsbury), ‘Pretty Little Liars’ by Sara Shepard (Little, Brown) and ‘Vampire Diaries’ by L J Smith (HarperCollins). Authors can sell authorised fanfiction stories using characters and worlds from these book series in the Kindle Store, and Amazon will pay royalties to both the rights holders of the book series and the author. The author’s royalty rate will be 35% of net revenue for works of at least 10,000 words and most stories will be priced from US$0.99 (A$1.02) to US$3.99 (A$4.12). Amazon said it will also pilot an experimental program for short works between 5000 and 10,000 words, usually priced under US$1 (A$1.03), for which Amazon will pay royalties to the rights holder of the book series and pay authors a digital royalty of 20%. Amazon said that for licensors, Kindle Worlds is ‘an entirely new way to monetise their valuable franchises’ and ‘allows them to extend their worlds with new stories and characters and more deeply engage with existing fans, while also reaching new audiences’. The content guidelines of Kindle Worlds currently exclude stories containing: pornography; offensive content; illegal and infringing content; ‘poor customer experience’, meaning no poorly formatted books and books with misleading titles, cover art or product descriptions; the excessive use of brand names; and crossovers from other book series. More information on Kindle Worlds can be found here.

Category: International news