Amazon Debuts Kindle Worlds, Triggers All The Feels

So in case you were buried under a rock or communing with squirrels yesterday, here’s the low-down on this ho-down. Amazon debuted a new section of Kindle publishing called Kindle Worlds. Despite sounding like a crappy RPG it was revealed to be something ever more divisive than a weird literary version of Farmville that annoys your friends with status updates. It was revealed to be an attempt to monetize fan-fiction. 

Cue everyone from writers, to “writers”, to your mom who you got a Kindle for Mother’s Day to have an opinion ranging from this-

To this-

To really a lot of this-

And these are all very reasonable reactions to the news. 

First Things First. . .

Amazon is definitely trying to cash in on some of this 50 Shades Of Twilight With The Serial Numbers Filed Off cash cow. Let’s just get that out there immediately. As soul-crushing as it is for some of us to admit that 50 Shades is popular whilst other for more deserving works aren’t, it’s true. It made buckets of very vanilla money, and became a pop-culture buzz term. You know something is a pop cultural buzz term when your mother mentions older women trying to get her to read it while she just stood there confused and squicked out. Amazon is obviously trying something here to see if they and the rights holders of the franchises can catch some of that silver necktie lightening in a bottle. Regardless of the fact that, ya know, their rules forbid “pornography”.

There Are Guidelines

This isn't going to be a weird, smutty free-for-all. Amazon has  already said that there are guidelines to this experiment. Only certain fandoms so far will be considered fair game; Vampire Dairies, Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars (with more promised to come). All of them Amazon has secured a deal with for fanfiction publishing. Once you get past the narrowing of the fandoms, there's more. 

-No pornography (Vampire orgies)

-No crossovers  (Vampires meet the Smallville gang)

-No illegal/infringing content (Vampires meet Brad Pitt at the World War Z Premiere)

-No offensive content (Vampires are mother f***ing c**ks***ers)

-No excessive branding. (Vampires driving around in Lambos and wearing Gucci)

So there will be apparently some kind of vetting process involved to keep the Blair/Twilight Sparkle crossovers out of the Kindle Store.

Sidenote: To the poor Assistant Editors/Interns involved with this vetting process, I fear for your mental well being and very soul. Stay strong.

The Fine Print

The one big thing people are reacting to is the wording about who has creative control over anything that comes out of these sold fanfics. Here it is in full for you.

Breaking Down The Feels

"This just further tarnishes the title of Writer!"

Whoa there! I'm sorry, but the title of Writer in my opinion kind of encompasses a wide spectrum of humanity that does not at all represent an elite group of human beings (despite how much we want it to). The title of Writer represents Shakespeare, however it also represents someone who blogs their own shitty opinion from a Starbucks. Let us get over our ego on this one. Fanfiction writers, whether paid or not, are writers. They are a different breed of writer, but they are writers. They type words onto their keyboard that form paragraphs that in turn form a beginning, a middle, and an end. Some of said beginnings, middles, and ends become an end product that is dozens of chapters and books that has legions to faithful readers and reviewers. That shit is writing.

"Fanfiction is the purest form of writing! It is a completely unrestricted form of writing that is not based on profit or acknowledgement from creators! Monetizing fanfiction and making a profit goes against what fanfiction's very core is!" 

Now in my weird world view of things my definition of fanfiction is "If it's not your original fiction and you are being paid to write someone else's intellectual property, surprise! You are being paid to write exceptionally good fan fiction." But yes, there is a difference between fanfiction you are employed to write and fanfiction that exists purely within fan-culture. Fan-culture is its own species and the economy of fan produced works is not really all conducive to the actual monetization of said works. Fanfiction has always been free to access, and it has never been about turning a profit. It's a labor of love through and through that doesn't want recognition from the original body work it is based on. Amazon trying to cash in on something that by and large doesn't want the cash means people may not show up.

However I also think that for a few fanfiction writers Worlds may be a way to step up their writing game. Maybe they want to take a crack at publishing something, but aren't quite ready/confident to submit their original short story or novella. Worlds could be training wheels for younger writers flirting with the idea of submitting work for the first time.

"No porn? No crossovers? Nobody is going to submit anything."

via natasha allegri

Sure, it's going to thin out an enormous amount of work. Also, it makes me insanely curious as to what  is considered "porn" in Worlds (Heavy petting? Over the shirt action? Anything that goes beyond some soft core that fades to black? I need answers here, people!) However there is enough work I think that falls into the parameters. Fanfic isn't always about femslashing Amy Pond and Kaylee Frye as Mal and the Doctor go fight Cybermen-Reaver hybrids (spoiler alert: Zoe and the Rivers save the day). There are fic writers out there who want to write as close to the writing of the original work as possible. In canon, in character, with story lines that feel like they could be the next episode/movie/game/issue/book. That's how I used to play, and that's how I've told people who want to use fanfic as a way to improve to play. I think those are the people Worlds wants. Whether or not they'll bite or see the TOS as a load of horse shit is another story.

"This is just going to unleash so much dreck into the world."
The world is full of dreck already, it's the dark side of Self-Publishing/the internet at large. Why are you so freaked out about more dreck? Also the cream will rise to the top here. Just like the reviews on a fanfiction website, the reviews on Kindle will direct people to the writers who have some solid storytelling. I wouldn't be surprised if something good came out of being a well reviewed, well selling Worlds author. It could turn out to be a talent mine.

"This takes advantage of poor unwitting people looking for an "in". They can repackage your ideas and use them without compensation! This is just another form of slave labor."

Yeah, the wording for the TOS is some hinky shit. There are definitely some implications in the fine print that are concerning, particularly the fact that anything and everything you produce will be property of Alloy (owners of Vampire Dairies, Gossip Girls, Pretty Little Liars) that they can then use how they see fit without compensation or credit. Not to mention Amazon having the rights to repackage your stories without further compensation.

Basically what happens is you are paid your 35% to 20% of the purchases on Kindle Worlds. Which is decent! However, if you have a storyline or character that is awesome and the people upstairs like it, they can very well reuse it without paying you for your idea/character or even giving you credit. So your roguishly charming and deeply misunderstood OC Maxwell William van Dermont could very well wind up on the next season of the show, without you so much as getting credit for creating him. And if Amazon wants to compile your fiction into a printed anthology? You won't see anything either.

Kalexanderson via photopin cc

This is excruciatingly hypocritical on Alloy/Amazon's part. They're ushering Worlds in like this is a special shiny way to legitimize fanfiction, yet at the same time they are treating the fanfiction writers who agree to participate as illegitimate under the table workers they can just take ideas from without even crediting. Not even getting recognized for your creativity, and not getting further compensation for your story being repackaged and sold in another fashion, is exploitation. Not wanting recognition as a fan-fic writer who does it as a labor of love for free without getting credit is one thing. Not getting recognition as a fanfic writer who not only does it as a labor of love but is also possibly contributing to the franchise in a big, profitable-for-the-rights-holders way is another thing. 

"This may really fuck up tie-ins" 

Preach. This may have some bad ju-ju effect on people who write novelization tie-ins for a living. Instead of paying the pros who make money writing tie-ins to franchises, Worlds may be exploited by franchises and mined for tie-in material. 

In Conclusion

In all, I think the concerns are justifiable when it comes to Amazon and Alloy's Evil Empire Terms of Service. I can completely see fanfic writers not buying into Worlds because of it. On the other hand I can also see writers understanding the rights they are relinquishing and trying it out anyway just to tap into some money that they wouldn't see because of the normal fandom platform or dabbling in publishing something. And hell, you just know someone will figure out a way to make a stupid amount of money off of this. There's always that one cunning jackass who figures out the system.

Whether or not people will buy a product that is for so long been free to read is an entirely different ball of wax. That also goes for another reason why writers may not participate, which is not wanting to monetize which would alter the kinship and culture that is established in their fanfic community.

My guess? After reading about six articles and sleeping on it, I still don't have a clue. I'd like to hope that something good could come out of Worlds, because I'm one of those eternally optimistic types that saw the good in it before I studied the fine print. What I do know is Kindle Worlds needs to be prepared to survive the initial onslaught smut and slashfic! that will spam their submission process via trolls. Because that shit is pretty much guaranteed to happen.

Asher Powell lives in Central California. She wrote this from a Starbucks.