On the heels of Fifty Shades of Grey came The Submissive, Beautiful Stranger and gobs more stories that used to be fanfiction. And although I don’t have a problem with the idea of stories originally written (and adored) as fanfiction being significantly changed and then published . . . I have a little bit of an issue with what Amazon is proposing.
According to Entertainment Weekly:
Amazon is readying the launch of a new publishing platform called Kindle Worlds where writers will be able to publish and earn royalties from their fanfiction.
For now, fanfic writers are limited to submitting stories about only three TV shows: ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars, the CW’s Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl, which aired its series finale on the CW last December. Amazon Publishing has secured licenses for those three properties (all owned by Warner Bros.), though it expects to announce more licenses soon.
Most stories on the publishing platform will be priced between $0.99 and $3.99. More details about submission rules and royalty rates are on Amazon.com.
Here’s the thing. The ENTIRE notion of fanfiction is . . . that it is free. Now, that’s not saying that I don’t now own copies of the aforementioned three former fanfictions, but those authors are ones that I kind of built relationships with as they were writing the original fanfiction, and I’ll do anything to support a fellow writer. But here’s where this idea and I part ways.
Fanfiction, as fanfiction (not the reworked for publication kind) is complete and total plagiarism. This coming from the author of one such, admittedly plagiarized, work. (I am working on a continuation of Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun, and if you are really interested, email me at allison@fangirlish.com.) I’m not shy about the fact that I am using someone else’s characters, someone else’s words, and most fanfiction authors aren’t. Nor should they be. But, that’s the beauty of it. These are pre-made characters, in a pre-made setting, sometimes even with pre-made dialogue. But, they aren’t mine.
So I shouldn’t get paid for them. Even $ .99.
That’s not to say that I’m against EL James (I count her a friend of sorts), or Christina Lauren (LOVE those ladies). I’m just saying that they have PAINSTAKINGLY re-worked these stories into their own entities. That makes them no longer fanfiction, but their own stand-alone stories. In fact, the only things that the original fanfictions really even had in common with the original stories were the character names. Edward became Christian Grey and Bennett Ryan. But these Edwards and Bellas were in TOTALLY DIFFERENT situations dreamt up by the authors.
As fanfiction, again the use of someone else’s ideas, these ideas should still be free. Why? Because someone else has already profited from them. And that person had the original idea. (Stephenie Meyer in all my examples.) No one else should be able to profit off of something using “Edward Cullen” or any variation of that name. So, no, Amazon, I don’t like this new idea . . . as much as I’d love to make a buck or a million on the back of someone else’s ideas, I will not be taking part of this. Not as an author, and not as a connossieur.
But that’s just how I feel about it.
What are your thoughts?
{Author’s Note: I do realize that the original authors of TVD, PLL, and Gossip Girl will most likely benefit somewhat from this agreement. This doesn’t really change my views on the idea, but if the author wants to give the “ok” then I suppose my point is mute.}
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