Amazon’s Kindle Worlds Didn’t Catch Fire

Compared to fanfiction sites, it’s just not cutting it.  When you look at all the free sites out there, the numbers don’t add up.

Oddly, I can’t fault Amazon for trying.  This is an obvious market, it’s nice to get approved fanfic, and I can see some companies going for it as a way to find middle ground.

However the issue simply is that the limits are against what fanfiction is about.  It’s often crazy, freewheeling, contrarian, extrapolatory, and at times sheer nuts – or seems to be.  I know enough fanfiction authors of many ages and part of the goal of fanfiction is going outside the property – or inside it in a different way.

And I don’t think you can manage that inside the legal concerns of many major property holders.  Or minor ones.  Not without some serious community involvement and outreach.

So what’s next?  That’s what I wonder – is this a failure, or will some new idea emerge?  Will companies give up?  Will this meander along?  Don’t know.

But still, it’ll be interesting.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Amazon Will Publish Vonnegut Fanfiction

No.  Really.

Obviously the estate approved this.  I’m not sure what to think.  Come to think of it I’m not sure what Vonnegut would think.

So a few thoughts

I really didn’t see this coming.  Really.

I’m not sure Vonnegut is well known enough to be a big draw, I wonder if people who read Vonnegut will be that big on this,

Could this also introduce more people to Vonnegut?

I wonder how many properties owned by estates realize – or are realizing – that this could be big money.  Or authors who are “done” could find additional monetization.

Did I mentioned this weirded me out?  Yeah.

– Steven

 

Thoughts on Amazon and Fanfic, Part Two, Electric Boogaloo

So now that Amazon is going to try and publish fanfic, now that I’ve done my anal-retentive analysis, what do I think it means? What’s going to happen? What are the repercussions?

Now it may surprise you that I’m not going to make definite predictions. I’m going to look at probabilities/possibilities with a little bit of how we can make this positive.

Now, before I go on let me state that in general I am for this idea. I like the idea of less restrictive, more supportive approach to fanfics. I do support help getting people published. I would like to see more engagement in publishing. I can think of plenty of things that are bad and that can go wrong (which I’ll address later), but I am in general, for this idea.

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