Get paid for writing fanfic?

[amberdreams]

Hmmm this is interesting.  Amazon are going to set up a publishing company for fanfic writers whereby you can get paid for writing about your show.  And sign all copyright over to Amazon.  Not sure that is such a great deal.
Here's a thought provoking article looking at the pros and cons. 

Comments

[adrenalineshots.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a terrific idea to get a gigantic think-tank of ideas for stories that they can use almost for free. The fanfic writer remains a FANFIC 'writer' and gets screwed in the deal. Me no likes.

[amber1960.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's what I thought. It kind of stinks.

[mangacat201.livejournal.com]

Fascinating attempt to instrumentalize the vast and unending creative energy generated by fandom into a publishing industry that is less and less about creative endeavours and more about profit margins. Amazing how they expect us not to read the fine print. Really, that is NOT the way to jump ship from amateur to pro.

[de-nugis.livejournal.com]

I'm just hoping this stays far away from my fandom. It's not just that fandom has its own ideas, it has its own customs and community norms and archives and economy.

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

I'm interested to see what it does to the tie-in novel arena - whether this will replace the hiring of professional writers to produce books that (IMO) generally fall well short of the quality of top-notch fic, or whether the two can/will exist side by side.

The copyright issues folks are questioning also exist in the tie-in arena. I wrote two of the Quantum Leap tie-ins, was paid a flat sum ($4,000) for each of them, and then had NO say about much of anything. I was told that if I wanted to promote or market the books in any way, I needed to obtain prior permission from Universal Legal. And of course, I have no right to post any of the material online, even though the books are now long out of print.

I think it comes down to a situation of "What do you WANT from your work?" I suspect a noticeable number of fic authors would be very interested in making some dough from their fic - and in gaining the additional notoriety that publication via Amazon would provide. I do think it would make sense for any author to have someone familiar with contract law take a look at the details of this arrangement before they sign up and submit their work.

Then, too, I would hope that Amazon has a staff of people ready, willing, and able to reject anything that's... crap. (Even though they're already selling a shitton of Kindle e-books that are absolute garbage.)

I'll mention this, too - I got stuck with paying Self-Employment Tax to our good friends at the IRS, which ate up HALF of the $4,000. Turned out to be a *lot* of work (writing 80,000 and 114,000 words) for about $2,000 apiece. In my experience, there just isn't a big pile of money to be made with this stuff, unless you grab the gold ring (a la the 50 Shades of Gray author).

[reapertownusa.livejournal.com]

There's a predatory publishing contract if ever I did see one. No thank you. I'm quite happy with fan fiction remaining for the love of the craft and the wonderful company.

[amber1960.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[amber1960.livejournal.com]

I always wonder about tie in novels, interesting to hear from someone who's been directly involved. Quickreaver posted a very useful and informative podcast about utilising all publishing methods to their best effect by an author who has done just that - sucessfully published with a 'proper' publisher but got a contract which allowed them to e-publish and make quite a lot of money doing so.

Clearly if we authors want to publish and get paid, good legal advice is pretty essential!

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

I'm quite happy with fan fiction remaining for the love of the craft and the wonderful company.

I agree with you entirely! Sharing fic online has been FAR more rewarding for me than the publishing experience. The communication, the encouragement, working together with someone to create an art-and-fic finished product - so much better than simply doing the work alone, and then receiving a very small check.