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Permlink Replies: 16 - Pages: 2 [ 1 2 | Next ] - Last Post: Jun 14, 2012 9:26 AM Last Post By: gldrummond
scottys_best_bo...

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An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 8:04 AM
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What do you all think about this idea for allowing us to publish fan fiction through KDP?

http://bit.ly/M2yrh2
gldrummond

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 8:28 AM   in response to: scottys_best_bo... in response to: scottys_best_bo...
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Personally, I love fan fiction, both reading and writing it (though I've never posted any except XMen because Marvel allowed it - at least prior to the sale of the company).

But I don't think the idea will fly with the rights owners of most of those franchises you mentioned, for legal and creative reasons.
joshlanyon

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 8:30 AM   in response to: scottys_best_bo... in response to: scottys_best_bo...
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I love fan faction.

But no. Selling fan fiction flies in the face of the spirit of fandom.

Not to mention wandering into the realm of violating copyright.
gldrummond

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 8:42 AM   in response to: joshlanyon in response to: joshlanyon
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HIs suggestion was that Amazon see about licensing rights from the owners of the franchises, so that KDP authors could write and sell fan fiction and there would be a 35/35/30% split between rights owners/Amazon/the author.

IF that idea was put into effect, there'd be no copyright violation.

But seriously, using someone else's creations is already copyright violation. It's just that most don't pursue legal action, as long as the fan fiction authors aren't trying to sell it.

I know that Marvel had a section of their forums set up specifically for fans to post fan fiction in, so encouraged the writing of it. Marvel is one of the few companies/franchise owners that did/does so. I don't know if they still do with Disney owning the company now.

ETF: 'on' to 'no'. I swear I looked at that three times! More coffee, please. ;)


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gldrummond

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 8:45 AM   in response to: joshlanyon in response to: joshlanyon
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That's not to say I think it's a good idea.

I don't know how much fan fiction you guys have read, but I've seen a lot of really horribly written stuff, and Amazon, etc., are already having problems with 'crap' books.

Plus, many creators are extremely protective about their creations having sexual orientation changed, or certain situations being written involving their characters.

So I just don't really think the idea would fly. Sorry.
potatoandbeans

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 8:49 AM   in response to: scottys_best_bo... in response to: scottys_best_bo...
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I would immediately publish the three Dune novellas I wrote when I was sixteen. :)

Seriously though, I've to agree with Drummond. Plus, it would devalue the brand faster than you can say 'Newt Gingrich is the paragon of humility'.
gldrummond

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 9:00 AM   in response to: potatoandbeans in response to: potatoandbeans
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I lost the two Star Trek 'novels' I wrote when I was 13 in a move.

Be glad. Be very glad. ;)
txpublisher

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Registered: 04/04/12
Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 9:20 AM   in response to: scottys_best_bo... in response to: scottys_best_bo...
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Didn't the Fifty Shades of Gray series start as fan fiction?

If so, I guess the answer is to change it enough that it is no longer recognizably fan fiction. ;o)
potatoandbeans

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 9:43 AM   in response to: gldrummond in response to: gldrummond
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I bet we were real cool teens, weren't we? :)
scottys_best_bo...

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 9:48 AM   in response to: txpublisher in response to: txpublisher
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"Seriously though, I've to agree with Drummond. Plus, it would devalue the brand faster than you can say 'Newt Gingrich is the paragon of humility'."

I'm not sure if it would devalue the brand. In the case of Star Trek, there's already a ton of fan fiction out there, as well as fan-made movies, and an actual website, goAnimate, where you can make your own Star Trek videos using cartoon characters licensed from Paramount.

If that sort of stuff devalues the brand, then surely it's already been devalued by all the fan-made stuff out there now. So what's the harm in letting everyone make a bit of money off their fan fiction hobby?

Although it might draw potential buyers away from original, non-fan writing, so maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea after all.
gldrummond

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 10:07 AM   in response to: potatoandbeans in response to: potatoandbeans
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I was, and still am, a four-eyed bookworm. So absolutely, we were cooler than ice. ;)
gldrummond

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 10:13 AM   in response to: scottys_best_bo... in response to: scottys_best_bo...
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I was reading a series of Star Trek fan fiction by a pretty darn good writer.

It was WAY out of the norm of canon (there was a giant group marriage with OCs and the bridge crew, for one example, and everyone was apparently bisexual - but it was pretty well-written and interesting).

About a year after I tripped over it (she had it on her own site), it was all taken down. No note about why or anything.

I always wondered if she was sent a cease and desist letter because of the 'out of character' story lines, which could be viewed as 'devaluing' the brand.
potatoandbeans

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 10:45 AM   in response to: scottys_best_bo... in response to: scottys_best_bo...
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I understand what you are saying, but the examples you cited were at the very least, informally sanctioned or managed. In addition, Star Trek, for all its appeal, was a more conventional piece of science fiction, with a more flexible interpretation of its dogma.

Bear with me for a moment.

Imagine for a second, ten of the writers here publishing their own tales about Dune. Imagine all of them picking out a different character from the book, and imagine all of them, against the odds, attaining a modicum of commercial success.

By its very nature, fan fictions are derivative works of the original. So we will have ten interpretations of these characters, and consequently, the Dune universe, one that was painfully constructed and developed from the vision of Frank Herbert - whose own original manuscript took six years to prepare and was rejected by no less than twenty different publishers.

Now, these ten books will then be read by X number of people (let’s assume they have had no prior exposure to the original books), who will be exposed to either a more mainstream or heterodoxical non-dogmatic version of the Dune universe. A significant portion of these people will walk away from this episode without experiencing the magic and wonder of Herbert's vision, and, having experienced the less than perfect version of Dune, will feel no compulsion to seek out the original. However, these readers would subsequently classify themselves as an initiate to the Dune universe, and over a period of time, would offer their opinions of Dune to others, either IRL or via message boards such as this. And people reading, will also be less inclined to pick up a half a century-old piece of science fiction.

And thus, the brand is devalued. I can see complicated characters such as the guild navigators being reduced to grotesque freaks. Of a post-Butlerian universe being compared to the Luddites of the post-Industrial Revolution. Of St. Alia being stereotyped into the wanton, lusty, virgin harlot.

After all, if someone as brilliant, talented and imaginative David Lynch could fail…
potatoandbeans

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Registered: 06/07/12
Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 10:54 AM   in response to: gldrummond in response to: gldrummond
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As am I, my friend, as am I.

And while we're on the subject, has there ever been a cooler, better looking, or more imposing man that Captain Kirk?


Imageshatner
gldrummond

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Re: An idea for legally selling fan fiction on Amazon
Posted: Jun 13, 2012 11:04 AM   in response to: potatoandbeans in response to: potatoandbeans
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I grew up watching the original series in reruns during the early 70s. Captain Kirk was my hero! :)
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