Sign up for our newsletter now. When Kindle Worlds shut down, Talty said she was "crushed for about five minutes," but she sees "everything as an opportunity.". But in May 2018, Amazon sent Kindle Worlds authors an email — a copy of which was provided to Business Insider — with the subject line: "Important Kindle Worlds Update.". And she's also borrowed a bit of the Kindle Worlds model to help boost her income. Authors like Holt, Talty, and James used Kindle Worlds to expand their readership and income. The best Kindle: Reviews and buying advice Amazon offers their Kindle e-readers with features and prices to suit the taste of any bookworm. Authors like those who spoke to Business Insider earned good money while writing for Kindle Worlds and found it to be a major opportunity in furthering their careers. At the start, Amazon seemed to be expanding the service and innovating in concrete ways. The fan-fiction service most like Kindle Worlds prior to its creation was FanLib, which launched in 2007 and closed the following year. The authors who licensed their works to Kindle Worlds and the fan authors writing in their fictional universes would both receive up to 35% of revenue from each sale, while Amazon received the remaining 30%. Kindle Worlds check-in March 2016. Subscriber These authors would invite others to write in their universes (and potentially make money from sales). Amazon declined to comment on these two points. Holt embraced the new platform and said she was making between $3,000 and $5,000 a month on Kindle Worlds, a "huge part" of her income. Amazon shut down its fan-fiction service Kindle Worlds in 2018 after five years, and some authors told Business Insider they lost thousands of dollars in monthly income. "You have to go into it with the understanding that [Amazon is] the big dog. Read or listen and synch easily across your Kindle eReader, Kindle for PC, Kindle … Tushnet is the cofounder of the nonprofit Organization of Transformative Works, which launched the fan-fiction platform AO3 in 2007 as a response to FanLib (the conceptual precursor to Kindle Worlds). For five years, Kindle Worlds has been thriving, engaging writers and readers who enjoy writing in one another’s worlds, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done together. That’s a unique feature of digital publishing overall: a writer can modify … Kindle Worlds is starting out with licensed content from Alloy but aims to move into other books and shows, movies, comics, music, and games. Still, many of the authors' fallback plans also relied on Amazon. The company that published her first book, Triskelion Publishing, went bankrupt, for instance. Around a year after the launch, Amazon began recruiting established authors with their own universes outside of the original licensed properties to join Kindle Worlds. Tushnet told Business Insider that AO3 was meant to be "a sustainable space for fans that wouldn't advertise to them or sell their data," a point she wrote extensively about in a 2014 paper called "All of This Has Happened Before and All of This Will Happen Again: Innovation in Copyright Licensing. Kindle Worlds (at AmazonSmile: support a non-profit of your choice by shopping*). A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Thank you for subscribing to The Wonder of Tech! "I'd say 'send me the contract right now,"' she said. But despite FanLib's failure, Amazon's backing and the promise of increased readership made some authors very optimistic about how Kindle Worlds would help their careers. Holt's launching a new book called "Unexpected Risk" in her "Phoenix Agency" series on February 28 and she invited 10 authors to write in that universe, with some specific guidelines Holt's set. The notice said Kindle Worlds stories would no longer be available for sale on Amazon by mid-July and that the Kindle Worlds website would close by the end of that August. Of course, that doesn't show up anywhere in their site map, and you have to actually go looking for the Kindle … You must be a US resident to submit a story to Kindle Worlds (or have a US bank account). Kindle Worlds Recently back from the Novelist’s, Inc. (NINC) National Conference where there was a lot of talk about Kindle Worlds, the new publishing platform from Amazon. Amazon is in competition with a vast array of free options. Find the top 100 most popular items in Amazon Kindle Store Best Sellers. "While Kindle Worlds has closed, we continue to experiment and explore new opportunities to innovate in the storytelling space," the spokesperson added. But even though Amazon reverted the rights back to authors, those like Talty couldn't exactly keep writing the stories she had written in Kindle Worlds because the universes belonged to others. But for Tushnet, Amazon's service was more of a commercial entity than a community, and was too limited and controlling in its approach. The Kindle Worlds platform is flexible enough, though, for a writer to rework and republish their story based on customer feedback. But in 2018, Holt suddenly found herself back to the drawing board when Amazon shut down Kindle Worlds. "That's a big hole in your pocket. Kindle Worlds is “the first commercial publishing platform that will enable any writer to create fan fiction based on a range of original stories and characters and earn royalties for doing so,” … "The Vampire Diaries" novel series was one of the licensed properties on Kindle Worlds. All the books will launch the same day to increase exposure — on Amazon's Kindle. "For five years, Kindle Worlds has been thriving, engaging writers and readers who enjoy writing in one another's worlds, and we're proud of the work we've done together," the email said. The story of Amazon's foray into fan fiction, and how it changed over the last few years, shows how many authors have to play by Amazon's rules to make a living — and be subject to its whims in how it supports particular platforms or products. Kindle Worlds is fanfiction written with the consent of the creators/rights holders, who can set whatever limits they want on how their characters/franchise are used. Romance writer Elle James, the author of the "Brotherhood Protectors" series, told Business Insider she was making anywhere from $5,000 to $12,000 a month. When you're ready to start reading your first book through Kindle Unlimited, select the title to go to its Kindle page and select the gold Read for Free button or the Read and Listen for Free … ", "The language of control and exploitation predominates even in favorable descriptions of Kindle Worlds," she wrote. She said this was "antithetical" to what fan fiction is about, which could be one reason for its failure. I got a lot out of it and I'm more successful now because of it. Science-fiction writer John Scalzi had raised similar concerns in a 2013 blog post. Right now, Kindle Worlds stories are only available as ebooks, and only available on Amazon. "While we are closing Kindle Worlds, Amazon is constantly innovating on behalf of our authors and readers, and we look forward to continuing to do so.". When asked to comment on why Amazon shut the service down, a company spokesperson reiterated the points in that email. Kindle Unlimited recommends new and popular titles as well as those based on your shopping history. Discover the best 6462235010 - Kindle Worlds in Best Sellers. It was her main source of income and sometimes double what she was making through other sources, she said. It took me a while to build back up to that level again.". So, here's the explanation: There are numerous Kindle Worlds… Amazon doesn't really do anything to aggressively promote Kindle Worlds. When Lizzy Gardner was only seventeen, what should have been the perfect night became the perfect nightmare. The spokesperson said Kindle Worlds did not have a low readership or customer base, and that the service "successfully engaged" fan fiction authors and readers. 2. Yesterday, the House that Bezos Built announced the launch of Kindle Worlds, a digital publishing platform where writers can publish fan fiction under official licenses. The CW/Tina Rowden. "Fans are raw material — resources to be exploited and data to be mined.". For years, fan fiction has … "As soon as [Amazon] told us [Kindle Worlds was shutting down], I started setting up my publishing company.". Kindle Worlds authors can sell their work, but they can't tap into the same wide network of collaboration and support. "It didn't take me long to bounce back because I had a plan in place," James said. Kindle Worlds lets writers create stories about television shows created by Alloy Entertainment—including “The Vampire Diaries,” “Gossip Girl,” and “Pretty Little Liars”—using the … And if Amazon were to launch a service similar to Kindle Worlds again, Holt would sign on in a heartbeat. I think its a brilliant marriage of traditional … Holt felt her income was in jeopardy. By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Business Insider … Holt discovered Kindle Worlds when she was invited to write in romance author Carly Phillips' "world" and she eventually launched her own world for others to write in. But in 2013, Amazon launched a fan-fiction service called Kindle Worlds, a digital publishing platform that let authors publish fan fiction within certain licensed "worlds," which at first included properties from Warner Bros.' Alloy Entertainment, like "Gossip Girl," "Pretty Little Liars," and "The Vampire Diaries.". "But I can't get traction on other platforms.". And that disconnect is where she thinks many of the problems with Kindle Worlds stemmed from. "When Kindle Worlds shut down, it hit me financially," Holt said. We’ll help you pick the one that’s perfect for you. choose one of their imaginary worlds: Kindle Worlds - Select a World, read the content guideline, which tells you what you are allowed to do in this world as a fan fiction author, and what you … Launched in May 2013, Kindle Worlds was the part of Amazon’s publishing unit that focused on publishing tie-in stories for existing properties like GIJoe, and various TV shows such as Veronica Mars and Vampire Diaries. Kindle Worlds is something that is new and exciting and there’s so much to be explored within the different universes that it shares. Amazon shut down its fan-fiction service Kindle Worlds in 2018 after five years, and some authors told Business Insider they lost thousands of dollars in monthly income. Log in. The aim of Kindle Worlds was to be a platform where writers wrote and published stories based on licensed Worlds, which originally included Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries. 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