Kindle Opens Fan Fiction Store With Self-Service Submissions

Note: Kindle Worlds was shut down in 2018. I'm leaving this post up for posterity.

Inspired no doubt by the fabulous success of Fifty Shades of Grey, Amazon has started its own fan fiction store, Kindle Worlds. Anybody can write new stories inspired by a selection of movies, games, TV shows, comics, and of course, books. Like other Amazon platforms, authors can earn 35% royalties. (The 70% book option is not available.) Amazon has obtained licenses from Warner Bros. Television Group's Alloy Entertainment for Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and The Vampire Diaries; Valiant Entertainment for Archer & Armstrong, Bloodshot, Harbinger, Shadowman, and X-O Manowar; Hugh Howey's Silo Saga; Barry Eisler's John Rain novels; Blake Crouch's Wayward Pines series; and The Foreworld Saga by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, Eric Bear, Joseph Brassey, Nicole Galland, and Cooper Moo. More licenses are on the way. 

Is this a good idea?

If you write fan fiction, this is a great idea. Personally, I am not a fan of anything Amazon can obtain a license for, and, even if they did, I'd have a really hard time writing fan fiction for The Complete Works of Shakespeare. The only drawback I can see to Amazon's latest bid to take over the world (mwahahahaha) is that getting a license for, let's say, Star Trek, will be nigh on impossible. In other words, die-hard fans of really popular shows still won't have an outlet for their frustrated desire to improve upon, continue, elaborate on and otherwise embellish the plots/characters of anything that could be truly lucrative. (Trust me, if they did, Spike would still be alive.)

So, if you inhabit any of the "Worlds" Amazon is currently allowing you to live on, go for it.