The Gang of Five
Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => The Fridge => Topic started by: WeirdRaptor on May 22, 2013, 07:25:50 PM
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Amazon's new program (http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1001197421), Kindle Worlds.
Amazon is set to publish and sell fanfiction (legally) of a select few properties (with more to come). So far, they only have the rights to Gossip Girls, Pretty Little Liars, and the Vampire Diaries. So we're going to be getting a lot of teen "writers" submitting crap to this. The program opens next month. Oh, Amazon, you haven't met the internet, have you? There is a storm coming. Say goodbye to your sanity and welcome the wails of madness on the night wind.
Now, there are certain guidelines they've wisely laid down. They are "no porn, no offensive content, no illegal and infringing content (they obviously aren't very familiar with the term "fanfiction"), no works that lead to poor customer experience (?), no excessive use of brands, and no crossovers". Well, since all those things are out, there goes about 98% of all possible entries right there. That's fine with me, because I'd rather not live in a world where The Lemon Master can get paid for "Chocobo Nights". No matter what, though, this is not going to end well.
I have to say... I pity whatever poor, poor souls they wrangle in to review and proofread all the entries.
Oh, and how I look forward to watching this trainwreck. It is going to be BEAUTIFUL. It is going to be gloriously hilarious to watch how many fanfic writers get a MAJOR wake up when NO ONE is willing to pay money for their "brilliant" "idea" in which the crew of Firefly are replaced by the Twilight "characters".
Also, even with the guidelines in place, I give this new program five minutes, tops, before something so bile, so unholy, so profane, so utterly offensive, putrid, disgusting, sick, and wretched gets submitted that the editors seal off the building, gouge their own eyes out, and slay their coworkers to spare them even the merest of chances they should gaze upon the work by accident. The elder gods are pleased by this news and welcome this sacrifice of blood.
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Oh dear, so it is true? I heard the headline in a news website, but didn't read it. I thought to myself 'there is no way they'd be able to pull this off. NO ONE is going to pay money to read fanfiction.'
Oi. I imagine they'll be smart and pick maybe the top .00001% of fanfiction to make publish able, but seriously, if that's the case, people will just pirate. This is destined to fail.
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Exactly. Why pay money when you can get that money's worth for free as Fanfiction.net?
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Do you know what the internet reaction's been so far? The BTRF-- the blog, twitter, reddit, and facebook?
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So far it's mostly been healthy skepticism, snark, and weary glances.
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Huh, that's about what I expected, but still, why not just go the Youtube route and have adds? That's a far less controversial way to make money. Is it just Fanfiction.net that's doing this, or are other sites getting in on this?
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Fanfiction.net is not in on this. What I meant is that you can just go to FF.net and read any fanfics you want and it will not cost you a dime.
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Ah, okay, I see. Then, what, is this supposed to be 'professional fanfiction' then?
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In theory. Like I said, I pity whoever they con into reviewing and proofreading the entries.
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I'm concerned they'll get hacked for this. Anonymous often get's its cyber panties in a bunch about this kind of thing, and they're certainly not afraid of showing it.
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Honestly, I don't think Anonymous will have to lift a finger to make this have a crippling meltdown. The entries will come in and after about the 100,000th one that's so riddled with bad grammar, plot holes, and an inexplicable premise, they'll probably throw their hands up in surrender.
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True. I'm totally going to have to check out Amazon to see what these fabulous 'professional fanfictions' are titled as. The reviews alone should be worth a laugh.
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Oh, the amount of snark material that will be born from this will a sight to behold, indeed!
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My thoughts exactly :lol . So, did they say what their intitial launch titles are? Or are they still all in the works?
Edit: I'm a Spike now! :lol:
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I have no idea. All I can say for certain is that my money will not be going towards buying any of these books unless one of them is genuinely good.
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Oh, I imagine the ones they'll sell will be good in the technical sense. I might, might be naive in saying this, but I'm fairly sure Amazon isn't run by a bunch of monkey's who can't string two beans together. There is no way they could even be aware of fanfiction's existance without also knowing that the vast majority of it is crap. So, I imagine they're gonna heavily screen for the very best of the stories that come in and-- wait a minute. I just thought of something... How on earth are they gonna get the rights to these stories? If someone writes up a Harry Potter fanfiction on the internet and makes it free, it's fine, because they're not profiting. But if they're actually going to be selling these things now, aren't they going to have to run through the who copyright gauntlet?
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They've come to an agreement with the rights holders of the properties that are optioned in the program. At the moment, they do not have the rights to Harry Potter, but they do have the rights to the three properties I list in the original post. I would imagine that the entire thing will be based around the "email your fanfic and possibly get it published" line of thinking.
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Selling fanfiction? I never thought I'd see the day. I'm not really interested in selling any of my fanfiction, personally. I've always viewed fanfiction as something to be read for free, not to be profited on.
I mean, not all fanfiction is terrible. There's some that are really well written. But just because a fanfiction has a ton of positive reviews and has an outstanding story doesn't mean it needs to be sold.
Can you imagine if they tried to sell this legendarily awful fanfic?
http://ohinternet.com/My_Immortal (http://ohinternet.com/My_Immortal)
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To be fair, My Immortal is absolutely hillarious in how bad it is. But no ones gonna want to pay to read it.
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A shame it's not on FF.Net anymore.
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Yeah, I heard FF freaked out at the possibility that others would try to emulate it's 'style'. They didn't my want an incoming truckload of fiction that's barely legible, so they axed it. Not sure if that'd the real reason, but it would make sense.
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That sounds like something FF would and the reason it would do it.
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I know a fair number of fanfiction writers who manage to be a lot better than 90% of the published fiction for sale on bookshelves, but I think such writers will probably steer clear; one of them has already said something on Facebook to the effect of "heck no". Mostly for the reason DarkHououmon mentioned, and I feel the same way; I've always written because I enjoy the creativity, not because I have secret ambitions to "get something out of it". Most of these writers already have aspirations toward their own original fiction, or are already writing original fiction with the intent to publish someday... they don't need to use someone else's work as a crutch to help them make money.
Judging by Amazon's terms as stated so far, it sounds like they're trying to avoid the majority of "bad" fanfiction. Though I doubt they realize just how squirrely belligerent writers can be about exploiting loopholes... oh their approval staff is going to have so much fun. :lol
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As daft as the whole concept appears, you can't argue that the idea does sound tempting especially to those who reckon they have the "right stuff" to make a good fanfic with x amount of reviews limited to "good job" or "good chapter. Can't wait to see what happens in the next one". The prospect of the whole thing is laughable but you know there is some sorry sap out there that will actually think that their cautionary tale of Harry Potter becoming a Pokemon trainer whilst Iron Man makes a guest appearance would make for a best selling read.
As usual, you guys have hit it on the head. Those who actually write fanfics (for the more noblest of reasons) generally do it for the fun and creativity within your own mind. Not with the scope to attempt to make mega bucks from an idea of mish-mashing two or more impossible movie or game concepts into one setting. And I stand with you all. I write for the pleasure of doing it. There's no way I could publish what I've done and I would never attempt to (unless Universal actually approached me on the idea then I'd have to battle with the stigma of "selling out"). :lol Good luck to any poor fool that goes for this and doubly good luck to the proof readers. Hope Amazon can supply enough coffee makers to keep them going. :DD