Amazon Now Publishing Your Vampire Diaries Fanfiction on Kindle Worlds

Alaric may not have become a perma-ghost on The Vampire Diaries, but he lives on in fanfiction. Now writers who appropriate the characters and cannon from worlds such as TVD in their own work can be paid for their labors through Amazon. The newly announced Kindle Worlds lets fanfic-ers publish their stories and receive royalties from the sales.

Three franchises owned by Alloy Entertainment, Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, and Gossip Girl, are all included in the new venture. Amazon hopes to include more licenses soon.

Amazon isn’t going to publish any old thing. They’ll comb the submissions and only publish the ones they want; the e-books will then sell for between $0.99 and $3.99. There are some guidelines for getting your work published, including no pornography, no offensive content, and no crossovers. This means your Buffy/TVD mash-up is ineligible. And if you describe Elijah’s suits as Armani one too many times, that’s another no-no. Amazon frowns on excessive branding.

So is it worth it? With Kindle Worlds, writers get 35 percent of the net for works over 10,000 words. As Forbes points out, those who use Amazon to self-publish e-books receive 70 percent of the profit. However, not everyone can be EL James and have their Twilight fanfic turned into a blockbuster book.

Also, if you look at the legal language, Amazon will own any elements you create in your work; if someone else uses a character you create in a story, Amazon doesn't have to compensate you: "When you submit your story in a World, you are granting Amazon Publishing an exclusive license to the story and all the original elements you include in that story. This means that your story and all the new elements must stay within the applicable World. We will allow Kindle Worlds authors to build on each other’s ideas and elements. We will also give the World Licensor a license to use your new elements and incorporate them into other works without further compensation to you."

Would you pay for fanfic? Are you scrolling through your Tumblr now to find submissions?