Amazon’s Fan Fiction Kindle Worlds Offers Access to Writers

At an event of the meetup group Hollywood 2.0: The Future of Storytelling, Philip Patrick, publisher of Kindle Worlds and Amazon Publishing’s Director of Business Development, spoke about his vision of this innovative program on Amazon, which launched in June of 2013 with the goal of engaging with fans of popular fiction worlds — both readers and writers.

As Amazon says on its website about Kindle Worlds:

New stories inspired by books, shows, movies, comics, music, and games people love.
Welcome to Kindle Worlds, a place for you to publish fan fiction inspired by popular books, shows, movies, comics, music, and games. With Kindle Worlds, you can write new stories based on featured Worlds, engage an audience of readers, and earn royalties.
Amazon Publishing has secured 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. Licenses for more Worlds are on the way.

Patrick explained that Kindle Worlds gives writers access to a public platform and the ability to add to existing worlds. The primary goal is encouraging writers, giving them options.

Patrick explained that, when Amazon licenses rights to a world, Amazon must agree to the rules of that world. For example, only a specific time period (high school and college) for Veronica Mars’ adventures can be written about on Kindle Worlds.

Many writers of fan fiction in Kindle Worlds have gone on to find success with their published fan fiction, while fans of a particular world are provided with additional stories of favorite characters.

Click here to see the current Kindle Worlds — with more expected soon — as well as a video of the January 2014 Kindle Worlds Authors Webinar. Also follow Kindle Worlds on Twitter at https://twitter.com/kindleworlds

And Patrick especially recommended checking out Kindle Worlds stories from KDP superstars such as Hugh Howey’s Peace in Amber or JR Rain’s Bound by Blood.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.