Adding to its fan fiction licensors, Kindle Worlds, Amazon’s new venture licensing the writing of fan fiction, has reached new licensing agreements with the comic book publisher Valiant Entertainment, self-publishing stars Hugh Howey and Barry Eisler, and writers Blake Crouch and Neal Stephenson. Amazon’s Kindle Worlds allows fans to produce fictional works based on copyrighted properties and receive royalties if they are approved.
The new licensors will allow fans to create fan fiction based on such Valiant comics properties as Harbiner, Archer & Armstrong, Bloodshot and others. The new deals will also license fan fiction based on Howey’s Silo Saga, Crouch’s Wayward Pines series and Eisler’s John Rain novels. At the launch of Kindle Worlds Amazon announced licensing deals with Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment division for its Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar; Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard; and Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith.
Under the Kindle World license, Amazon will pay the license holders a royalty as well as paying the fan-author a royalty of 35% of net revenue (based on the list price, not wholesale price) for works of at least 10,000 words. Royalties will be paid monthly. Amazon also offers a program of very short works, stories between 5,000 and 10,000 words, that will be priced at 99 cents. Amazon will also pay its World’s rights holders a royalty in addition to paying the new author a royalty of 20% of net on these stories.
Amazon is looking to add more licensing agreements and Philip Patrick, director, business development and publisher, Kindle Worlds, said, “since announcing Kindle Worlds just weeks ago, we’ve been energized by the interest and enthusiasm for this new program—from writers and readers alike.”
