Amazon to launch fanfiction platform

Fan fic on the kindle? Critics of the idea of "pulled to publish" fanfiction will probably have a lot to say about this.

Recently Amazon announced that they're opening up a new publishing platform Kindle Worlds. The platform would enable fanfiction authors to publish their works for a profit without having to actually change anything in the works themselves, supposedly. All with the approval of the publisher/company that owns the rights to the books or shows in question. Of course the author won't get the lion's share of the money charged per book. Authors of longer works (10,000+ words) will receive 35% of the price for their books while ones who have written less than 10,000 words will only get 20%. According to Entertainment Weekly, the pricing will be between 99 cents and $3.99.

So far only one company has decided to play ball with this new format, Warner Bros, and only for three very  specific book turned television show series: Gossip Girls, The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars. This limits the amount of fanfiction that can be published, as not everyone wants to write fanfiction for these shows, but it'd be interesting to see if any other companies would come aboard if this does well.

There isn't a set time as to when this will drop, but I'm of mixed emotions about this. There's no doubt that some fanfiction authors work very, very hard at what they do and put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that their specific works stick to canon or if not, would read as believable to their audience. Part of me thinks that there's nothing wrong with rewarding them by giving them money in a format that has the approval of the official copyright holders.

Then again, part of me is a little antsy about this because for some reason this just seems a little well, wrong. One of the core things about fanfiction is that it's written by fans, for fans for free. Technically there's nothing against the law about charging for fanfiction if the publisher has signed up for fanfics to specifically be published for profit. I can't even say anything about the very real inevitability about someone putting out a work that's not even worth ten cents, because we already get this with both self-publishing and the mainstream publishing world.

So I can't quite put my finger on why this bothers me so much. Maybe there's just a worry about this going from someone exploring their love for a show/book/movie to where it turns solely into something they're doing for profit. Or maybe I'm just afraid that people will only publish fanfiction and not create their own worlds. Both are possibilities, but the second has always been a fear for fanfiction and the first is something that goes on in the publishing world already. How many times have we seen authors pump out garbage because they know it'd be a guaranteed sell because of name recognition? Neither are really feasible reasons to not publish fanfiction for profit because that'd be punishing a lot of authors who either aren't interested in putting out non-fanfiction work and/or have no interest in actually getting rich-rich off their work. (But don't mind getting a little money.)

Or perhaps I'm afraid that this might be a way for publishers and companies to start actively cracking down on fanfiction authors. I haven't heard of any whisper of censorship for the works, but it's a possibility. It's well within a publisher's right to request that certain things not be published under their banner, although I will admit that I doubt that they'd refuse to publish things such as slash fanfiction. I can't even say that the publishers can now go after people who aren't publishing under their banner, because that would probably take more money and time than it'd be worth- although it'd be interesting to see if Warner Bros would seek for Fanfiction.net to remove fanfiction for the three shows mentioned above.

I guess all we can do is just wait and see.

Further Reading:
*Amazon to launch fanfiction platform (Entertainment Weekly)
*Amazon to allow e-book fan fiction sales in US (BBC)

Do Want: Kindle Fire

I've occasionally been tempted to get a kindle, but never really had anything that would truly draw me to the unit. Not until now, anyway.

I could tell you about how you can watch videos on it or the internet browser, but what really intrigues me is that Amazon has finally created a kindle that is capable of reading different book formats. Previously you could email the books to your kindle, but that was pretty time consuming because you had to wait for the email to send and get received. This isn't including the irritation that came from sending a document and then discovering that the text is sort of skewed from the formatting. (My coworkers consider me an ebook guru for some reason, so I've been asked to help email everything from books they got elsewhere to homework to their kindles.)

I'm going to assume that you can either side load these books and/or have them emailed to the Kindle Fire without it having to be changed into kindle format. Either way, I'm glad that Amazon finally gave in and allowed different formats to be read on their units. I know I'm not the only one who held out because of this reason. Now if Amazon would only put a memory slot in this unit, I'd be in heaven. I know that there's a ton of memory on this thing and the Fire will also have usage of the Cloud network, but I'm fond of my memory cards.

I have to admit, I'm pretty tempted to queue up like everyone else and preorder one.

Book Review: Steam Queen by Jack Hessey

Title: Steam Queen
Author: Jack Hessey
Publisher: Lazy Day Publishing
Release Date: 12/26/2010
ASIN:B004E3X8X0







I have to admit, I wasn't really expecting to get into this novel. Overall I do like steampunk, but I've never really sought out any books in the genre. Most of my experience has been through movies & the odd webcomic such as Girl Genius. That's why I was pretty surprised that I was so easily drawn into this book.

Europe is a dangerous, virtually lawless place. Armed bandits prowl the railway lines in their armed Steam Locomotive looking for easy marks, and heavily armed mercenary engines travel from town to town looking for work in a world where every day is a struggle for its civilians. Erica, an emotionally disturbed girl from England finds herself joining one of these mercenary teams. What follows is a trek across Europe to where two mighty cities, each representing a different way of life, stand on the verge of a war which will shape the way Europe develops. On one side are the Steam using traditionalists of St Vith, led by the charismatic and cunning General Roosje Cuvelier. On the other, stands the mighty Winterscheid Diesel Empire under the iron fist of the merciless Kaiser Sigmund Eisenburg. Two vicious armies, treachery from her own allies and the world’s deadliest super-weapon are just a few of the dangers that Erica must face in her journey.

The author takes a huge amount of risks in this book & I respect that. Not only did is the main character a complete sociopath that kills animals & maims people in retribution for real (or imagined) slights, but it's a female character that does these things & the author doesn't try to sugarcoat any of it. Erica is insane, yet there's really no big attempt to make these things seem socially acceptable or pardonable. I rather liked this story- it's a good idea & apart from my open mouthed horror at Erica's actions, I found myself fascinated by her actions. I'll be honest & say that I didn't like her character, but then the main character doesn't have to be likable or sympathetic as long as the story keeps you entertained & captivated.

My only real complaints about the book was that while the characters were pretty decently done, I didn't get a good sense of the world as a whole. I knew what the motivations of each character were, but as far as knowing what daily life was like or what the world was like, those details were at a minimum. There's enough here to fuel the plot along, but I couldn't help but feel that the story would have been greatly improved with just a little bit more world building. It just kept the book from really being as good as it could have been.

There's a sequel to this, so I really do hope that the author gives us more than just a brief glance at Erica's world as well as the events taking place in it.


Final Diagnosis: Overall this was a fun read & far better than what I'd expected, but a lack of definition in the overall world kept this steampunk tale from really soaring.


(Reader copy provided by author)

Nook Color & children's books, Kindle lending

I was surfing the net a while ago & came across an interesting new Nook that is supposed to be coming out: Nook Color. The image below was originally posted on the B&N site as a way of showing off screen protectors, but as soon as people started realizing that this was a glimpse of the new Nook it was quickly removed. "Accidentally" leaked? Who knows?
Supposedly this Nook will be in vibrant color & rather than stay true to the e-ink technology that is so prevalent in the majority of ebook devices out there, this is going to be something along the lines of the iPad. It's going to be touchscreen, which will have its pluses & minuses. (For me I always worry about fingerprints getting on the screen when I try to read!) There's no news as to whether or not it'll support apps like the iPad does. I do know that it will have android software & will be sold for about $250, though.

There's also news that this new ereader will also carry children's books (ages 3-8), something that might either delight or horrify some readers. (Delight them to know that they can have hundreds of books at hand to let children read or horrify them to imagine such an expensive piece of equipment in the hands of the very young.) Supposedly there's going to be about 12,000 books & 15 publishers, so parents can expect a wide variety for their children.

I imagine that this awesome piece of literary electronics will be available just in time for the Christmas season for your purchasing pleasure. Supposedly B&N did purchase a Nook Color themed website name, so be on the lookout for a site by the name of nookcolor.com or something similar.

In other news, Amazon announced that they'd start lending out books- a concept that just about everyone can agree was long overdue. Just like with the Nook, you can lend out a book that you've purchased to another Kindle user but can't read the book while it's being lent. Hopefully Amazon will improve on the Nook lending policy & allow a user to lend out a book more than once. It's annoying to think that you can only lend out your ebook once, making you wonder which Nook buddy is more deserving of the title. It's still better than not lending at all, but just a little irritating in my opinion.

Kindle Singles: Shorter books with (hopefully) a smaller price

Hi all!

Part of the big buzz on the internet is that Amazon has come out with Kindle Singles, a platform that will allow authors to publish shorter books or stories (30 to 90 pages). While Amazon hasn't announced what they'll be charging these books, it should be less than what normal ebooks go for.

The only part of this that makes me wonder is what is meant by "normal ebook prices". Amazon has had more than their fair share of complaints over ebook pricing (the whole $9.99 boycott thing), so I'm assuming that the new pricing would be at & under $5. The more well known authors would sell for higher while the newer & the more obscure authors would be able to have lower price points so they could appeal to a broader audience. Hopefully this will take effect also on the newspaper articles that are regularly sold through Amazon normally for about $10. I'm sure that buyers would appreciate being able to purchase newspaper & other articles for lower prices as well. I'm also wondering if this would also impact the sale price of CreateSpace books, Amazon's own self-publishing avenue. (The prices there go for as low as 99 cents.)

In any case, this is an interesting development & I can only hope that it also helps to eventually lower the prices with other ebook companies as well.

The Diva Ate Her & Laurell K Hamilton

If you're aware of the inner circle of Laurell K Hamilton, then you've probably heard of Darla Cook. Up until a few years ago, Darla worked for Hamilton as a personal assistant & helped maintain various parts of the website, fanclub, & storefront. Neither party has really given out a lot of information as to why Darla no longer works for Ma Petite Enterprises.

A few months after she'd posted about her newly unemployed status, Darla started posting excerpts of a then untitled book she'd been working on. The book was to be about a beleaguered employee of a best selling author who was well on her way to becoming queen of the divas. While Darla has since removed the posts from her myspace account, excerpts can still be seen on the internet.

When the blog posts were up, Darla claimed that the book was not based upon her time with Hamilton & was instead based on a mashup of various author diva antics, with only one part of the book being based on an actual Hamilton event. (The event in question was an overreaction to a floral delivery.)

Even so, certain sites are still abuzz about how much of the book is based on Hamilton & how much of it isn't. (I'll admit, I started one of the various threads about said book.) I have to admit that when I'd read the book I couldn't help but mentally compare the character of Miriam (the diva author) to Hamilton.

Is the book based off of Hamilton? I can't entirely say because quite obviously, neither side is talking & all I have to go on are rumors that can't really be verified. Either way, the speculation is sure to fuel more than a few sales for Darla's new book.

The Diva Ate Her is available for purchase on Amazon via the Kindle.

Carina Press: Harlequin's e-book only branch

In June Harlequin released a new branch of their company that would focus on only digital releases. This means that for the time being the books released under this label will not be in traditional paper format.

This is an interesting development since it not only means that ebooks are becoming the way to go, but it also appears that it might allow for a wider variety of books to be published through this label. One look at this site shows a range from inspirational to horror to comedy to gay/lesbian themed titles. The prices don't seem to be too bad either, with books ranging from the $2 to $6 in price. There's even a free title on there.

While it looks like most of the titles are available for purchase on sites such as amazon, readers should still check Carina Press's website for all of the most recent titles.

What is the future of Barnes & Nobles and the Nook?

As many might have heard, Barnes & Nobles went up for sale this month. This leaves many to wonder what will ultimately become of what was quite easily the strongest bookstore going for a while. As a bookstore employee for Books-A-Million I know that they're the biggest competition in our area. But I also know that like us, they've been hit by more & more people heading towards the e-book and/or online market.

What this leaves me wondering is what will become of the chain- and more importantly, what of the Nook? Does ownership of the product shift with the store or is that something to be sold independently of the chain? How will this affect the product's usage? I know that part of what is luring me into purchasing the Nook is that I can read many books for free while I'm in the store & I imagine that is the same for other buyers.

If the Nook is purchased along with the rest of Barnes & Nobles then it would be foolhardy for the new owners to discontinue the Nook or to cease some of the product perks. While the Nook hasn't had a launch as wildly popular as the first Kindle had, it is still considered to be one of the better e-Readers out there.