There's been a ton of buzz these past two days surrounding the launch of Amazon's Kindle Worlds, and while it could be a fantastic opportunity for some fanfiction writers, there are things that everyone should know about the program. This article will cover what Kindle Worlds is and is not, what the terms are, and some pitfalls you should watch out for if you decide to try to publish through the program. Some of the insights below are a Cliff Notes version of a really great blog post by author John Scalzi, which you should absolutely check out if you're interested in reading more.

What is Kindle Worlds?

Kindle Worlds is Amazon's new publishing program, specifically for fanfiction writers. Authors can submit their work to Amazon and, if their work is approved, it will be for sale in digital format to anyone using Kindle. The original copyright holders -- for example, J.K. Rowling if you're writing in the Harry Potter fandom -- maintain ownership over the elements of the world that they themselves have created (which Amazon defines in part as characters, settings, events, etc.), and the fanfiction authors have copyright ownership of anything new they come up with in the process of writing their stories. Because of these terms of ownership, the fanfiction author has to split royalty payments (the revenue you earn from selling your stories) with fandom author. The royalty rate is 35% of total revenue to the author for stories clocking in at 10,000 words and above, and 20% for stories from 5000 to 10,000 words.

It's important to note that so far, only three fandom have signed on, and all are published by Alloy: Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and The Vampire Diaries. If you were writing in the Harry Potter fandom, or that of Twilight or Doctor Who, your work would not be accepted by Amazon -- as of right now, anyway. The program has not officially launched yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it starts up here.

What else should I know about Kindle Worlds?

Upon a quick examination of Kindle Worlds's abbreviated author terms (which is by no means a complete contract!) offers up quite a few initial red flags.

First of all, its explanation of which author owns which parts of the story seem to be one massive gray area -- one that might lead to lawsuits if the program expands. If fanfiction authors promote their stories to their audiences, for example, how far do they get to claim their writing as their own? What if they want to produce offshoots, like E.L. James's infamous Fifty Shades of Grey series? How much of their work then lies with the fandom author, and how much of it with the fanfiction author? Amazon doesn't delineate their full author contract yet, but even if it attempts to be ironclad about other kinds of publication, this might be a huge problem area.

A larger problem comes with the rights Amazon lays claim to when you choose to publish your fanfiction with them. As LadyBrookeCelebwen pointed out, Amazon "acquire[s] all rights to your new stories, including global publication rights, for the term of copyright." Basically, this means that while you hold the copyright, your ownership of the copyright is meaningless, because Amazon can do whatever they please with your work, with no further compensation to you than what royalties you may earn while selling your story. What if your fanfiction is sold for movie rights and becomes a huge hit? You have no claim over the profits from the movie, or even any say in the creation of the movie at all.

Amazon also states that "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 [originating fandom author] a license to use your new elements and incorporate them into other works without further compensation to you." Again, these terms essentially render your copyright ownership meaningless. Other people writing for Kindle Worlds can lift your ideas for their stories without penalty -- heck, even the fandom author can take your ideas and use them in a new book in whatever series he or she is writing. And you receive no profits in any of those cases, and probably not any credit, either.

Amazon has also set some limits of the kinds of stories they will accept, but those limits seem to be pretty arbitrary. While they ask that authors not submit pornographic content or offensive content, or content that will provide a "poor customer experience," their explanation of these limits allows them enough leeway to reject any story for any reason, without explanation. As LadyBrookeCelebwen wrote in her article, the result might be ridiculous:

To take an example from my own fandom activies, I have a story titled “Rainbow”. From the title, a lot of people have thought that it would be uplifting fluffy goodness. In reality, it’s one of the most depressing stories I’ve ever written, about a woman who has lost all her children and her husband and now has only memories sparked by colors to remind her of them. I’m sure that it could anger someone at Amazon and be blocked for being misleading.

Finally, some of the smaller terms might cause additional chafing for fanfiction writers. Amazon reserves the right to set all the prices for stories published through Kindle Worlds, which might stifle self-published authors who are used to setting their own prices. Authors of shorter fanfiction works are also shut out: it seems that Amazon will not be accepting stories shorter than 5000 words, no matter the quality.

Some parting thoughts

Kindle Worlds might be a great opportunity for fanfiction writers, but I think it's important to be aware of the potential costs. Before you dive headfirst into the program, educate yourself -- read contracts and terms carefully, and then think very seriously about what's best for you and your work. Remember that the term of a copyright is long -- the lifetime of the author, plus an additional 70 years. As LadyBrookeCelebwen notes, because Amazon owns it essentially in perpetuity, if it decides to take the story off the market, it's gone -- you can't post it or sell any versions of it anywhere else. Make sure that for all that time, your work is doing what you want it to do.