Elf's Random Musings

"Getting Paid for Fanfiction."

How does this even

Well, it's also a trap too.

Read this. It has a pretty good horror story. L.J. Smith, the author of the original Vampire Diaries novels, was basically fired due to a contract she signed years ago when writing the original trilogy. She was writing for hire, and therefore basically gave up her rights to her characters and her publisher could fire her at any time. Then they were allowed to take her creations and have someone else write stories for them.

And it happened, with both her Vampire Diaries and Secret Circle series. She was even working on a new VD trilogy when the show came out, and the publisher wanted shorter books that were more like the show. The thing of it, the show was changed dramatically from the books. Characters races, personalities and such were changed (I will admit for the better for Caroline in show, and worse for Bonnie), and back stories completely rewritten. After I got over the, "Bonnie is a white girl with Celtic ancestry!" rage, I started to like the show. Partly because Ian Summerholder is awesome as Damon, but the idea of an author losing her creation?

Yeah, that's fucking ridiculous.

http://www.crapthatwillblowyourminds...-2x22-copy.jpg

Originally Posted by Bittersweet

That is pretty hilarious in all honestly, because that's pretty much all TV Show Bonnie does.

I miss Book Bonnie, Book Bonnie was freaking adorable, a redhead, and had some awesome chemistry with Damon.

Yeah, the Amazon Words thing is certainly interesting.

The terms aren't the best, and there are alot of downsides involving giving away most of your rights. The author John Scalzi has some interesting thoughts on it. He makes many good points, and they are very much worth acknowledging before forging ahead with Words.

That being said, the terms may be friendly enough when one considers that the fanfic author is leveraging another's IP and established audience, rather than building their own. (Presumably to jump-start the processes of developing a name and following). The best summary I've seen is, and I'll quote the poster:

Kindle worlds stories need to be seen as a variant case of work for hire, not a variant case of original fiction writing. Since all fanfic is by definition a derivative work of the original copyright, the "safest" (for the IP owner) legal option is to assign control of the derivative to the owner of the original, in return for the contracted remuneration.

Example: Let's say David Weber sets up a Kindle Worlds playground for his Honorverse and a fanfic story introduces a character with a certain resume and backstory and Weber--who may not have the time or inclination to even sample the resulting stories--later introduces a similar character that gets added to an HBO series based on the series. Without the assignment of rights to Weber, he might be subject to a lawsuit for a share of the video royalties from the wildly successful series. At some point he might find himself trying to prove ownership of his own character.

Faced with those perils, a lot of authors simply refuse to allow or acknowledge any fanfic. And by treating these commercialized fics as work-for-hire, the legal peril is contained.

The writer of the fic who doesn't like the terms has choices; forgo commercialization, recycle the material into a distinctly separate IP, or accept that the owner of the original IP has rights and interests that need protecting.

Tricky stuff.

Originally Posted by Elf

[...] but the idea of an author losing her creation?

Yeah, that's fucking ridiculous.

And now you know why I hate the current hegemony among publishing houses. Hegemonous monopolists, the lot of 'em!

JxK's quoted point, and Scalzi's extended post as well, basically break this down: essentially, the publisher is throwing open work-for-hire jobs on their Expanded Universe work to basically anyone who wants to sign up and can meet the low bar for entry. Fanficcers get paid something for their work, which is not a bad deal (since, y'know, you're writing in someone else's backyard--I've written tons of fanfic, but I damn well don't expect anyone to pay me for it 'cause the characters and settings aren't my own creations and aren't in the public domain). And the rights-holder basically gets to pay a pittance compared to what they ordinarily would for expanded universe stories. Superficially, it looks like everybody wins; not-so-superficially, the publisher and Amazon win a lot more than the fanficcer.

(On the other hand--and I will say this bluntly: If you have an original character, an original plot that does not substantially depend on keeping within the bounds of someone else's world rules, or the like, and you have any thoughts of ever putting it into your own work, then put it into your own work, not your damn fanfiction. Particularly not into fanfiction that you deliberately signed over the rights to a publisher for in exchange for money! )

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