everything but the girl

It's Kindle Worlds, We're Just Living In It?

2013-05-22T14:33:33Z

Crossposted from Tumblr.

Amazon is working with WB to publish (read: sell) fanfiction from the Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries 'verses. And they said that more "worlds" will be announced soon.

Basically, fanfic writers will be able to sell their fics - formatted for Kindle - via Amazon, and the restrictions are not as massive as you'd think!

No crossovers.

No excessive product placement for non-show brands.

No porn.

But here's the thing about porn! Amazon says they don't allow porn to be sold on their site, so as long as your fic content is no more explicit than anything that's on Amazon's site today (see: 50 Shades and anything in the erotica category) then it won't run afoul of Amazon's content restrictions - and if they say it does, then the Internet will stand behind you as if you were a Nutella fan barred from celebrating its wonderful tastiness.

HOWEVER, each World Licensor will be providing "Content Guidelines" for their specific 'verse - and I can't find those anywhere. THAT might make a significant impact on what types of fanfic one can and cannot sell, but until we've had a chance to look through them, we can't determine the specifics.

I don't think it's realistic to be concerned that the existence of Kindle Worlds will mean that tv show/film/book creators will stamp out freely given fics. At this point, Kindle Worlds will only accept things over 5000 words, anyway, and the longstanding laches issue that protects fics posted elsewhere and given away will still hold.

However, it does mean that people who write in the fandoms covered by Kindle Worlds and sell ebooks of those stories outside of the Kindle license may find themselves dealing with cease & desist letters. But there was always a chance they would because of the commercial aspect of that action.

Also, this will leave fandom with a lot of questions on issues other than legality be on fan-created gift culture, commissions, fundraising for charity, or even the ability of pro writers to write in other universes>

Does this further "legitimize" fan creativity (which I think has long been a pretty legit hobby), will it just create an additional outlet for story distribution, and what other fandoms will WB add?

I wouldn't be shocked if they bring Tomorrow People into this as the show launches in the fall, but what about things that are ending their runs like Nikita, or shows with massive fanbases and almost a decade of fan creativity, like the behemoth that is Supernatural?

Oh, and here't the royalty-related info:

Amazon Publishing will pay royalties to the rights holder for the World (we call them World Licensors) and to the Fic Author. Fic Author's standard royalty rate for works of at least 10,000 words will be 35% of net revenue.

In addition, with the launch of Kindle Worlds, Amazon Publishing will pilot an experimental new program for particularly short works (between 5,000 and 10,000 words). For these short stories—typically priced under one dollar—Amazon will pay the royalties for the World Licensor and will pay authors a digital royalty of 20% of net revenue. The lower royalty for these shorter works is due to significantly higher fixed costs per digital copy (for example, credit-card fees) when prices for the entire class of content will likely be under one dollar.

comments

2012: Year in Review (Fandom Edition)

2012-12-31T14:28:37Z

Crossposted from LJ:

Your main fandom of the year? I was as multifandomish as I've been in any recent year, but I was probably mostly Avengers-focused, except for a brief Hunger Games moment.

Your favorite film you watched this year? AVENGERS! I saw it in theaters three times in two and a half days, in two different states, and managed a total of twelve times in theaters before it wrapped up. And I squee-ed every time!

Your favorite book read this year? I started the year reading Beth Revis's Across the Universe, and I can't wait for Shades of Earth next month! (And no, I didn't finish Casual Vacancy; I got strep when I was around a third finished, and wasn't able to concentrate on anything. Hope to finish it during travels in the next month or two.)

Your favorite album or song to listen to this year? iTunes tells me that my most played song that I first listened to in 2012 was fun.'s Some Nights (Intro)/Some Nights, which is one spot ahead of the fun. cover of Call Me Maybe. The original of Call Me Maybe is only a few spots back! So, basically, Top 40 Pop!

Your favorite tv show of the year? Doctor Who's Pond sequence ended wonderfully, with solid episodes, and I loved the three Sherlock eps from back in January. I'm still watching SPN but cannot get used to the Wednesday timeslot and tend to watch it on Friday mornings, still.

I really enjoyed Political Animals (except for the plane crash concept in the final episode) and wish it had been renewed for another season. It worked as a standalone series, though.

Oh, and does UP! With Chris Hayes count?

Your best new fandom discovery of the year? Does Cabin Pressure count? It made flying actually fun, and funny, and my kids have become fans of it, too. Yellow car!

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year? Elementary not having a military background for Joan Watson, and not having time to watch either The Hours or Teen Wolf. Political Animals and Leverage not being renewed.

Your fandom boyfriend of the year? Still Tom Hiddleston, unless Neil Finn counts because of the song on the Hobbit soundtrack. (Please, give this man an Oscar nom!)

Your fandom girlfriend of the year? Surprisingly, because I didn't adore her in IM2, I found Natasha utterly awesome in Avengers.

Your biggest squee moment of the year? Going to the sneak preview of Avengers in NYC early in the morning of April 14, almost completely unspoiled (Coulson! Rag-Doll!Loki! Shakespeare in the Park!).

The most missed of your old fandoms? I still miss Heroes S1/2, when it was really good.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to? Teen Wolf looks fun, from the gifs I've seen, but I want to have the time to focus on it rather than have it in the background.

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year? LOKI TWO. Ahem. THOR TWO. Also IM3. More Sherlock, and hopefully something about the DW 50th Anniversary shenanigans!

comments

heidi @ 2012-10-06T07:56:00

2012-10-06T11:58:34Z

Things To Do While Tumblr Is Down:
1. Book a Flight to wincon (now I just need to book a flight home, too).
2. Catch up on LJ & DW
3. Read all the two-days-on posts about why Obama didn't mention the 47% Video during the debate and see that they all finally realized that at least a portion of it was because Romney obviously had a step-it-back paragraph memorized, and there's no justifiable reason to give him an opening to give that schpiel in front of a Live Studio Audience and massive viewers at home.
4. Save Big Bird!!
5. Watch the world spin.

comments

Stop SOPA

2011-11-16T20:15:39Z

I've been dealing this week with annoying dentistry, weirdly scheduled PTSA meetings, clients whose credit cards are not appreciated by the PTO website and the fun of trying to figure out what type of entity to be for INTA next year, and, of course, re-reading reviews of Philosopher's Stone that were posted in FictionAlley Park a year ago today (well, a year ago this month as some people saw it early) but I needed to take a few minutes today to address the SOPA act that's currently being debated* in committee in Congress, for clients, and in a post that's going up on FictionAlley this afternoon.

This is a slightly revised version of that post:

You may have seen this image on the internet today:

And you may wonder why a site like FictionAlley cares about an act designed to stop piracy; FictionAlley doesn't allow links to downloads of the Harry Potter books or films!

But the thing is, the "Stop Internet Piracy Act" is written in such a way that it gives any owner of any copyright, trademark right, right of publicity or other intellectual property rights the ability to shut down a site's ability to accept donations made via credit card companies, PayPal or Amazon, or bar a site from hosting Google or Groupon ads or being part of the WBShop or Amazon Affiliate programs just because they think that one icon, one User Profile, one piece of fanart, one fanvid or one fanfic infringes on their content - regardless of whether that story, icon, vid or art is transformative, or created pursuant to fair use.

"Fair use is a lawful use of copyright." That's what the Northern District of California said in Lenz v. Universal Music back in 2008. So much of what we do on fansites - from the discussions and reviews to art and fic and vids we host and link to - is fair use, but there's no Fair Use provision in SOPA.

"Think about this for a second: think how many bogus DMCA takedown notices are sent by copyright holders to take down content they don't like," writes TechDirt's Mike Masnick. "With this new bill, should it become law, those same copyright holders will be able to cut off advertising and payment processing to such sites. Without court review."

If we can't accept donations from FictionAlley's users and visitors, we won't be able to keep the site online; it costs about $3000 per year to cover our servers, domain names and other related expenses, and we appreciate all the help you give us in covering those costs. If SOPA passes, and one copyright-holder who doesn't agree with the law of Fair Use complains to PayPal or Google or Amazon, we may lose the ability to accept donations from users like you.

And we're just a little site in the grand scheme of things. YouTube hosts fanvids, parodies and reviews, Tumblr and LiveJournal host every type of content that can be created, and Google links to everything. One person can choose to abuse the provisions of SOPA and damage each of those sites for everyone - or the sites themselves may curtail certain services, or limit what they allow people to share, discuss and distribute.

That's not an Internet that any of us would recognize.

If you live in the US, please send a letter to your Representative, or click here to visit the EFF's website and have an email automatically sent to your representative.

*Not the right word when only one of the six entities testifying before Congress is an Internet-purposed company!

comments

Long day.

2010-11-03T01:31:56Z

I've been pollwatching since 6:45 AM and basically offline since late afternoon, and I am not capable of reading everything or in fact anything, but I will look over posts tomorrow. if there's something you want me to see, post a link here; all comments are screened. I'm off to look at that pic of Jared in the fx corset and Jensen on the microbike until I fall asleep.

comments

Crossposted from the Fiction_Alley LJ

2010-10-29T20:30:07Z

As some of you may know, FictionAlley has been struggling for a few months with a sudden change in our financial circumstances. We're working on ways to help defray the costs to keep the site running, and we're always on the lookout for new opportunities.

Well, this morning, iGive sent out an email about a video contest:

Create a short, fun video (2 minutes or less) about FictionAlley/FAWC, and how iGive helps support it. Get the kids and pets involved! Think Halloween, Thanksgiving, and holiday themes. The top 18 videos (by votes) win cash prizes for their causes!

The prize for the winning video is $1000 - that's five months of our website hosting fees! There are smaller cash prizes, too, and our video is one of the first 100 uploaded, and we get ten votes (easy peasy!) we get $50 for FictionAlley automatically.

We'd love to do this, but we need your help! Have someone film you (solo, or with family and friends, outside or at your computer or anywhere magical) wearing a Potter-inspired costume, or your favorite FictionAlley or self-created t-shirt and say, shout, spell or sing "Creativity is Magic!", then send it to VidChallenge@FictionAlley.org. If you'd rather draw something, or use puppets or animation, that's fantastic, too!

We'll include as many as we can in our two-minute video. We have 120 seconds, and it takes about three to four seconds to say it (maybe five if you're singing) so we can include somewhere between 25 and 35 at a minimum - but we can also put two or four on the screen at once if we get enough submissions.

The thing is, to upload it at midnight (CDT) on November 1, we need your video in hand by 9 PM Eastern time on Sunday, October 31, so we can get it edited and uploaded. And really, the sooner you can film it and send it, the better. Keep it short and clever (and nonviolent and nonpr0n0graphic per the contest rules) and let us know if we can put your name on the screen - it's totally up to you.

Thanks in advance for your help with this! Together, we can make magic!

comments

We are one but we're not the same...

2010-10-20T16:33:45Z

As a friend reminded me, yesterday was three years to the day since Albus Dumbledore came out of the closet, via J.K. Rowling's reading/talk in NYC. And of course, today is Spirit Day, where we're wearing purple in memory of the 6 gay boys who committed suicide, and speaking out against bullying, especially anti-gay bullying.

I know a lot of you were at Lumos, where Emerson of Mugglenet and a friend crashed the slash panel and were really rude about slash, and also remember the first two thirds of the decade, when Mugglenet refused to host slash fics (although they did start before the Dumbledore announcement, fwiw).

So I wanted to point to the site today, which is purple, and especially Andrew Sims' post. Years pass, people grow up, things change - but not quickly enough for the kids that are lost, and who were never told "It gets better." If you haven't gone to Mugglenet in years, take a moment to pop over there today, and read Andrew's post.

comments

So I have a new project...

2010-10-01T02:46:45Z

Copied from the OTO Call for Fair Use Curriculum Development Team Members:

So how many teens in the United States do you think are familiar with the concept of fair use? How many are exposed instead solely to the message that copyright infringement is always a crime?

Between warnings on DVDs, television PSAs, movie theater anti-piracy ads, and print advertising, kids are usually pretty familiar with a vague idea that copyright is that law that means you can't copy stuff, and that in particular, any commercially produced entertainment or cultural property is sacrosanct.

The message is that remix, criticism, reinterpretation, and transformation are legally transgressive. Missing from this message is both the actual aim of copyright law and the idea that there are legitimate artistic and critical reasons to use copyrighted material, and that such use is legal. The OTW believes that education about the principles of fair use and similar rights around the world are an important part of the defense and preservation of fanworks -- our rights to create, share, and enjoy our work. To that end, we are developing resources for schools, teachers, and students that will allow students to learn about their rights, and how to exercise those rights.

Copyright is intended to protect the creator's right to profit from her work for a period of time to encourage creative endeavor and the widespread sharing of knowledge. But this does not preclude the right of others to respond to the original work, either with critical commentary, parody, or, we believe, transformative works.( Read more about the project & how to volunteer/help! )

How to Volunteer
Please use our contact form to tell us:

* Your name
* Your email address
* Applicable experience and what you believe you can contribute to the project

All volunteers will receive an email confirming their information has been received; please give us up to a week to reply. You are welcome to send us a resume at that point if you wish.

Now, me speaking personally...
This has been a project I've wanted to do since probably 2000 or 2001, and I think now is the right time for something like this, because of the state of the law, and the state, frankly, of fandoms and fannishness. We're also planning to do versions of the curriculum in countries other than the US, so we are interested in hearing from people who are/would be interested in getting on board for such a project.
I can't wait to get stared!

comments

Show! 100 episodes old!

2010-04-15T22:36:02Z

So so proud of Show! I swill remember sitting with fangirls at Phoenix Rising watching Dean make his deal and Sam come back from the dead and them shut the trunk and say "We've got work to do!" without being 100% sure that Show would even be back for a third season. I remember reading my first SPN fic back in January of 2007 only because it had Jack Harkess in it and I shipped Jack with everyone. Then there's the first eyecon, the amazing second eyecon and the omgwtf third eyecon, watching Long Distance Call with fangirls and PIE in NYC in May of 2008, doing my first SPN vid to Pleasure and Pain and my first J2 vid to The Pina Colada Song for deirdre_c's birthday, interviewing Sera and Kripke at Comic Con, drinking test tube shots with fangirls and cast in Orlando, my first Jason Manns cd, my first Jensen Ackles cd, reading fics and watching vids and loving art and boggling at Jensen and Jared moving in together and giggling at icons and sharing this amazing experience with so many of you!

Show! I love you so much!

Earlier today, I posted a What icons suit your mood question and I'd love to see how y'all feel right now - and I also posted an update of a vid I did about a year ago - now updated to include clips from all 99 episodes! Click here to see Always Keep an Edge On Your Knife before Episode 100 airs in just a few hours!

SQUEE! SHOW!

comments

The Mainstreaming of Politicial RPF

2009-11-28T21:53:14Z

Thank you for doing so, New York Magazine (Nov. 30, 2009 issue).

That is, in case it wasn't fully mainstreamed before.

Also, I know I am going to sound rather control-ish here, but after this moment, I think the issue of "Is RPF Legal When Those Incorporated Into the Story Are Public Figures" is completely and totally moot. The lawyersn for New York Media LLC are fine with it.

New York is currently hosting the following:

1. Seven stories written by well-recognized writers that are, for all intents and purposes, political RPF. In fact, the cover blurb on the Nov. 30 issue includes "Sarah Lusts for Levi by Paul Rudnick". Paul Rudnkick. Who wrote Jeffrey, In & Out (fictionalized Ton Hanks-inspired RPF), Stepford Wives (that 2004 version) and more. Mary Gaitskill, who wrote the story on which Secretary is based, wrote about a meeting between Ashley Dupre and Silda Spitzer. Walter Kirn (the writer of the book on which Up In the Air is based) wrote about Mitt Romney. And there's stories about Barack Obama having a midnight meeting, George and Babs Bush dealing with a dog, etc.

2. A contest where readers are invited to submit their own "political fictions".

We want you to write your own short stories—or movie treatments, or mini one-act plays—starring political figures. Shoot for around 1,000 words, but we’re flexible. E-mail to politicalfictions@nymag.com.

Oh come on! Some of you have things on your hard drives (or livejournals) already that you should enter into this contest! You can win a trip to DC!

New York even has some ideas for you!

To help you get in the right frame of mind, here are some suggestions for scenarios you might consider. You don’t have to use these, but they’re the kind of thing we’re looking for: date night with the Obamas; Bill Clinton dispenses fatherly advice to Levi Johnston; Reggie Love’s day off; John and Meghan McCain discuss her Twitter cleavage shot; Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin go to a sample sale together; Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, and Mitch Romney plot how to take down Sarah Palin; Joe Biden has a frank conversation with himself; Rudy Giuliani visits Bernie Kerik in prison; Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank gossip over cosmopolitans; Matt Drudge and Andrew Sullivan go on a date.

New York clearly thinks it's legal to do this - it's not defamation, they find it clever or unique or amusing and perhaps they completely missed the sudden outpouring of Rahm-centric fic almost exactly a year ago?

No, RPF and RPS are not of interest to everyone, and there have always been films and books and songs that are about real people (live or dead) in fictionalized situations (at least three different Beatles ones come to mind) so this isn't really such a fantastically new and unheard of occurrence, but it is notable - and hey, if one of you wins, I'd love to get a postcard from Washington DC.

The deadline for entries is December 7. Huh. Is it ok for someone to submit a yuletide fic?

comments