It’s no secret that Amazon, one of the world’s biggest online shop, is always branching out with new things in order to keep things fresh. With developments such as Kindles, Rentals and even a try at their own web series, it would appear that Amazon are now trying their hand at Publishing!

It’s been announced that the online shop has announced that budding authors will be able to sell their fan-fiction through their kindle shop online.

So we can all become authors in our own right….if the books sell of course. So what is fan-fiction?

Fan-fiction is a story written with the same characters of another, one of the most popular is Harry Potter fan-fictions, but people take their favourite characters and write their own stories. So is this a good idea?

It’s no secret that raunchy Novel, Fifty Shades of Grey was first written as a Twilight fan-fiction however as the popularity grew the author swapped and changed the characters in order to make it into what we read today. Aren’t the book characters under copyright?

Well it would appear that Amazon have thought of that, the site set up a deal with Warner Brothers stating that they would only publish fan-fictions on television series, specifically: Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars. All major television shows with a big fandom and all originally novels.

The platform which will only initially be available in America, has no launch date. Authors will get 35% of royalties if the fan-fiction is 10,000 words or more, anything under will receive 20% however if you think you can write the next Fifty Shades of Grey, think again, as Amazon have released a strict policy stating that anything that contains sexually explicit scenes will not be published.

Amazon are always trying to branch out their business but the question is have they gone too far or is this the next big thing?


Imagine a random person reading YOUR story on a Kindle like this…

It is a good way for budding authors to get their work out there and for people to be able to read something new. However the argument stands as this: If a writer wants to create a story surely they should come up with their own stories? The creativity of writing a story is strong so why do you need to take other characters?

This would be the next step in online publishing, with sites such as Kick-starter and a multitude of ‘publish yourself’ options on the internet it would appear that people are no longer feeling the need to go to the biggest publishers.

Is this just another step where people are cutting out the middle mad and doing things for themselves? The benefit of Amazon’s deal is that you can do it right from your own home. You can write it and submit it. The idea is simple, you don’t have to go through millions of meetings, hire a book agent, an editor, and all that jazz. You just write and submit, once Amazon accept or reject it.

You know the terms.

Amazon have made a unique step, a risky step, in what seems to be the next stage of the book writing business.

People will either stick to tradition or they will leap up and grab this chance, but does this mean, if this is successful, will we see other big internet sites branch out and start wanting to publish their audiences work? I guess we will just have to wait and see.