Amazon has announced a new platform, Kindle Worlds, which will allow fanfiction writers to publish their work and receive royalties. The royalties will be split with the author of the original work on which the writer is basing their fanfiction. At this point in time, Amazon has partnered with Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment to allow writers publish their stories based in Cecily von Ziegesar‘s Gossip Girl, Sara Shepard‘s Pretty Little Liars and L.J. Smith‘s Vampire Diaries verses. More can be read about this at Galleycat.
Given the success of stories originally written as fanfiction and modified into published fiction, it doesn't come as much of a surprise that Amazon would attempt to bridge that gap and go after the fanfiction market directly. As for if it will be profitable, I actually think it possibly could be. Some will argue why pay for it when you can just find it for free at any multitude of fanfiction sites. The same could be said, however, for the stories that were modified from fanfiction into published fiction. The original stories could still be found to the diligent Google searcher.
Personally, I think, in general, there's a bit of a stigma concerning fanfiction by the public as a whole. I'm not saying it's merited, or justified; it's just an observation I've made over the years. As a result, I could see where fanfiction sold through Amazon will have the ability to separate itself into a new entity, lose the stigma, and become somewhat successful. It's all going to depend on how it's marketed in Amazon and I could see them avoiding the word 'fanfiction.' Instead, I could see a page set up with something along the lines of, "If you enjoy Vampire Diaries, check out other stories in this universe" or "Check out similar stories." It's all about shaping your market and Amazon has proven they're rather adept in that respect.
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