Kindle Worlds has been announced

A couple of posts ago, I said there were a few things I was up to, not all of which I could talk about. That's now changed. Here's a cut/paste from an email I received from Amazon this week.

Greetings, Amazon Publishing authors: 

We have some exciting news to share with you: Amazon Publishing has launched a new program – Kindle Worlds.  Kindle Worlds is the first commercial publishing platform that will enable any writer to create fan fiction based on a wide range of original stories and characters and earn royalties for doing so. As with Kindle Serials and Kindle Singles, we hope to open up new ways for authors to write and provide readers with an innovative way to experience great writing.

Amazon Publishing has secured licenses from Warner Bros. for Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries, and plans to announce more licenses soon. Through these exclusive licenses, Kindle Worlds will allow writers everywhere to publish authorized stories inspired by these popular Worlds and make them available for readers to purchase in the Kindle Store. In June, the Kindle Worlds Store will launch and at that time, the Kindle Worlds Self-Service Submission Platform, where any writer can submit work, will also open. We encourage you to visit Kindle Worlds (www.amazon.com/kindleworlds) to learn more.

As part of this launch, Amazon asked fifty some odd authors back in March to write stories in one of the universes they had the rights to. Obviously, I was one of them. Sounded like fun, so I agreed.

I've written a 24,000 story set in the Vampire Diaries universe titled "A Cage of Burning Light". Amazon liked it, and once the official release date rolls around and it's available for purchase, I hope that all of you do too.

I'm inflicting art on you!

Nothing new on the writing front. Nearly done the second serial in FOR THE LOVE OF A SYLPH. Ten thousand words sounds like a lot until you realize how much you have to cram in there. Gah.

I've been on vacation the last two weeks, so between writing and building a rocket launcher, I've done some painting.

The rocket launcher, btw, is a prop. It's for a steampunk costume. I'll post pictures when it's done if anyone cares.

I have reached a new first

Wow, even for me, this is a long time to go without saying anything. Sorry about that. I haven't posted because there hasn't been anything happening that I can really talk about.

That does mean that yes, things have been happening, but no, I still can't talk about it. Not much. Well, I'll try.

Moving to Amazon has been interesting. They actually pay on a regular basis, which is quite amazing. They also give me breakdowns on where my books are being bought. I'm apparently doing okay in Germany. Yay, Germany!

Amazon is also a lot more proactive at poking authors (at least they've been poking me) and going "Hey, we want to do 'this'. Are you interested?" So far, the answer to this question that I've been asked twice is to say "Sure!" Whereupon they reply with "Great, give us a synopsis and a first chapter and we'll decide whether we want to buy it."

One of these days, my dream is to have someone suggest I write something and actually pay me BEFORE I do it. Dreams....such nebulous dreams...

Project #1 I flat out can't talk about. It doesn't involve just me, so the announcement about it has to wait until Amazon releases it. Yeah, I have no idea when that's going to happen. "Soon," I think.

Project #2 I can give a few details on. It's not solid yet. I'm still getting that synopsis and first chapter to them, so a contract isn't 100% guaranteed and I don't want to jinx it. Call me paranoid. However, it's very likely it will be.

Amazon has asked me to write a new sylph book, separate from book 4 (which they say they're buying anyway. No, I haven't got the contract yet). The format of it is a little different. They want an 8 part serial, each serial being ten thousand words long and ending at a cliffhanger. It's to be released electronically, each serial coming out two weeks apart and then the whole thing being released as a novel afterwards.  The reader only pays once for the whole thing. They're called Kindle Serials and it's the same idea as the ongoing stories in pulp magazines back in the day. Amazon has some of them out already and they're quite popular, but I'm their first stab at a fantasy serial. So I'm busily at work on this one, which from what I understand, they want to release this fall. For publishing, that's an insane turn around.

Given that they also want the book to be able to stand on its own with new readers, I've had to put book six aside while I write it. Six has way too many spoilers for other books, like five. Five of course can't come out until after four, and four they're paying me for anyway, so I'm not interested in turning that one into a set of serials.

The book is called FOR THE LOVE OF A SYLPH and is set after book three and four. I'm not saying what the plot is, but I will say that anyone who remembers the water sylph and battler who were friends in ALPHABET SOUP FOR SYLPHS is going to recognize the leads. This is very much going to be a first as the entire book is written from the point of view of a water sylph. I've always wanted to try something like that. Usually just the battlers get focused on.

So that's what I've been up to, along with working full time, having fun with digital art, and spending way too much time in Minecraft PE or Real Racing 3.

To close, something that's never happened to me before happened yesterday. I was at the Ottawa Comicon and chatting with one of the artists doing commissions there. We got to talking about art and writing and he asked if I was someone he'd have heard of. I said probably not and told him my name.

He'd heard of me.

Forgive the squealing, but NOBODY's heard of me. Not standing face to face. You guys read my blog because you came to find me. This was like meeting one of you randomly on the street.

Yeah, I ended up flailing uselessly. It was great. :)