PROBABLY the biggest dream of fan fiction writers around the world (apart from vampire Harry Potter, Jedi Spock, Legolas in The Avengers, etc.) is now a reality. They can now get paid for all the hundreds of pages of fanfic they produce, thanks to Amazon’s Kindle Worlds.

Amazon has secured licenses with companies like Warner Bros. so fans of their TV series like Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries can write (and sell!) fanfic based on those “worlds” without having to worry about intellectual property rights.

And on top of that, they’ll get to earn a share of the profits from the sales of the stories. According to CNET.com, a story in Kindle Worlds will cost between US$0.99 and US$3.99 (RM3.15 to RM12.70), and authors can earn up to 35% in royalty.

Amazon will continue to add more worlds to the platform, but for now, writers will have a limited selection of TV series and comics to choose from.

In a story on TIME.com, Amazon director of business development Philip Patrick said the goal of the platform isn’t to harm the non-monetised fanfic world.

He said: “There is that ethos, of doing it for the love of writing and doing it for the love of being a fan. I think that always exists, period. That goes on forever and I think it’s awesome.

“What we’re trying to do here is simply create yet another option for people to explore that form of creativity. We are creating a legal environment for our licensed properties for writers to write and earn a royalty, but by no means is that the only option that’s going to be available to writers. We’re just one of many now.” — By Kevin Tan