Board Thread:Spoilers/@comment-96.228.137.74-20160311185338/@comment-27794543-20160326200458

It's legal to profit on it if you have permission (and typically, you also pay some royalties). In many ways Star Trek has been publishing approved fanfics for decades.

But I would never have gotten into fanfics if I had to pay. Part of the appeal for fanfics is that there are many and they are free. If I read one and don't like it (poorly written, disliked plot, etc.), then the only thing I wasted is time. As a kid (aka before finishing college and working full-time), I wouldn't have money for fanfics. I'd be reading whatever I could get for free, if not fanfics, then library books (and I doubt libraries plan on stocking these fanfics anytime soon).

Also, the type of fanfics I read, I question if publishers would approve (e.g. gay relationships where in canon everyone is straight, NC-17/MA/Explicit fics, etc.). I don't know how Kindle Worlds works, i.e. Can anything be published or must it PG? If original author is anti-LGBT (e.g. Orson Scott Card), are LGBT fics allowed? Or do authors, when 'releasing' their worlds to Kindle Worlds, have no control on what is now published?

Looking through the list of Kindle Worlds, I'm happy to see that none of the fandoms I read are on it (yet). (I never got into The 100 fanfics.) I have mixed feelings over this. Over 15 years, I've read some amazing fanfics. Am I unwilling to support the authors? It's not that exactly. It's more that I would never have read those fanfics if they weren't free. Because I don't regret reading fanfics (even though my family, all of whom are readers, think fanfics are junk), I don't want fanfics to be lost. And I feel that putting a paywall, will prevent people like me from ever getting into fanfics (and my family cheers).