What’s that? A giant global corporation has ignored the creative integrity of the people it profits from in order to maximize gross income, potentially alienating future authors and jeopardizing their commerce? That’s right, Amazon is all-aboard the fan fiction train, next stop: avoiding tax on the profit it makes from it!

This means a fan of a book, like Twilight for instance, could write a story with Bella, Edward and Jacob, and sell it back to readers via the Kindle store. That is, if Stephenie Meyer signs up to it, which, considering the size of the brand, she probably won’t. It also means the latent homoerotic relationship between Star Trek’s Kirk and Spock, exhibited so often by completely normal fan fiction writers, can now be a nice little earner for them. Nice that.

It’s surprising just how many authors are signing up to let their work be taken by a fan and moulded into something else. Amazon reckon the "Kindle Worlds" project is a good thing for writers, as it is "an entirely new way to monetise their valuable franchises [and] it allows them to extend their worlds with new stories and characters and more deeply engage with existing fans".

William ShatnerLeonard Nimoy
If Star Trek fan-fictioners had their way, these two would be 'shacked up'

One author on board is Sara Shepherd, the author of Pretty Little Liars. "Seeing Pretty Little Liars fans adapt and create their own stories is both exciting and flattering and I think what Amazon Publishing is offering through Kindle Worlds is a great way to reward their ingenuity," explained Shephard.

On the other end of the spectrum is Anne Rice, who, rather emphatically made her feelings on the subject clear via her website. "I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes."

Stephanie MeyerStephenie Meyer's Twilight is a fan fiction favourite