Car Appointment and Thoughts on Amazon's Kindle Worlds for Authors

I take my car in to the car doctors today. Not that there's anything majorly wrong with Grape. Indeed she is running pretty darned good for an old lady with 110,000 miles on her. But I will be driving out to Milwaukee to attend Bead & Button Show in early June and I want my car to survive the trip there and back with happiness, not with issues. So I want to have the engine fully checked out, the tires rotated, and I want my headlights reglazed because I'm not getting a lot of light through them anymore. This last is something I could do myself and save $100 or so, but frankly, I'd rather spend my "free" time working on my art or my writing instead of stripping and refinishing my headlights.

My headlights are dingy and unsafe. I'm looking forward to
getting them refinished so that they cast light again.

Later this week I'll take a look through my supply lists, etc to be sure that I'm packing the right things for the four classes I'll be taking, and I suppose I should pull my suitcases out of the closet too...air suitcases just don't hold a lot of stuff. I know we'll be hitting Target over the weekend and I should see if I need stupid things (toothpaste, deodorant, etc) so that I don't have to add things to next Wednesday's schedule.

Well, my shirt is black, my hair is platinum blonde, but the
expression of disgust? Yeah - that's ALL me.

Here's a segue for you...I just noticed that my newly washed shirt has stains down the front *sigh*. That means it didn't get clean in the laundry. Call me frustrated, and also call me wondering how horribly bad it would be if I just kept wearing the shirt.

Hmmm....what to wear? What to wear...?

Undecided...

Finally, Amazon apparently announced a new facet to their empire yesterday called Kindle Worlds for Authors. Here's their own splash page for it. In essence, fanfiction written for three specific fandoms can now be submitted to Amazon and if they pass vetting and follow their guidelines they will be published for profit. The author will retain copyright to their piece, BUT (and it's an important but)

• (the contract gives)..."the World Licensor a license to use your new elements and incorporate them into other works without further compensation to you." (bold typeface added by me).

WTF? This is SO NOT OK. Not only are the fandoms massively restricted (only 'Gossip Girl, by Cecily von Ziegesar; Pretty Little Liars, by Sara Shepard; and Vampire Diaries, by L.J. Smith'), but the authors receive 35% royalty payments on their one story and then, if they have introduced a character or angle to the story that the Licensor likes enough to put into future plot lines, the author will receive nothing, nada, not one penny. 

It's only three fandoms right now, but it's the contract
and the lack of future compensation that has me upset.
Follow the links I give and become informed.

This has some of the writing groups I range through frothing at the mouth, and it makes those who write within accepted worlds for pay quite upset because they may be looking at the future of fictional publishing. For a different, and excellent analysis of the issue and its ramifications for authors, read John Scalzi's comments here. He is the current President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He has read through the announcement and the contracts offered by Amazon and his words are well worth the read. 

It just makes me wonder if we're going to be living in a world where we are boxed in with Amazon on one side and Wal-Mart on the other. A waking nightmare in my opinion.