Kindle Worlds, part of Amazon, which was launched in 2013, has just announced to authors they will be closing this publishing unit. Kindle Worlds opened up well-known book series to writers to tell stories with in a particular ‘series world.’ Authors of the original series could invite other authors, or have writers submit stores with the option of accepting or declining them.
Amazon announced in a letter to Kindle World authors that they will not accept any additional works, and those books will no longer be for sale. As of this writing, Amazon has not address the issue of what happens to purchased books. Here is a copy of the letter authors were sent:
As a valued member of the Kindle Worlds licensor community, we wanted to let you know that the Kindle Worlds program is closing. We will be notifying fan authors tomorrow, May 16th.
As of May 17th, Kindle Worlds will no longer be accepting new submissions. Previously published Kindle Worlds stories will no longer be available for sale on Amazon.com on or around July 16th. The Kindle Worlds website will be closed on August 29th; we ask that all Kindle Worlds participants update and validate their banking information, mailing address, and contact information by July 31, 2018 in order to facilitate a timely final royalty payment.
Your final royalty statement will include a proactive final payment for all remaining Kindle Unlimited borrows, including borrows that have not yet met the qualified borrow threshold. We plan to remove Kindle Worlds stories from Kindle Unlimited on May 16th.
Effective as of the date we remove each fan author’s work, we will revert the rights granted to us by that fan author. Our reversion letter to each applicable fan author will provide that such reversion is subject to the rights we granted to you in the Kindle Worlds License Agreement between you and us.
For five years, Kindle Worlds has been thriving, engaging writers and readers who enjoy writing in one another’s worlds, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done together. While we are closing Kindle Worlds, Amazon is constantly innovating on behalf of our authors and readers, and we look forward to continuing to do so.
We hope that 2018 and beyond bring wonderful things for you and your stories, and we appreciate your support over the years.
Warm wishes,
The Kindle Worlds team
Readers should check their Kindles to ensure their purchases are still available for reading.
