My writing group, the In Print Professional Writer’s
Group, had a guest speaker named Terri Reid
in the Spring of 2011.
She spoke to our group about her foray into self-publishing
with the release of her first e-book, Loose Ends, a Mary O’Reilly
Paranormal Mystery. When we had secured her as a guest
speaker, her book had been downloaded over 40,000 times. By the time she came
to speak to our group, it had been downloaded 80,000 times.
Six years later, Terri is a best-selling author and
not only has finished Book 19 of that
series; she’s also written several other series and has fans around the world.
Because her books were selling so well, Amazon
approached Terri with the idea to create a Mary O’Reilly Paranormal Mystery
World. She needed to assemble several authors for her end of June 2016 launch.
Here’s her email to me, in part: “I’ve been approached by Amazon to create a
Mary O’Reilly Kindle Worlds – it’s like an Amazon fanfiction arena, but writers
actually get paid for what they write. You write a story within the Mary
O’Reilly World using the Mary characters and any other characters you want to
create. You can write in any genre you want – as long as you use the main
idea of the Mary O’Reilly World.
“The other cool
thing about this is that if an author has an established character in their own
series – they can “visit” the Mary O’Reilly World and interact with Mary – but
get publicity for their own character and book.”
To be honest with you, I could not say yes FAST
ENOUGH.
WHAT IS KINDLE WORLDS?
Kindle
Worlds is Amazon’s answer to fan fiction. Directly from their website:
“Welcome to Kindle Worlds, a place for you to publish
fan fiction inspired by popular books, shows, movies, comics, music, and games.
With Kindle Worlds, you can write new stories based on featured Worlds, engage
an audience of readers, and earn royalties.”
Before we started on our books, Terri sent us a
character bible, describing the characters in her books that we could use. We
were also told that if we wanted to, we could bring a character or two from one
of our own books into the Mary O’Reilly Kindle World book that we were writing.
The nuts and bolts of it? Write a book over 10,000
words set in the Mary O’Reilly world. Add much or as little of Terri’s character
(s) as you wish. Your book should be properly edited, proofread, and formatted.
You will also need a cover for your book using the Kindle Worlds template found
on their website. Kindle Worlds also puts a copyright page in for you, and prices
your book, generally $1.99. Then writers use the self-publishing tool on Kindle
World’s website and upload it. It’s extremely user friendly.
For the launch of the Mary O’Reilly Kindle Worlds, we
all had to have our books ready and submitted to Kindle Worlds so they could go
live on June 30 of 2016.
The day for the launch came. It was so thrilling. Six
authors had brand new Mary O’Reilly World books to bring forth—a world where
fans of the series were practically salivating to get their hands on books that
featured her characters.
The following are links to the Mary O’Reilly Kindle
Worlds books. Click on the name to be taken to their Amazon author page!
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| I get a picture because it's my blog. lol |
Chris
Cacciatore wrote Trouble
Lake
in 2016 and Grave
Injury in 2017, released this past month. I believe that
writing for the Mary O’Reilly Kindle World has been a boon for my writing
career. For instance, in Trouble Lake I brought in two of my characters, Baylyn
and Cat, from Baylyn,
Bewitched. In Grave Injury, I wrote bought in a character from Knew
You’d Come.
Vicky
Holt
wrote Safety
Measures in 2016 and Missing
Links in 2017, last month. Vicky says, “For the process of
writing for it, that part is easy. Simple to upload and quick review process.
It's nice to see my work getting more exposure than it would, thanks to Terri's
awesome success. That's probably the biggest perk.” Vicky also points out, “As
far as I can tell, no extra marketing going on. I even find it difficult to
find Kindle Worlds in a basic search. “
Jan
Hinds wrote Widow
Maker, (Otherwise Engaged Book 3)
in 2016. Jan writes, “It was a wonderful experience and I took the opportunity
to overlap some of my characters with Terri's. I have gained several new
readers in the process and am thrilled to meet all of you. Having been a fan of
the Mary O'Reilly series I thoroughly enjoyed working with her characters. I
can't say enough about how grateful I am to Terri for enabling me to join this
group and let my imagination mingle with Mary and her friends.”
Ophelia
Julien wrote A
Scattering of Bones in 2016. Ophelia writes, “Writing a story
based on Terri's characters and then having it go up for sale was an amazing
experience. I loved being a part of it, and also meeting all of you in the
process! I think there needs to be a lot
of clarification on exactly what KW is. I have a review on mine that complains
about me writing a story using someone else's characters, and notes that if I
have a story to tell, I should just write my own work and stop using someone
else's. Terri very nicely got on and addressed this, explaining in detail
exactly what KW was and why all these people were suddenly writing Mary
O'Reilly stories, and with her permission. But there are still folks who seem
to have a problem with the concept and don't quite seem to grasp the underlying
intent of a KW story.”
Donnie
Light wrote Tangled
Trail in 2016 and True
Song
in December 2016. Donnie’s books are doing very well, and although I did reach
out to him for a comment, I don’t think he’s on Facebook a great deal—probably busy
writing!
Maureen
Tan
wrote Hair
of the Dog in 2016. Maureen says, “I'd say my overall experience
was good...fairly straightforward paperwork, publishing interface, and prompt
payment of royalties. Oh, and I got to
meet all of you, which was FABULOUS! Zero support, as far as I can tell, from
Amazon on publicizing the books, so that was a little disappointing, mostly
because it seemed like they were going to be more aggressive about it. I guess my biggest frustration with it was
readers who didn't understand the concept of Worlds--back to Amazon/Kindle
Worlds maybe needing to do a better job promoting/explaining the concept.”
Mary
Lamphere released Kinder
Garden last month. She is one of the newest writers of a
Mary O’Reilly Kindle World story. Mary says, “I find a lot of people I talk to
want to dismiss it as "fanfic". There's a lot of terrific fan fiction
out there, but the ONE people know is 50 Shades and that seems to be what they
want to compare my work to. I figure those people will be disappointed either
way, right?! My experience with KW has been fine. It's still early for me, so
not much to report. I definitely plan on writing more in the Kindle Worlds!”
So, what does a Kindle Worlds writer make as a result
of writing a KW book? That $1.99 is divided into three parts—a third for the
author, a third for Amazon, and a third for the owner of the World you’re
writing in.
Terri’s fans are some of the most loyal in existence,
and the sales for the first few months our books were out in KW were
astounding. Fans of our own writing
were buying our books, and fans of Terri Reid’s Mary O’Reilly series were
thrilled to have books about her character to hold them over until Terri’s next
book came out.
That’s the special thing about Terri’s fans—they are
absolutely in love with Mary O’Reilly and her now husband, Bradley Alden. They
can’t get enough of Mary’s close friends, Stanley and Rosie, and the ghost
named Mike, who is their daughter Clarissa’s guardian angel. Her fans read them
voraciously the day they are live on Amazon.
My advice to you if you’re a writer looking to gain
readership? Go to Kindle
Worlds, browse through all the worlds they have to offer,
and pick one that interests you. Then get to writing! You have nothing to lose,
and only readers to gain.
If you’re a reader? Click on this Kindle Worlds link
and immerse yourselves in quality writing in worlds you love. You won’t be
sorry, and you’ll meet some superb new authors!
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