JET Kindle World

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of JET – Kindle Worlds, wherein interested fans and authors can write in the world of Jet, Mossad super-operative extraordinaire, who faked her own death to escape the clandestine life, but whose enemies won’t let her be.

Here’s what happened. Amazon approached me about taking the series, which has shifted multiple six figures of units and seen over a million downloads over the years, and opening it up to other authors, be they professionals or fans, to write their own stories using my characters and environment – my “world.”

There are really no limits. Books can be any genre – action thrillers like JET, romance, dystopian, whatever. The only caveat is no hardcore erotica…and you can’t kill off Jet, Matt, or Hannah.

Stories can be set before Jet joined Mossad, during her tenure with that organization, or after, sometime in the future. Sky’s the limit. One could have it be steampunk JET, or Jet’s first love, or JET set the day after the end of the world. Part of the fun of Kindle Worlds is taking the familiar and twisting it to do one’s bidding – and getting paid to do it. Those authoring in the world will see a 35% royalty, and will be writing in a world that’s already got many, many thousands of fans. That’s exciting as an author because, besides the obvious economic possibility, it exposes participants to a whole ready-made reader base who just might discover a new name they like. It certainly happened when I wrote in Steve Konkoly’s Perseid Collapse world, with Deadly Calm, my novella (if you haven’t read it, shame on you – you don’t know what you’re missing). I have a slew of new readers I can trace to that little book, which is a bargain at twice the $1.99 price. So the model works – assuming, as with everything, you tell a story folks want to read, in a compelling manner.

I’ll soon have an authors section with more info for those interested in writing in the world, which describes all the do’s and don’ts (there aren’t many). One of the big things is that any characters an author creates for the world, are that author’s property, outside of the world (thanks, Joe Konrath). So if someone comes up with the guy who got away but whose romance with Jet as a teen rocked her world, that guy is the author’s, and can be used however the author likes in non-KW world, as long as it doesn’t include my characters (Jet, Matt, or Hannah, or David, her old control in the Mossad).

Some possibilities are an exploration of David and Jet’s romance. Or missions she undertook before leaving Mossad. Or her years in the orphanage, and then juvy hall. Hell, authors can put her in space, or on a desert island, or in a sub, or on a rocket, for all I care. It’s about what readers would think is cool. That’s the beauty of fan fic. Recall that 50 Shades started out as Twilight fan fic, which is the biggest selling book of the last 3 years. Pretty interesting to consider how something like this can blow up bigtime.

Readers get a new spin on the characters, which isn’t written by me. I don’t have any creative input. I don’t edit or approve or offer my two cents. The approval is up to Amazon. Editing is up to authors. The voices can be near, or completely different. Doesn’t matter. It only matters what readers think.

I’ll be posting details on the world as soon as I get finished with Emerald Buddha’s first draft, which should be in a week, when I will turn to this for several days. Until then, if you have any questions, email me and I’ll do my best to get to you and answer them.

Let me close by saying this is pretty damned cool, and I’m very excited.

Oh, and Ramsey’s Gold goes live on the 29th, and it can be pre-ordered here. It’s a seriously good read, and fans of Cussler, Brown, and Rollins should love it.