Stephanie Bond faced a high-stakes dilemma worthy of Carlotta Wren, the beleaguered yet resourceful heroine of her popular “Body Movers” series of novels.
A prolific Atlanta author of romantic mysteries and other works of fiction and nonfiction, Bond learned that her publisher was ending her “Body Movers” series without warning after Book 6. Fans became furious at its unresolved cliffhanger.
But just as Carlotta once waylaid a serial killer in the balcony of Atlanta’s Fabulous Fox Theatre, Bond took matters into her own hands and succeeded big time. She launched a self-publishing operation, then wrote a shorter, alternative universe-style “Body Movers” novella — winkingly titled “6-1/2 Body Parts” — to tide readers over until she was firmly established enough to write and release Book 7 herself.
Last March, “7 Brides for 7 Bodies” came out and promptly landed Bond, 50, on the USA Today bestsellers list for the first time in her 70-book career. By then, Amazon had come calling, convincing Bond to license “Body Movers” to its first-of-its-kind commercial fan fiction platform, Kindle Worlds.
"Fan fiction" is the catch-all term for new fiction that's written using someone else's popular characters or storylines. Think, "Harry Potter Plays Quarterback for UGA," for instance. Or, "Olivia Pope Becomes The Pope. (Some of the most rabid fan fiction involves TV shows and movies.) The stuff has been around almost as long as books themselves, but it really started to take off when the Internet made it easier for obsessed fans to share their mostly unpublished writings.
The game really changed in 2011, when E.L. James released “50 Shades of Grey,” which started out as “Twilight” fan fiction. James’s trilogy went on to sell 125 million copies, and traditional publishers suddenly started paying attention to fan fiction. So did Amazon. It launched Kindle Worlds in 2013 and started lining up popular book series (“Wayward Pines”) and TV series (“Gossip Girl”) and big-name authors (Kurt Vonnegut) as jumping off points for people to create their own, authorized fan fiction. The resulting stories and novellas are then sold in Amazon’s Kindle store for 99 cents to $3.99.
“It brings more attention to the series, of course,” said Bond, gesturing around the book-filled, two-level condo in Midtown where she lives and works. “But I just like the idea of engaging the reader more. I really do think everybody has a book in them, and maybe this is a safe way for people to exercise those writing muscles. And if they can entertain each other between my books, that’s good too.”
Kindle Worlds wanted “Body Movers” because of “its strong female lead characters, and for the opportunity to connect fans who are passionate about Stephanie’s stories and characters,” said Amazon Publishing vice president Jeff Belle via email.
So far, about a dozen writers have churned out their own very different takes on the series that Bond began in 2007. Carlotta Wren is a twentysomething Atlantan who works at Neiman-Marcus and somehow keeps winding up in the middle of murder mysteries — especially once the younger brother she single-handedly raised after their parents disappeared (it’s complicated) lands a job schlepping corpses to the morgue to help pay off his gambling debts.
Over the course of seven comically addictive books filled with knowing nods to everything from the Lindbergh MARTA station to the Gwinnett Braves, Carlotta has romanced three men almost simultaneously and tracked killers and clues to places like Lenox Square mall, a trendy Castleberry Hill abode and the AJC newsroom. The whole series likely will encompass 12 books.
In Kindle Worlds, Bond pretty much allows other writers free rein, and they’ve taken it, transporting the “Body Movers” characters to 19th century Japan, in one case, and injecting fairies and witchcraft into the life of Carlotta’s best friend in another. Some fellow pros have entered her “World,” too. Marietta author Sally Kilpatrick, whose good-humored Southern romance “The Happy Hour Choir” was published by Kensington Books in May, crafted the 81-page “A Day Late and a Body Short,” imagining might have happened between Books 3 and 4 of “Body Movers.” (Semi-spoiler alert: A long-ago buried body turns up missing from Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery.) Kilpatrick did it try her hand at mystery writing and market herself to new readers. She even made enough in Kindle Worlds royalties to pay for the launch party of “Choir,” her debut novel.
“I was curious, I wanted to see how it all works,” said Kilpatrick, who’s currently president of Georgia Romance Writers. “I really respect Stephanie and what she can do business-wise. She is one savvy lady.”
Bond grew up a voracious reader (everything from Progressive Farmer to romance and suspense novels) on a farm in eastern Kentucky. While majoring in computer programming at Morehead State University, she bought the shoe store where she’d started working in high school and later became a programmer for a large Lexington petroleum company. She was getting her MBA at night when an instructor noted her flair for writing. In 1994, a corporate transfer brought her to Atlanta and a year later she sold her first book to Harlequin. Two years and 10 books later, she left her job to write full-time.
Over two decades, Bond has watched the traditional publishing industry shrink and struggle to adapt to challenges posed by e-books, fan fiction, self-publishing and online sellers like Amazon. At the same time, authors have been expected to take on increasing amounts of the non-writing work involved, from suggesting cover ideas and writing the copy, to marketing themselves through their own web sites and more. Bond could, well, write a book about all she saw and heard along the way. The petite brunette’s doe eyes dance as she goodnaturedly recalls the time a marketing type suggested she hand out postcards promoting her voodoo-themed romantic suspense novel at the World of Coke, of all places. Later, after almost shyly showing off the small desk tucked in a corner that’s the nerve center of her independent book production empire, Bond takes the high road in discussing the traditional publishers who helped get her there.
“I’m grateful for just knowing how to put a book together and streamline the process for myself,” said Bond. “I mean, basically, they kind of trained us to be able to do this without them.”
Still, it's a major success story along the lines of Carlotta Wren's suddenly rising up to run the G.B.I. (That hasn't happened … yet). Bond's self-publishing operation began in earnest in November 2011, offering up e-book versions of about a dozen of her earlier novels, which she'd gradually reacquired the rights to from their original publishers. Now she sells a blend of old and new works, available in e-book, audio and paperback formats, and generates seven figures a year, she said.
One of her newer books, “Stop the Wedding,” was rejected by multiple traditional publishers before she self-published it and sold more than 300,000 copies. Hallmark is now developing it into a TV movie.
As for that Kindle Worlds deal, well, who knows? Bond thinks it could pay off in ways that go well beyond the small royalty she receives whenever a piece of “Body Movers” fan fiction sells.
“It’s good business, of course, to embrace your readers,” she said. “But the other part of it is, I really just want this to be fun and enjoyable for everyone involved. If this is what I’m going to be doing for a living for the rest of my life, I need for it to be something where I feel like I’m touching people and giving them a chance to influence me as well.”
