Using Creative Commons to Explore the Power of Stories.

The Public Factory has decided to start living up to its name. We are now licensing all of our works under Creative Commons. And making things public. This is nothing new to e-books. There have been people out there who have been licensing under Creative Commons for a while. Ex: Cory Doctorow. But that was as long as no one made money off of the books or created derivative works. Which is still an awesome license. And why we love Creative Commons' flexibility.

But we want to really push some of the ideas behind Creative Commons. Especially in writing. So we are now allowing you to create derivative works. In fact, we encourage it. Also, sell those works. Try to make a living writing. That's what we're trying to do, too! Now, we don't want you copying our books and reselling them. That is not what this is about. This is about expanding our universe. And giving readers and writers a place to grow and play in.

As we mentioned before, we grew up reading comics. One of the best things about comics was seeing the shared universe. Watching characters coming in and out. And that's what we're trying to do here. We want our characters and ideas to be building blocks and backdrops to launch your own characters and your own stories. 

The Internet has allowed for all kinds of ideas and business models to be tried. This may be a failure. We don’t know. Trust us. We've been sitting on this for a while. A little scared. As in very, very scared. But in the end, it just felt right. And if 'free' can sell books then why not 'shared'? Reading, writing, and cross-referencing ideas, when you think about it, just sounds fun. Well, for us, story nerds, anways.

So check out our books. And see what you like and what you think you can add. Then write your own story. And share it. Let us know too!

All our rules are right here if you want to check them out. The link can also be found at the top of the website under Creative Commons.

And if you're just interested in learning more about Creative Commons, check out their site.