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I'd love to see if the writers of these books made any money off of the books. I understand that probably wasn't the goal of the article, but I'd like to instill entrepreneurial values in my kids. Imagine if you were a kid that had no income (except for birthdays/holidays). You could write a book about something that you love and obsess over and get money for doing it. That would be magical for them.

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IIRC the rules regarding income get fuzzy when basing one's written work on the Intellectual Property of another entity. As in a "Minecraft story" revenue would likely default to the owner of the IP, not the unaffiliated writer. If the entity such as Minecraft reaches an agreement to give the writer of the derivative content compensation, I think that's their choice (e.g. they never hired the writer and are allowed control of their IP, which can include take-downs). There's a lot of good publicity to be earned by including fan-works into a global campaign, for sure! Also, money! See: "50 Shades of Grey" and its relationship to "Twilight" being a way where both parties became fiscal winners.

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