That's so not what it's for...

This is either a misnomer or a total contradiction in terms. When I first saw it, I assumed they might be talking about officially-produced spin-off books from series, which do sometimes get confused with fan fiction. And it does say "authorised". But official spin-offs already are sold on Amazon. This sounds more like fan fiction, but with two major differences: it'll make money, which was never the point of the genre, and in order to make said money, the authors will sell out their autonomy for effective permission from the source producers. Which will mean, no doubt, that only those takes on the source material that please said producers will be authorised.

Personally what I've always liked best about fan fiction is that it doesn't have to be the official take on things; it doesn't ask permission and in many cases would be unlikely to get it. It takes a slant view on the source material, and that's how it makes it new. I can't think of anything more likely to put me off reading a fic than a little stamp on it saying "authorised and approved by the source producers". Jeez, it was frequently because those producers so often didn't understand or appreciate their material that fan fiction got written in the first place!

The making money thing doesn't bother me quite so much, although the generous and sharing nature of fan culture has always been rather joyous. It's always been possible to file off the serial numbers and publish for gain, after all. But the fact that most fan fiction was not-for-profit did give it a great freedom which this bastardised version won't have - once you take their money, there are things you can't do, and for me they were often the most interesting aspects of the genre.