Serialized Fiction: Radish or Kindle Vella

Imagine reading your favorite authors in a television series mini-book on digital platforms you already own.

Already established Radish and developing Kindle Vella offer serialized fiction but are marketable in different ways.

Reader Features for Kindle Vella

Readers in a few months can access Kindle Vella content through the Kindle iOS app or Amazon.com. It is not known at this time if Amazon will decide to expand platforms to reach Android smartphone users. Readers of Kindle Vella will be able to read the first three episodes of any story for free to see if they are interested in the story line before purchasing sequential episodes.

Readers will then have to purchase “Tokens” through the app or website. Each episode cost is dependent on the number of words the writer writes in the episode. Derek Murphy breaks down the cost of Tokens in CreativINDIE, saying, “The pay scale is roughly one token for 100 words, or 50 Tokens for the max length of 5,000 words per episode.”

Kindle Vella offers a minimum purchase of 200 tokens for $1.99, equivalent to four or more episodes depending on the length of the author’s work. Kindle Vella says, “Token pricing may change before Kindle Vella stories are made available to readers.”

Fun interactive features on the Kindle Vella platform allow readers to click a “thumbs up” button to support the author by liking their episode and showing a positive review to other prospective readers. Readers can ‘crown’ one weekly “fave” episode they enjoyed. The episodes that are most “faved” will be featured in the Kindle Vella store. A feature like this allows readers to support their favorite author’s work. Readers can view Author Notes at the end of an episode to see what surprises may be in store for the next episode.

Reader Features for Radish

Radish readers can access episodes of their favorite written stories on an iPhone, iPad, or Android through the Radish app in Apple Store or Play Store. Radish also includes three free episodes for readers to browse. Readers then can buy locked episodes without waiting for them to be free for three “coins.”

The reader can purchase coins through the Radish app. A minimum purchase of six coins is $0.99, or equivalent to two episodes. Radish readers can earn coins by watching up to six video ads per day for six coins and perform ad offers tasks for various amounts of coin or invite their friends to subscribe to Radish for both members to earn 12 coins.

Readers can try their luck in the daily Lucky Draw that shuffles a deck of cards and allows app users to pick a card to see if they successfully won coins or coupons that day. Radish has story coupons that Radish gives as “gifts,” or from author giveaways, but unlike coins, story coupons sometimes are story specific.

Radish offers some cool features for their readers. Radish allows readers to heart an episode they love by clicking on the heart button at the bottom of an episode. Radish lets readers interact with the author by enabling readers to comment on episodes and allowing the author to host live chats with fans. Readers can interact with their favorite episode author through the Radish live chatrooms and comments to ask their burning questions, see what is in store for present and future stories, and possibly win story coupons from the author.

Author Features for Kindle Vella

Kindle Vella announced that current Kindle Digital Publishing (KDP) writers who reside in the United States can publish on Kindle Vella. There is no announcement as of yet about expanding into other KDP countries.

Future Kindle Vella authors can try their hand at serialized fiction by going to the Kindle Vella Library, uploading their story title, name or pen name, a brief description of the story for readers, an image for the story, up to two categories the story falls under, submitting up to seven story tags for the story, and the episode you wish to publish.

Kindle Vella authors earn 50% royalties “…of what readers spend on the Tokens that are used to unlock your story’s episodes.” Kindle Vella’s royalty formula per episode:

(Number of Tokens to unlock episode) x (Tokens bundle price / # Tokens in bundle – taxes and fees) x (50% rev share) = Earnings per episode

Kindle Vella has not released a range of the cost of taxes and fees per Token plan. Tokens will be available for purchase through the Kindle iOS app for a fee. Whichever Token plan purchased is what will be subtracted from the revenue in the royalty formula.

Author Features for Radish

Radish has prospective authors apply for a spot on their app by applying on the Radish Writer Application Form. This form asks potential authors to list their name, email, a short blurb about their writing career, an optional pen name, and to choose an unlimited number of categories they wish to submit stories. It is also crucial that writers send a pdf, doc, or docx of a least the first 30 pages of their story pitch. Radish also asks that you summarize the plot and link other writing platforms to view previous work samples.

Once accepted, Radish authors are encouraged to regularly submit a 1,000-to-2,000-word episode with a pricing model for the episode. Radish’s royalty plan is hard to find on their website and app. Radish gives an example of that, “We have writers making over $1,000 in monthly revenue – with some top writers earning nearly $40,000 a quarter.” There are speculative articles about what authors have earned through Radish, but no royalty formula or percentage is listed on Radish.

Each platform has its pros and cons, but Radish and Kindle have their own user preferences, brand loyalty, and economic value.

What the European Union’s Digital Day 2021 Means to Digital Publishers in Europe

Author’s Note: At first glance, this subject may seem unrelated to Trojan Digital Review’s singular focus on digital publishing; however, many Americans (and their family members) living in Europe are US military members, international news journalists, or global company employees, and earn their living as writers. Having Europe-wide, advanced technology which enables secure, reliable handling of their digital communications and publishing is vital.

On March 19, the European Union’s government ministers signed declarations to work together and share resources “to promote international connectivity, incentivize the rollout of clean digital technologies, and improve the regulatory environment for start-ups and scale-ups,” according to a press release from the European Union.

Twenty-seven members signed the declaration which will reinforce connectivity between Europe and partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America, as well as across Europe. The focus will be on satellites, network links, and ground and undersea cables. According to the release, “The EU already has strong data protection standards and high-quality internal connectivity. By improving its global connectivity networks, it can become a global, secure, and agile data centre.”

Thierry Breton (France), Commissioner for Internal Market, said: “The Digital Day is an important avenue for Member States to come together, around key digital goals. The new commitments that Member States made today are also evidence of our determination in the EU to work together for greater digital leadership by 2030.” The Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Margarethe Vestager (Denmark), stated, “The new commitments made today strengthen our joint ambitions for a human-centred approach to digitalisation.” These comments reflect the EU’s commitment of support not only on the corporate level, but also improve the day-to-day life of the citizens of the European community. Greater connectivity will help corporations and small businesses, and start-ups equally.

Their support for everyone across the board, both businesses and citizens alike, means better connectivity for writers. They can depend on faster connections for submitting their work, and have confidence their communication is secure. For the journalists who need to call their home office, the commission is also working on recalculating the roaming charges on the telecommunication network.

Also of interest to news writers, the European News Media Forum was held simultaneously with the EU’s Digital Day 2021. Some points were covered by both agencies, such as the safety and protection of international journalists. According to their press release, “The European Commission launched a dialogue on the protection of journalists in the EU with a wide range of stakeholders, including journalists and their associations, news media companies, representatives of media councils, European Parliament, Member States and regulatory authorities as well as international partners.”

This action is in response to the 2018 murders of investigative journalists Daphne Caruana Galizia, Ján Kuciak, and Viktoria Marinova, all of whom were killed in EU states. This Europe-wide concern for violations of press and media freedom encompasses fact-finding, advocacy, monitoring, and awareness raising. It will bring violations to the forefront, and provide practical help to journalists under threat. Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová (Czech Republic), said, “The increasing threats and attacks against journalists are threats and attacks against democracy as a whole. For the first time, the Commission is working on an initiative dedicated to the safety of journalists, which should bring tangible improvements on the ground.”

Thierry Breton (France), Commissioner for Internal Market, added, “Media freedom cannot be taken for granted, we must actively defend it, particularly with the increased risk of online attacks in the digital age. We must ensure that journalists can play their crucial role in our democracies by guaranteeing that they work in complete safety. Today we are launching a dialogue on how to increase their protection, facilitate cooperation among them and help them acquire the digital skills needed.”

As this article from Matical states, “The Digital Europe programme is addressed to strengthening Europe’s position as a global digital reference, focused on people and their wellbeing. According to the EC, the digital transition should work for all, putting people first and opening opportunities for business. It will be based on three main complimentary pillars to ensure that Europe seizes the opportunity and gives its citizens, businesses, and governments control over digital transformation.” The first of these pillars, and the most relevant to this audience, is a technology that works for the people. As the world becomes more interconnected, the more it is at risk from malicious cyber activity. The technology must be trustworthy and secure. The EU’s commitment to increase cybersecurity for all of Europe is important and necessary for all people in Europe.

The EU’s plan to “safeguard values and fundamental rights and security” while respecting social differences across the European Union is impressive. This article from Concilium sums it up best:

“Digital technologies are changing not only the way people communicate, but more broadly how people live and work. With further impetus from the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU is working to accelerate the technological transition. Digital solutions help create jobs, advance education, boost competitiveness and innovation, and can improve the lives of citizens.”