Kindle Vella is Amazon’s serialization platform where readers must pay to keep reading new installments. Recently, they made several changes to how the program works: (1) Readers can now read the first 10 episodes (or chapters) for free, instead of only three. (2) Perhaps because of that, new Vella readers no longer receive 200 free tokens to unlock chapters. (3) All paid episodes now require 10 tokens to unlock, whereas before some episodes required fewer tokens. Writers on message boards have been complaining this spring that the Vella bonuses have dropped to very low amounts.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
