KDP

Choose. Then Use.

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

To choose, copyright, and use a pen name:

  1. Make sure you haven’t chosen another well-known person’s pen name. (I just read this week that even though it is ok to choose a pen name of a different gender, it is NOT acceptable to use one of a different ethnicity than your own.)
  1. Purchase URLs and social media handles for your pen name.
  1. Legally set up a business using your pen name. Most writers choose LLCs or sole proprietorships. Open new bank accounts in your pen name. 
  1. Apply for a Fictitious Business Name Statement (FBN Statement) if you plan to receive payments under your pen name. (Amazon will make payments to the account owner name of your KDP account, so if you’re only selling on Amazon, you may choose to skip this step).
  1. Inform your agent and publisher of your real name for contracts and tax purposes.
  1. Use your pen name on your book cover and copyright notice (like this: © 2021 [your pen name]).
  1. Register the copyright for your work under your real name and your pen name.

Next week: the conclusion of Using Pen Names.

Kindle Vella

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

What follows is a brief overview of the new serialized fiction reading program released to the public in April of 2021. For more detailed information, please see the full description for readers and authors on Amazon.

I recently received a couple of emails from Amazon about this new opportunity for writers, so I finally took the time to dive in and find out what Kindle Vella is all about.

It all boils down to this: readers can access stories which authors release in short episodic installments. 

They read these using the Kindle Vella app (for ios or Android) or the KV website on their computer desktops. 

The first three episodes of any story are free, but readers need to acquire and use tokens to unlock future episodes. They can give their opinions of the stories in the form of follows, likes, and faves.

Authors create new, original stories in their KDP dashboards. After the stories have been on Kindle Vella for at least 30 days (and are at least 10 episodes long), the author is allowed to publish them in a book format if they wish.

Authors earn 50% of what readers spend to read their episodes on the app in the form of tokens purchased from Amazon, plus certain bonuses. Note: Amazon retains the right to price the episodes originally and to change the token pricing at anytime.

I’d be the first to tell you that I haven’t delved into the compensation model, but it is explained on Amazon for those of you who are further interested.

This doesn’t seem to be geared toward getting authors more money. However, if you consider that the episodic release model might be a good fit for your writing, it may be worth looking into.

The big plus, as I see it, is that this is an innovative way to reach and grow new readership.

Are there other episodic installment platforms out there? Yes. Two others you might consider are Wattpad and Radish.