The Breakdown - April, 2021
Hey, Friends! I’ve got the April edition of The Breakdown for you! But first, a warm welcome to all my new subscribers! It’s great to have you here. 😊 And if you’re a Wattpadder, I’ve got more publishing deals for you coming out of Wattpad Books, so you’ll definitely wan to stay tuned!
In terms of themes for this issue, there are two that prove impossible to ignore: “the rise of serialization” and “the market influence of Asian conglomerates.” You see, there’s an IP war going on, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the birth of the streamers. And it’s driving tremendous platform growth, introducing new and innovative storytelling apps and sites, and has sparked a war for writing talent that rivals a good old-fashioned WWE wrestling match.
And while that all sounds great for new and traditionally unpublished authors—and in many ways it is—these changes also come with some significant pitfalls and caveats. Because of the breadth and depth of this issue, I’m going to hold off on a deeper analysis of this trend for a couple of reasons.
Major developments, including significant company acquisitions and the launch of several new platforms, have occurred in just the past few weeks. The implications of these initiatives are far too difficult to assess at this stage.
The main driver for these developments is corporate consolidation in order to build a pipeline of development for promising IP (intellectual property.) The goal is to find stories, or more likely story worlds, that can go from online serial, to published book, to TV and/or film, to manga and/or animation, to video and/or mobile games. That’s a very deep topic and requires more time and space to explore than I have here.
I’d already started developing a premium Industry Deep Dive called, “Idea or IP?” So, what I’m going to do is more deeply explore this topic there. I’ll definitely highlight some interesting trends and concerning issues in this newsletter, but a deeper analysis is better suited for an industry-focused release. If you want to make sure you don’t miss out on any future posts, free or paid, be sure to subscribe!
Okay. With that, let’s dive in!
News
(Click on title for source article)
Amazon Announces Its Wattpad-Style ‘Kindle Vella’ Platform
Amazon is launching Kindle Vella, a new KDP self-publishing format, aimed at mobile readers that will allow authors to publish short serialized fiction that can be read on smartphones and mobile devices by using the Kindle iOS app. The service will begin accepting submissions today for publication sometime within the next few months.
The Kindle Vella service is designed to publish serialized 600 to 5,000 word short fiction. Through the service, initial story episodes will be free. After reading the initial free episodes, readers will be able to buy tokens that can be used to unlock later episodes of the stories they wish to follow. The price of the tokens, according to an Amazon spokesperson, will be announced at a later date. Authors will receive 50% of the token price.
In other Vella features, readers will be able to highlight their favorite stories using a "Thumbs Up," or "Faves" icon that will also be used to feature those stories on hotlists in the Kindle Vella store. Authors will be able to submit stories to the Kindle Vella service using Amazon’s usual KDP uploading service.
As exciting as this news is, there are a whole host of outstanding questions regarding this new self-publishing platform. When, exactly, will Vella launch? (Word on the street is June or July) What sort of exclusivity is required? (the FAQ language is remarkably unclear) What other rights might be affected by publishing on Vella? How will they channel readers from Amazon proper to this new app? Who is the targeted demographic for this app? How will they enforce quality control and protect readers from scammers and unfinished stories? (If you write on a serialized fiction platform, you know just how much readers hate investing in a story with no planned ending.) And so on, and so on…
So, where does this leave us?
Well, clearly, Amazon is taking a potshot at Wattpad and Radish, both of which were recently acquired by large South Korean conglomerates. But the larger question is how seriously will Amazon take this new initiative and how much support (both marketing and technical) will it put behind it? With their track record of unceremoniously dumping previous initiatives such as Kindle Worlds, Kindle Singles, Kindle Scout, an early version of Amazon Studios (it started out as a place for amateur screenwriters to pitch their works), and even Audible Escape—the exclusively Romance package that Audible was offering for an additional monthly fee, I have my doubts.
I’m not suggesting Kindle Vella won’t be a huge, even a somewhat moderate, success. And if history is any guide, those who get in early can do rather well. But none of the earlier initiatives were deemed sustainable and all were poorly managed by Amazon from the start. With this oddly open yet vague launch planned for sometime in the future, there are red flags popping up everywhere. And even though I’m digging around my hard-drive, looking for old stories I could use to test this new platform out, I suspect either Amazon has a host of NYT Bestsellers with stories of their own that they’ll use to launch the service, using this open beta to seed the catalog so it’s not a ghost town when users log in. Or they’re just testing the waters, given the popularity of other platforms in this space, maybe for a future acquisition (not sure who’s left in the space though), or for a more robust launch when they’re ready to make this program official. It might even be offered as a KU-style alternative. Who knows? After all, the monthly recurring fee model is the Holy Grail for almost every software company. I’m not sure. We’ll have to see.
UPDATE: It looks like they’re beginning to answer questions (somewhat vaguely, though) on the KDP forum.
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Kakao aims to acquire Radish to compete against Naver Webtoon
Kakao is planning to spend 400 billion won ($358,217,508.00) to take over global web novel platform, Radish. This is expected to intensify the competition between Kakao and Naver with regard to their intellectual property (IP) business in the United States.
According to the Korea Economic Daily, Kakao is reviewing acquiring the managerial rights of Radish through its content producing subsidiary Kakao Entertainment. Radish is the fifth-biggest web novel platform in the United States.
Kakao also confirmed that it is in the process of acquiring Radish outright.
"As there are more steps in the procedure that we need to go through to close the deal, we cannot go into much detail about it," a Kakao Entertainment official said.
Kakao already invested 32.2 billion won in Radish last July for 12 percent of its shares. In February 2021, the IT giant bought further shares in Radish from venture capital firms that owned stock. If Kakao confirms the 400 billion deal, it will become the largest shareholder of Radish.
Such a move is seen as a mark of Kakao's ambition to grow in the content IP business.
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Tencent’s China Literature wants to woo 100,000 American and Canadian writers
China Literature, a subsidiary of tech giant Tencent Holdings, has been churning out profits from one of Chinese netizens’ favorite pastimes: reading serialized novels. Now it is trying to export that proven business model to the rest of the world, with plans to double the number of its North American writers in 2021, the company’s head of international business Sandra Chen told the South China Morning Post.
“We aim to grow the number of North American writers to 100,000 this year,” said Chen, who leads Webnovel, the overseas business unit of China Literature and the name of its English-language website.
While China Literature and iReader Technology – the country’s second largest e-publisher backed by search engine giant Baidu and TikTok owner ByteDance – are both active in translating Chinese web novels into foreign languages, Webnovel is now betting on English works written by native authors to reach more international readers.
By boosting the number of North American authors, Webnovel hopes to crack a key market that has shown a strong demand for literature and a willingness to pay for content, Chen said. The priority is to develop a “big enough pool of good content.”
“We hope to attract not only amateur writers, but also traditional writers, including screenwriters, to join Webnovel,” she said.
To that end, Webnovel is launching their annual Spirity Awards, similar to Wattpad’s Watty awards, but with a cash prize of up to $20,000 and a chance your story could be adapted by Tencent Pictures into a film or TV show or even other forms of media. Webnovel considers this contest an entry point for North American writers into their IP “incubation” program.
Now, before you go getting all excited about this contest, I have to give an advisory warning. The reason I’ve posted this article is to show just how critically important growth within the North American market and the acquisition of content from North American writers has become to foreign companies with very deep pockets. And also to illustrate the intensity of the growing IP war. However, knowing many writers who’ve been approached by, or interacted with, Webnovel and other Tencent writing entities, it’s clear that their practices are quite predatory. As well, whenever you’re dealing with a foreign company you have to have a sense of their labor and copyright laws, which in the case of many Chinese companies, are unfortunately not designed to protect the writer.
Just as an example, here’s a segment from an exposé on Webnovel, written up by a prominent Chinese online magazine. (I’ll link to the article, but it’s now behind a paywall.)
“Tang’s monthly income from writing was only in the hundreds of yuan (about $30-50), and for that he was required to churn out about 4,000 words a day. If he could not meet his daily quota, he would either lose his entire month’s income or have to purchase ‘sick leave’ with points he had earned through recommendations made by his readers.”
Uh, yeah… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Here’s one of many Reddit conversations about working with Webnovel and a brief summary of some of the other issues that have emerged regarding Webnovel’s treatment of writers: China’s largest e-book seller faces writer backlash
So, I’ll let you ultimately decide if you’d want to work in those sorts of conditions, or even if they plan to treat their North American writers differently, write for a company that perpetuates those kinds of working conditions abroad.
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South Korean Webtoon Firms Excel in Japanese Manga App Industry
South Korean technology and webtoon (digital comics) companies continue to succeed in the Japanese manga industry. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the online manga industry has grown significantly with increased worldwide audiences and subscriptions. In line with the increasing digital manga sales, South Korean companies are globally becoming major manga content providers.
Leading South Korean IT giants and development firms Kakao Corp and Naver Corp are operating online manga platforms with a diverse comics selection, namely Piccoma and LINE Manga. Recently, both Piccoma and LINE Manga ranked as the highest-grossing non-gaming mobile apps in Japanese app stores.
According to Piccoma developers, the platform’s services cater to conventional manga readers and wider audience ranges. To gain readers’ support, most of Piccoma and LINE Manga’s content is available for free. In addition to their free-reading services, these webtoon providers allow users to access manga content in advance through in-app purchases.
“We thought if we could grab 5 percent or 10 percent of the bigger games market, it would drive growth,” said the Senior Manager of Kakao Japan’s Business Strategy Department, Yukiko Sugiyama.
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Self-publishing News: Patreon And Radish Show The Size Of Subscription Market
In a Self-Publishing News Special, ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway takes a brief look at what some of these industry platform developments mentioned above might mean for the growth of the subscription model.
Book Deals
Here’s a key to the deals when mentioned.
Book Deal Sizes
"nice deal": $1 - $49,000
"very nice deal": $50,000 - $99,000
"good deal": $100,000 - $250,000
"significant deal": $251,000 - $499,000
"major deal": $500,000 and up
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WATTPAD BOOKS - DEALS
NOTE - I won’t be doing a specific Wattpad Books section in every issue. But with their push into the Adult Fiction market, they seem to be releasing their 2022 slates in monthly batches, so I thought it would be more effective to group them separately as the announcements come out.
Screenwriter Ashley Marie's OFF SCRIPT, a multicultural contemporary romance centered on actors who agree to enter into a “showmance” to help boost their careers but face challenges as their faux relationship takes a very real turn, to Deanna McFadden at Wattpad, in a nice deal, for publication in spring/summer 2022 (world).
May Lynn's debut BREAKING THE FRIENDZONE, about childhood friends who reunite as adults and realize there may be more to their relationship than either of them bargained for, to Deanna McFadden at Wattpad, in a nice deal, for publication in fall 2022 (world).
Caroline Richardson's debut OUT OF HIS LEAGUE, following a woman who, after a spontaneous fling in Vegas with her favorite baseball player, is left wondering if one night could lead to a lifetime of love, to Deanna McFadden at Wattpad, in a nice deal, for publication in winter 2022.
Romi Moondi's debut 24 HOURS IN PARIS, a workplace enemies-to-lovers romance set in the City of Lights; when a business trip goes all wrong for two people, they're forced to spend 24 hours together in Paris, and romantic sparks fly, but will the feeling last when the gooey-eyed haze gives way to the realities of home?, to Deanna McFadden at Wattpad, in a nice deal, for publication in spring/summer 2022 (world).
Sabrina Blackburry's debut DIRTY LYING FAIRIES, the first in a series of magical paranormal romances that finds a woman transported to the realm of the fae, and after learning she is a fairy herself, struggles with her newly found life, love, and powers, to Deanna McFadden at Wattpad, in a nice deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in spring/summer 2022, by Amanda Leuck at Spencerhill Associates (world).
*****
OTHER DEALS - Fiction Debuts
Sarah James's THE WOMAN WITH TWO SHADOWS, a World War II thriller pitched as in the vein of Kate Quinn, about a young woman searching for her missing twin who finds herself in the epicenter of the gravest scientific undertaking of all time with no idea who she can trust, to Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks, in a two-book deal, by Abby Saul at The Lark Group.
Emilia Hart's WEYWARD, which explores witchcraft and female intuitive powers, told over five centuries through the lens of three connected women, pitched for readers of Sarah Perry, Jessie Burton, and Kate Morton, to Sarah Cantin at St. Martin's, in a major deal, at auction, in a two-book deal, by Alexandra Machinist at ICM (NA). Additional international rights were sold in pre-empts.
Iowa MFA candidate Jenny Fran Davis's DYKETTE, following a young aspiring writer and her partner over the course of a dysfunctional 10-day getaway with two other queer couples; exploring the nuanced contradictions of intimacy, jealousy, and desire, to Ruby Rose Lee at Holt, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Miriam Altshuler at DeFiore and Company (world).
T. R. Hendricks's THE INSTRUCTOR, following a former Marine Corps Force Recon officer as he infiltrates a militia encampment in the woods of upstate New York, to Robert Davis at Forge, in a two-book deal, by Barbara Poelle at Irene Goodman Agency (world English).
Halle Hill's GOOD WOMEN: STORIES, a collection of reckoning that follows the lives of sixteen Black women through Appalachia and the Deep South, to Meg Reid at Hub City Press, in a nice deal, for publication in fall 2022 (world).
Poet DeMisty Bellinger's NEW TO LIBERTY, told in three parts from the points of view of three women in 1933, 1947, and 1966, exploring forbidden interracial and queer relationships as the plains of Kansas evolve from the harsh conditions of the dust bowl, to Olivia Taylor Smith at Unnamed Press, in a nice deal, for publication in March 2022, by Alice Tasman at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency (NA).
Chris Amenta's FISTS MADE LOUD, pitched as Donald Ray Pollock's KNOCKEMSTIFF crossed with the Andre Dubus III short story "Killings," all mixed with an episode of The Wire, to Lysa Williams at Blackstone Publishing, in a nice deal, by Christopher Vyce at The Brattle Agency (world).
Lisa Roe's WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD, a "mom-com" in which a free-spirited, city-dwelling artist and single mother gets more than she bargained for when a new marriage lands her in the heart of an upscale suburb, battling vicious PTA moms, a cunning ex-wife and, scariest of all, a very moody tween daughter, to Deb Werksman at Sourcebooks, in a two-book deal, by Rachel Ekstrom and Erin Niumata at Folio Literary Management (world).
Nikki Erlick's THE MEASURE, which envisions a world thrust into a collective frenzy when people across the globe are suddenly offered the knowledge of how much time they have left to live, unraveling the truth about choice, destiny, and long-held beliefs about our time on earth and our place in the world, pitched as for readers of The Age of Miracles and The Immortalists, to Liz Stein at William Morrow, in a major deal, in a pre-empt, by Cindy Uh at CAA (world English). Additional international rights were sold in pre-empts.
Emily Stone's ALWAYS, IN DECEMBER, about two lonely people who (literally) crash into each other's lives at Christmas—but over the next year, her tragic past and his secret troubles threaten to derail their love story, to Hilary Rubin Teeman at Ballantine Bantam Dell, in a pre-empt, by Rebecca Folland at Headline UK (NA). Additional international rights were sold in pre-empts.
Mary Downing Hahn's TOOK, a graphic novel adaptation of the paranormal novel, adapted by Scott Peterson, Jen Vaughn, and Hank Jones, to be followed by adaptations of WAIT TILL HELEN COMES, ALL THE LOVELY BAD ONES, and other titles, to Lynne Polvino at Clarion, in a four-book deal, for publication in spring 2022, by Pete Friedrich at PageTurner (world).
Molly Horton Booth and Stephanie Kate Strohm's graphic novel TWELFTH GRADE NIGHT and KING CHEER, the first two books in the Arden High series, set at a modern-day high school where magic and fairies are real, the LGBTQ themes of the original plays are more than subtext, and the drama is quite literally Shakespearean, illustrated by Jamie Green, to Kieran Viola at Disney-Hyperion, with Rachel Stark editing, in a two-book deal, for publication in fall 2022, by Alexander Slater at Trident Media Group for Booth, Molly Ker Hawn at The Bent Agency for Strohm, and Chad Beckerman at The CAT Agency for the illustrator (world).
Book-to-Screen Adaptations
LAIKA Entertainment has acquired John Brownlow’s debut novel Seventeen, and it will be the production company’s first live-action feature. Hodder & Stoughton will publish.
Adrian Tomine will adapt his graphic novel Shortcomings for Roadside Attractions and Imminent Collision. Randall Park will produce and direct. The novel was published by Drawn & Quarterly in 2007.
BRON Studios and 21 Laps Entertainment are entering the vaccine game with an adaptation of Jeffrey Kluger’s Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio. Gillian Weeks is set to script. Jeremy Strong will executive produce and star. Berkeley published the nonfiction book in 2006.
AGC Studios, Kurt Johnstad will script The Englishman, the first novel in a series of books by David Gilman. Head of Zeus published last year.
Media Rights Capital have announced a series of adaptations: Monisha Dadlani will adapt Rebecca Raisin’s Rosie’s Traveling Tea Shop, published by HQ Digital earlier this year; Tom Dean will adapt Tammy Robin’s Photos of You, published by Forever in February 2020; and Allie Hagan will adapt Elin Hilderbrand’s 28 Summers, published in June 2020 by Little, Brown.
Rick Remender will adapt Tokyo Ghost for Legendary Pictures, Parliament of Owls, and Silk Mass. Cary Fukunaga will produce and direct. The comic book series was written by Remender, drawn by Sean Murphy, and colored by Matt Hollingsworth. Image Comics first published in 2015.
The Imaginarium has optioned Catriona Ward’s supernatural thriller novel The Last House on Needless Street. Viper published in the UK last month, and Tor Nightmare will publish in the US in September.
Final Thoughts
As I mentioned, I’ll be going more in-depth into some of these developments which all coalesce into what I’m now calling “Willy Wonka’s IP Factory.” I’ll explore trends and implications for writers in a premium article in the next month or so, but I did want to give you all a sense of the changing tides ahead sooner rather than later.
I’m running out of room, so that’s it for now!
Until next time!
~ Paula
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