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Using Radish Fiction to Publish Your Writing

by Jeniffer Thompson | Jun 10, 2021 | Author Marketing , Book Publishing , Ideas and Tips

Radish Fiction is another app-based platform for writers to publish and monetize their work and for readers to enjoy it. If you’re someone trying to make some extra money with your writing, or get your name out there, and you write consistently, this may be the platform for you! You can find out more about Radish Fiction below. 

What is Radish Fiction?

Radish Fiction is an app created by a young South Korean entrepreneur, Seung Yoon Lee, who set out to make what he calls, a Netflix for serialized fiction. Instead of selling whole books at once, Radish Fiction breaks down chapters into episodes and releases them on a schedule. Lee saw this as a way to appeal to younger reading audiences that are drawn to the idea of bingeing content through the ease and convenience of an app. It also happens to be yet another a way to disrupt traditional publishing and give writers a way to get their work out and monetize it—which is pretty cool if you ask me!

Okay, How Does it Work?

Radish Fiction has the advantage of entertainment industry backing, which is why it probably got to where it is today. Lee was smart and partnered with a television writer, and the app features episodes written by Emmy-winning day-time TV writers, and the Radish team, called Radish Originals—another thing it has in common with platforms like Netflix. This, of course, added to its initial appeal and likely gained Radish Fiction much of its funding. 

But! It’s not just a platform for already successful writers! The app also welcomes those who aren’t already successful entertainment industry writers as well. And it’s free to join! The one catch is, you do have to apply to be a creator. But this is good news, really, because it means Radish Fiction has quality control. 

What About the Monetization Part? 

The team they have creating fiction for them gets paid to write a set and guaranteed amount of content but they also welcome emerging writers to apply, and those writers can earn a commission off each episode that users purchase.  

Also, you (Yes, you!) can also apply to be part of that elite team of creators and make some decent income from your efforts—but you are on a schedule, and you do have to create a set amount of content per week or month. 

How Can Radish Fiction Help Me as a Writer?

I see a lot of benefits of joining Radish as a writer. But, there are some things to consider first. For instance, Radish Fiction thrives on episodes and dripping out scheduled content. Which means if you’re not already dedicated to writing content on a weekly basis , which is a good habit to get into btw, it may not be the platform for you. 

Another thing to note is that Radish is very heavily Romance genre focused. But the good news is they’re actively trying to expand their genres and subgenres. So, this could be an in for you Historical Fiction, Sci-Fi and Fantasy writers! 

They do also suggest you already have an audience if you’re looking to be successful. This is where having an blog or other platform for your content and some loyal followers—in other words, a brand — will come in handy! If you’re looking for a way to monetize all that wonderful content, Radish Fiction can be a big help!

Radish not only gives you the chance to make some extra cash as an emerging genre fiction writer, it can build your audience, your reach, and because they have quality standards, it lends you some legitimacy and clout. Who knows, maybe it’s the stepping stone to getting your first book or series deal?! 

Some Other Reasons to Check Out Radish Fiction

If you’re not quite ready to join Radish Fiction as a writer, it’s still really useful. You can check out the app as a user and get a good feel for what’s selling, your genre conventions, and the type of quality your writing will need to become successful. Think of it as research!

Readers and lovers of genre fiction can also make use of the app. There’s free content on there and paid content can run as little as 20 cents an episode, so it’s a fun place to explore new genres, find new authors to love, and explore what’s on trend. All from the convenience of your phone. 

In conclusion, if you love to write genre fiction and can do it on a schedule, are looking to put yourself out their and even make a bit of money doing it, Radish Fiction is worth checking out! It’s also a great tool for those of you wanting to break into writing genre fiction and be successful at it. All with very little or no cost to you. You may as well give it a shot, right?

What do you think? Have you checked out Radish Fiction? Do you feel like it could be the right platform for you?  Let me know in the comments! 

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So, you’re wondering how to get your fiction novel self-published online? Well, you’ve come to the right corner of the internet.

How you get your novel published is largely dependent on where you get it published. Here are our top ten recommendations for online fiction publishing platforms and how to get published on them:

Wattpad is commonly ranked as a top online self-publishing platform. Maybe it’s because they have a readership of 90 million or an epic suite of writer resources (including an entire YouTube course for authors on how to promote their work). 

If you want to join the millions of authors who forgo traditional publishing and choose to self-publish on Wattpad, start by reading their FAQs to make sure this platform is right for you. 

Pro: 90 million readers

Con: 70 million other authors

Radish Fiction  

Radish Fiction has an impressive selection of high caliber fiction novels and short stories. Their platform’s mobile-first model makes them unique and particularly popular with younger audiences. 

To get your novel self-published on their platform you must go through an application process and then be selected. But don’t worry first-timers, they’re looking for both established writers and emerging writers!  

Pro: Very high quality fiction

Con: High standards, application process

Fictionate.Me

Fictionate.Me (the platform you’re currently on) features everything from paranormal romances and horror novels to techy sci-fi and contemporary fiction novels. They’ve made it remarkably simple and free for writers to publish on their platform. 

Oh, and the best part is, the authors choose whether or not to set their novels behind paywalls and receive full royalties for their work. Here’s a step-by-step guide to becoming a published author in the next half hour!

Pro: Free, simple platform, authors get full royalties

Com: Smaller readership than the other mega-online publishers

Join the world of fictional works by submitting your manuscript to Moonquill’s Publishing Program . The benefits of this online publishing platform is that authors are able to keep 50% or more of their royalties and are never asked to hand over their copyrights. 

Moonquill’s team of experienced editors and graphic designers can also help with your manuscript and book cover. 

Pro: There’s a team to help you improve your novel

Con: This lengthens the publishing process

Movellas takes the best of online publishing and combines it with the fun networking and communication opportunities of social media. Authors and readers can connect with one another to share ideas, like and comment on stories, and ask questions. 

Once you join , you can begin releasing your novel chapter by chapter! Movellas also highlights new authors and awards stand-out writing through a series of creative writing competitions . 

Pro: Young, hungry crowd

Con: Almost exclusively YA fiction

Publish your science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, poems or short stories to Booksie and gain access to their millions of readers. Booksie is constantly looking for up-and-coming talent, so it’s a great place for first-time authors.

To join Booksie’s creative army of tens of thousands of authors, click the ‘+ Post Your Writing’ button on the homepage, create an account , and get started on their platform.

Pro: Great for first-time authors

Con: Rather basic user interface 

This ‘home of web fiction’ is an online community of fiction authors, avid fiction readers, and cover art artists, all collaborating to create and enjoy literary adventures together. You can join their community by becoming a member. 

Once you’re a member, you can begin posting your web novels and fan fiction to your heart’s content. 

Pro: Their ‘customizable ad creator’ helps you market your fiction

Con: But it ain’t free!

Smashwords is an ultra-famous online ebook publisher and distributor that’s been around since 2008. Over 135,000 authors have been published on their platform and each receives somewhere between 60-80% of the net proceeds (if they choose to place their book behind a paywall). 

Smashwords helps authors by providing free marketing tools and also hosts a Smart Author Podcast to help writers like you find success! Note, your novel must be fully complete to get published on Smashwords. 

Pro: You can post anything on here

Con: You can post anything on here 

Scribble Hub

Scribble Hub aims to set readers up for success. Once you register on the platform, you can click ‘create’ to begin your publishing process. Authors like this platform because of its social component, donations feature, ready-made statistics, and option to post stories chapter by chapter.

Scribble Hub doesn’t exactly offer a suite of marketing tools, but they do have methods for highlighting updated and trending novels. They also regularly post intriguing writing prompts to help authors break up writers’ block. 

Pro: Easy to use

Con: No pay-wall option 

Penpee is an online self-publishing site with its own token currency that incentivizes reading. On this website, authors can create a free account (which requires readers tokens to post and limits the size of your short stories) or a premium account (which gives you free credits, raises your commission, and allows for longer short stories). Either way, you can get paid for the fiction you write!

 With regular short story contests, a global network of authors, an active leaderboard, and opportunities for bonuses, Penpee has an interesting model that works for many fiction authors looking to self-publish. 

Pro: Everyone reads, even authors!

Con: Confusing publishing process and it’s really just for short stories

In Summation

This article was written for new and veteran authors wondering how to get their fiction novel self-published online. Our top ten recommendations were: Wattpad, Radish Fiction, Fictionate.Me, Moonquill, Movellas, Booksie, Royal Road, Smashwords, Scribble Hub, and Penpee. 

We hope that, among those options, you’ll find one that perfectly fits your fiction manuscript and unique needs as an author. Best of luck, amazing author!

Makenzy Long in Uncategorized | 2021-05-07

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.

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Blog • Understanding Publishing

Posted on Apr 21, 2021

What is Kindle Vella? And Should You Join as an Author?

Amazon announced the launch of the new Kindle Vella program in April 2021, a few months before actually making it available to readers — already pre-loaded with hundreds of stories from authors.

Kindle Vella is Amazon’s foray into the “serialization market,” currently dominated by established apps such as Wattpad or Radish, and with a readership consisting mostly of young readers. So how is Kindle Vella different, and what opportunities does it offer authors? That’s what we’ll uncover in this post.

What is Kindle Vella?

Kindle Vella is a serialized reading platform, in the vein of Wattpad and Radish, where readers can access stories released in short episodic installments, either on the Kindle Vella app for iOS or Android, or on the Kindle Vella website on desktop. Episodes can range from 500 to 6,000 words, and while the first three episodes of any Kindle Vella story are free to access, readers need to acquire and use tokens to unlock future ones. Readers can also interact with stories by giving them a “thumbs up,” or by “faving” them.

The number of tokens required to unlock an episode will depend on its length, and authors are remunerated for their stories based on the number of tokens spent by readers to unlock them. Faves are only available to paying readers — who can fave a maximum of one story every week — and are used by Kindle Vella to curate and feature the most beloved stories on their app.

❗️ Note that Kindle Vella is open for English-language submissions from US authors only since mid April 2021, and launched to US-only readers in the summer, though there’s no doubt that more countries will rapidly follow.

How does Kindle Vella work for authors?

One of the best things about Kindle Vella is that it’s pretty straightforward and easy to use for authors. You can create “stories” and “episodes” directly from your KDP dashboard, and in just a few steps:

• Enter your story’s title and your name.
• Write your story’s description (you’ll find some great tips for writing a strong book description here ).
• Upload an image: this should be a square image of 1600x1600, with the most important elements centered, as Amazon will automatically crop it into a circle. The image doesn’t need to feature any text — especially not the title, considering it’ll show up right next to it.
• Select two categories for your story: these have the same function as traditional Kindle Store categories .
• Add up to seven tags to characterize your story. Tags work similarly to KDP keywords , except that each tag also has its own landing page featuring all the stories associated with it — a bit like Instagram or Twitter hashtags. These are one of the key discoverability elements on Kindle Vella, so should spend a bit of time researching the most popular tags in your niche and carefully select the seven best tags for your story.
• Create and publish your first episode in the story, which you can either upload from a .doc/.docx document, or type directly into their online editor.

Note: if you use the Reedsy Book Editor to write your stories, you can easily export a .docx version of your story by going to the export page and scrolling down to the bottom to find the “Back up as a .docx” option.

Since it’s so easy to publish a story on Kindle Vella, I’m sure you’re wondering whether you could just break up one of your existing books into episodes and release those in Vella. Well, the answer is… no.

What stories am I allowed to submit on Kindle Vella?

Kindle Vella is adamant on providing an original “serial reading experience” and its content guidelines are pretty strict. As an author, you may not submit stories or episodes that have already been published in the form of a book or long-form content, in any language .  In other words, you cannot break down a previously published book into episodes and release those on Vella, even if you unpublish the book, and even if the book was in a different language.

That said, Kindle Vella does not require exclusivity: your Vella stories can also be available elsewhere, as long as they are not freely accessible . So for example, you can’t post your Vella story on your blog — unless you put it behind a paywall — but you could very well cross-post it to Radish or Patreon.

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Finally, if you wish to compile the episodes together into a proper book, you’ll need to make sure you meet the following guidelines:

• All the episodes you include in a book need to have been on Kindle Vella for at least 30 days;
• The book needs to contain at least 10 episodes;
• You cannot include an episode in more than one book.

Can I interact with Vella readers?

Both Wattpad and Radish owe a big part of their success to the interaction features built into their apps: readers can leave comments on stories and sometimes discuss them with the authors directly. This direct line of communication with readers creates engagement and allows authors to build a proper fanbase.

Kindle Vella boasts “new features that allow readers to interact with your story,” but these are actually limited to standardized “interactions”: follows, likes, and faves. In other words: no comments.

Authors, however, are able to leave an “Author’s Note” at the end of each episode to “share additional thoughts, insights, or let readers know when to expect the next episode.” Naturally, Amazon discourages authors from including any links in these Notes, or “prompting readers to leave the reading experience.” Whether they leave this as a discouragement or enforce it as a rule remains to be seen.

By now, you’re probably wondering about the money bit, so let’s get into the economics of the platform.

How do Vella authors get paid?

On paper (i.e. KDP’s help topic on Kindle Vella ), it’s pretty straightforward: authors earn 50% of what readers spend to read their episodes on the app — on top of a “launch bonus based on customer activity and engagement.”

Now, the important part in that statement is the bit about “what readers spend to unlock your story’s episodes.” See, readers are able to buy tokens in bulk, at a different price point depending on how many tokens they acquire. Here’s an example screenshot of what Amazon says it could look like:

Note: token pricing is not definitive and may change at any point.

Your earnings will basically depend both on how many tokens readers use to read your story, but also the actual “purchase price” of those tokens.To give you an example: if a reader acquires 200 tokens for $1.99, and spends 30 tokens to unlock your episode, you’ll earn 30*$1.99/200*50% = $0.15. If you have 20 episodes (of the same length) in your story, that would be a payout for the story of almost $3.

Now, if instead of buying 200 tokens at a time, the reader buys 1700 at once, the episode requiring 30 tokens to unlock would earn you 30*$14.99/1700*50% = $0.132, and the 20-episode story would consequently earn you $2.65.

Sounds too good to be true, compared to what Kindle Unlimited authors earn? You guessed it: there’s a catch — or rather, two catches.

• First, Kindle Vella plans to “make Tokens available through mobile channels that charge a fee.” In other words, they’ll use the existing in-app purchase systems, where the OS providers (Apple and Android) naturally take a fee — 30% in the case of Apple. And guess what? That fee “will be deducted from the revenue that is shared.” In other words, authors are not earning 50% royalties on the token spend — they’re earning 50%*70% = 35%.

In our examples above, that’d reduce the payout on the 20-episode story to:

• $2.09 in the scenario of tokens purchased in bulks of 200; and
• $1.85 in the scenario of tokens purchased in bulks of 1700.
• Second, Amazon naturally reserves the right to change token pricing at any time. More importantly, you can definitely expect Kindle Vella to dish out hundreds of thousands of free tokens to entice readers into their program (a bit like they offer “2 months free of Kindle Unlimited” or 1 Audible credit to pretty much everyone) — and since those tokens won’t be “paid for” by the readers, we don’t expect authors to make any money on them.

So the rates above would be the maximum you could earn per episode/story on Kindle Vella, and you could very much end up earning a lot less — but only time will tell.

Is Kindle Vella for you?

Whether Kindle Vella’s payout terms end up being better or worse than those of Kindle Unlimited, the real opportunity for authors lies in the fact that Vella seems aimed at an entirely different market, one which KDP authors weren’t necessarily able to reach so far.

Opening up new demographics and genres

Serialized fiction platforms — like Wattpad or Radish — have cemented their success on capturing a young readership (mostly teens), with different reading habits. These readers generally don’t own a Kindle; they read directly on their phones, and prefer reading (or bingeing) short instalments. And while authors were already able to try to reach and monetize those readers via Radish (it’s a lot more complicated on Wattpad), the fact that Amazon is entering the game will no doubt expand the market.

So the first thing to consider here is whether your genre and writing style would be a fit for both the target demographic and the serialized reading experience. If you’re unsure, you can download Radish and check out the bestselling series on there. According to TechCrunch , “Radish stories are mostly in the genres of romance, paranormal/sci-fi, LGBTQ, young adult, horror, mystery and thriller.” These are the genres that are the most likely to do well on Vella, too.

Writing in episodes

On top of your genre and target demographic, you should also consider whether the episodic release model is one that would be a good fit for your writing. The most successful authors on Radish and Wattpad tend to release new episodes very often (on a weekly or even daily basis) and have some consistency so readers know exactly when to expect a new episode. In other words, you can’t expect to be successful on Vella/Radish/Wattpad if you post a new episode every few weeks, or if you suddenly stop posting after a few months. It takes commitment and dedication, as well as a solid writing routine .

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Finally, you’ll want to remember that readers get access to the first three episodes in any story for free — meaning you have exactly three episodes to hook them and convince them to pay to keep reading. So stories that start with a lot of exposition and worldbuilding and require “patience” to get into will most definitely not be a good fit for these platforms — though one could argue that they probably won’t be a good fit for a commercial book, either.

All in all, Kindle Vella, just like Radish and other serialized fiction platforms provide a way to reach a new readership — and hopefully to grow that readership by getting these younger readers to well, read on their smartphones (as opposed to playing or watching video content). These should be celebrated as new opportunities, yet studied very carefully to determine whether they’re right for you and your books, or whether they’re more likely to be a waste of time.

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‘Romancing the Stone’ and Its Screenwriter’s Tragic Tale

Diane Thomas was a waitress when she made headlines for the script sale of what would become a box office smash. But the Cinderella story had a sad ending.

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By Bob Mehr

Each day, before her waitressing shift began, Diane Thomas would plop herself onto the floor of her tiny Malibu studio apartment, in front of a low-slung desk, and begin typing. Throughout late 1978 and early 1979, she worked daily, hours on end, conjuring the tale of Joan Chase, a mousy romance novelist suddenly thrust into a life-or-death adventure.

“I wanted to write about a woman who became her own heroine,” Thomas would offer of her inspiration. “The notion that we can be whatever we imagine ourselves to be interested me.”

Forty years ago, Thomas’s story, “ Romancing the Stone ” — and its heroine, renamed Joan Wilder — reached big screens, becoming one of the top box office hits of 1984 and an enduring classic, owing to a perfectly measured blend of action, comedy and romance. “It’s still the most well-rounded script I’ve ever read,” Michael Douglas , the film’s producer and co-star, said in an interview. “In many ways, it was a reflection of Diane — she wasn’t quite as shy as Joan Wilder, but she poured a lot of herself into this story of a writer who experiences a metamorphosis.”

During a golden era of action-adventure pictures, the novice Thomas turned the genre on its head. “A woman being the impetus for that kind of movie hadn’t been done, certainly not in that way,” said Kathleen Turner, who played Wilder. “I mean, the girls in those types of movies were just that — they were always sidekicks or scenery.”

Thomas’s friends, like her fellow writer Betty Spence, said the sweep of the story — which moved from the posh Upper West Side of Manhattan to the raw jungles of South America — was the product of a fertile imagination. “Diane was a pure storyteller,” Spence said. “She could sit there and spin a tale out of nothing, and it would have a perfect beginning, middle and end.”

When Thomas sold her script in the summer of 1979, she went from minimum-wage worker to one of the highest-paid screenwriters in Hollywood. It was the start of a meteoric career that would include a pair of major movie hits and multiple projects with Steven Spielberg. Yet “Romancing the Stone” would be the only film to ever bear a Thomas writing credit because her life was tragically cut short.

At the height of her success, in late 1985, Thomas, just 39, was killed in a car accident. As Spence would note later, Thomas “strove to make her life the stuff of fantasy” — and, for a little while, anyway, she succeeded.

LONG BEFORE DIANE THOMAS became part of Hollywood’s dream factory, her life had been shaped by it. Born in 1946 in northern Michigan, she attended the University of Southern California business school and worked for years in advertising. “That came out of the Doris Day-Rock Hudson movies,” Thomas once told a journalist, “where advertising was always this glamorous profession.”

She eventually tired of writing ad copy. She went on to study with the Actors Studio sage Jack Garfein, write short sketches, perform with an improv troupe, attend grad school for clinical psychology and work at a halfway house. “What made Diane such an interesting writer,” Douglas said, “was that she’d done a lot of different things before she ever got to the movies.”

In her mid-30s, Thomas finally decided to channel her storytelling instincts into screenwriting. To pay the rent, she began waitressing at the Corral Beach Cantina, a Mexican cafe on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, while she developed “Romancing the Stone.”

She’d gleaned the title — a bit of jewelry industry jargon referring to the mythmaking surrounding precious gems — from an old boyfriend, but the premise was all hers: Joan, a romance writer is shaken out of her staid world after her sister is kidnapped in Colombia. She sets out to save her sibling while pursing the film’s titular stone, dodging a small army of villains, finding both herself and romance with a charming rogue, Jack Colton. “The best part for her was conjuring that character,” Spence said, “coming up with the man of her dreams.”

The screenwriter John Hill, a friend of Thomas’s, read her script and called his agent, Norman Kurland, raving about it. In a long career, Kurland had read thousands of spec scripts. “But Diane’s was unique,” he said, and he agreed to represent her. “Actually, I had one other experience that was similar, and that was a script sent to me by an ad copywriter from the Midwest, who turned out to be Larry Kasdan. And it was the screenplay for ‘The Bodyguard.’”

In August 1979, Kurland was about to shop the script when Sherry Lansing, an executive at Columbia Pictures, suggested he funnel the project to Douglas, who’d just brought his production company to the studio. Douglas had given up a successful TV career (as co-star of “The Streets of San Francisco”) to produce films, winning a best-picture Oscar for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and earning accolades for the political drama “The China Syndrome.”

Douglas was searching for a different kind of project, and was wowed by “Romancing” and the bravura of its first-time author. Thomas “was not cautious,” Douglas said at the time. “Unlike so many screenplays by people who have had material rejected, there was a total lack of fear to the writing.” He persuaded the Columbia studio head Frank Price to pre-empt the sales process and buy the script outright for a hefty $250,000 (roughly $1.1 million today). “People criticized me for paying so much for a first-time screenwriter,” Douglas said in an interview. “My feeling was, first time or 10th time, the script is the script, and hers was wonderful.”

Still, The Los Angeles Times noted that she had become “something of a symbol to the legion of would-be writers” waiting for their big breaks. Suddenly everyone in Hollywood was inundated with scripts from amateur writers who all thought they were the next Diane Thomas. Among the many inquiries Kurland received was a call from another service-industry worker with a screenplay. “Get it over here right away,” he told her, “this is my week for waitresses.” The script wasn’t any good. “Which just goes to show,” Kurland said, “how unusual Diane and ‘Romancing the Stone’ were.”

THE SALE HAD BEEN EASY , but bringing “Romancing the Stone” to the screen would prove to be a challenge. Douglas struggled to get the film off the ground for years while Thomas — along with other writers — continued to refine her script. (She would also contribute to another Douglas project, “Starman.”) Further complicating his effort was the 1981 release of a vaguely similar treasure-hunting adventure, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” (“Romancing” would later occasionally be dismissed as a “Raiders” ripoff, even though Thomas had written her script years before.)

In 1983, “Romancing the Stone” fell apart at Columbia, but Douglas managed to revive the project at Fox, tapping Robert Zemeckis to direct. Zemeckis’s only credits were a pair of comedies that had underperformed, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Used Cars.” But, Douglas said, “I thought he would be a great match for the tone that Diane had set, given the tongue-in-cheek thing that Bob did so well.”

For the principal role of Joan Wilder, the studio suggested the up-and-comer Kathleen Turner, who’d made a memorable debut as the femme fatale in “Body Heat” (1981). Turner met with Thomas, who thought she was right for the part, but the actress still had to persuade Douglas and Zemeckis. “There was a question of whether I could play this wilting wallflower of a woman,” Turner said in an interview. “So I put on some sloppy old clothes, went in and stumbled around during the test, and that seemed to reassure them.”

After offering the Colton role to his friend Jack Nicholson, who passed, Douglas got further rejections from Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood — largely because the part was secondary to that of Wilder. Out of options, Douglas cast himself. “After all the better-known actors had turned us down, Fox was open to me doing it,” he recalled.

The cast — which included Douglas’s old pal, Danny DeVito, as a comic baddie — set out for Mexico in the summer of 1983 for an arduous shoot, plagued by apocalyptically bad weather and production mishaps. Rumors from the set were so bad that Zemeckis was fired from his next project, “Cocoon,” because that film’s producers were convinced that “Romancing the Stone” would bomb. (Ron Howard eventually directed “Cocoon,” which became a 1985 hit.) “We weren’t even sure we were going to be allowed to finish the film, honestly,” Turner said. After some last-minute reshoots the film wrapped that fall.

Expectations were decidedly low when “Romancing the Stone” arrived in theaters in the spring of 1984, but the picture would become the surprise hit of the season, earning $115 million on a budget of just $10 million and going on to become a Top 10 release in a year filled with iconic blockbusters (“Ghostbusters,” “Beverly Hills Cop”).

The unexpected success elevated the careers of everyone involved. Thomas was immediately tapped by Steven Spielberg to adapt Jeno Rejto’s 1939 novel, “The Blonde Hurricane,” and to script a remake of the 1943 fantasy “A Guy Named Joe.” (That remake was eventually released in 1989 as “Always,” with several writers listed in the credits, but not Thomas.). Thomas also found herself being courted by top directors like George Lucas and Sydney Pollack. “She was a hot writer,” Douglas said, “and I was very happy for her.”

Thomas was so in demand that she was unavailable when Fox prodded Douglas to turn out a quick sequel to “Romancing the Stone.” Instead, he hired Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner to pen the follow-up, “ The Jewel of the Nile ,” but Turner balked at their story. “They’d turned Joan into a figurehead,” she said, refusing to take part, and was promptly slapped with a $25 million breach of contract suit by Fox.

Douglas hired another team, Ken Levine and David Isaacs, to rewrite the script, but the story’s opening act still needed work. Thomas agreed to spend a long weekend with the new writers, helping strengthen the first 30 pages of the screenplay. “She’d created those characters and had an incredible feel for them,” Levine said, “which made it very easy to do the work.” (He added that much of what he and Isaacs wrote ended up getting thrown out during the film’s chaotic shoot in Morocco, though Thomas’s contributions remained intact.)

As a thank you for her time, Douglas offered to buy Thomas a new car. Spence urged Thomas to pick something practical, a Mercedes sedan — but she opted for a Porsche Carrera instead. “The last time I saw Diane,” Douglas said, “was when I took her out to the parking lot to show her the Porsche.”

That fall, Thomas was dating a young actor named Stephen Norman. On Oct. 21, 1985, Thomas, Norman and another friend, Ian Young, attended an evening writing workshop at Pepperdine University, then stopped off at a bar. Afterward, Norman got behind the wheel of Thomas’s Porsche and headed down Pacific Coast Highway. On a rain- slicked stretch near Topanga Canyon, the car spun out of control when Norman misjudged the accelerating power of the Porsche, striking a wooden power pole at 80 mph, and shearing it at the base. Norman survived with only minor injuries. Young was airlifted to U.C.L.A. Medical Center and died a short time later. Thomas, who had been in the back seat, was pronounced dead at the scene. Although Norman was not legally drunk, he was cited for gross negligence and was later convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of Thomas and Young, receiving five years’ probation. (Norman did not respond to requests for an interview.)

Thomas didn’t live to see the release of “Jewel of the Nile” a few weeks later. The sequel would become another hit, grossing nearly $100 million worldwide, though critics would note that the screenplay lacked the inventive spark Thomas had brought to the original.

In the wake of her death, Spielberg established a memorial writing award in Thomas’s honor at the University of California, Los Angeles, but “Romancing the Stone” would become her legacy. Over the years, another sequel, a remake and TV adaptation have all been discussed but never materialized. Meanwhile, several recent movies like “The Lost City,” “Argylle,” even “Wonder Woman,” have attempted to copy the premise of “Romancing” and recreate its alchemy with varying results. “When you try and imitate something, it’s never going to be as enticing as the original,” Turner said. “Diane broke ground with that film.”

Four decades on, the pain of Thomas’s passing lingers with Douglas. “Her death is still one of the biggest losses of my life,” he said. “Diane was a lovely woman and a great writer, who would’ve gone onto a wonderful, magical career. She would have been right up there with the best.”

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Get Set for a Spooky Summer as Halloween Horror Nights Starts Earlier Than Ever

The annual genre event will feature ten scream-worthy haunted houses.

The Big Picture

• Horror fans rejoice! Halloween Horror Nights is back early in 2024 at Universal Orlando with 48 nights of terror and ten haunted houses.
• From classic Universal Monsters to modern hits like Blumhouse films, this year's haunted houses will cater to every horror movie lover's taste.
• Mark your calendars for select nights from August 30- November 3, get your tickets early, and prepare for a spooky good time filled with scares, merchandise, and food.

For horror fans, Halloween is a year-long event and there’s never a bad time to watch our favorite blood-soaked genre films. It’s never too early to celebrate the scare-tastic holiday. In years past, the mecca of Halloween parties was Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights . Now It’s just been announced that the horror-centric theme park is coming back to Universal Orlando sooner than expected to kick off Halloween 2024 in grand spooky fashion.

This year’s Halloween Horror Nights will be terrifying Universal on select nights from August 30- November 3 . Those nights are August 30-September 1, September 4-8, September 11-15, September 18-22, September 25-29, October 2-6, October 9-13, October 16-20, October 23-27, and October 30-November 3. That’s 48 total nights of dread . The park will feature ten movie-like haunted houses with a mix of horror’s most popular brands and characters alongside original nightmares that are bound to keep attendees shivering for weeks. Scare Zones will also be returning, which fill the attraction's haunting streets with hundreds of frightening monsters. There’s never a dull moment at Horror Nights, but at least the various franchise-themed merchandise and scary-good food and drinks will once again give people some much-needed comfort.

You’re in for a Scare From Horror's Past and Present

While horror fans don’t know what haunted houses will feature this year yet, in the past, Universal has done a great job with their haunting variety. Whether it be something classic like the Universal Monsters or something more modern like Blumhouse’s extensive catalog of titles, there is something scream-worthy for every type of horror movie lover. Last year , some of the best houses celebrated The Last of Us , Chucky , and Stranger Things Season 4. 2024 has already been filled with a ton of wonderful horror movies. Universal released Night Swim earlier this year, and they have Abigail , a new take on Dracula’s Daughter , biting its way to theaters later this month. Either one of those would be a fine choice for a haunted house, but this would also be a great time to highlight smaller films like Lisa Frankenstein , Immaculate , and Late Night With the Devil that have become instant cult classics for those who bravely watched them. There’s still a lot of compelling horror to come, like A Quiet Place: Day One , MaXXXine , and Longlegs . So it’ll be interesting to see what new films this year will be highlighted and what icons will be creeping out of the vault.

Single day tickets are on sale now on Universal Orlando’s website and Halloween Horror Nights will be included in a seven-day vacation package. Upgrades, featuring late night RIP Tours and behind-the-scenes tours are also advisable for purchase. Horror Nights will be coming to Universal Hollywood as well . There will be more information in the coming months as we get closer to the spooky season.

Facing mortality, more Americans wrote wills during the pandemic. Now, they're opting out

Fewer of us are writing wills, a new survey says, a finding that suggests Americans are worrying less about mortality as the pandemic fades.

Only 32% of adults reported having a will in 2024, down from 34% in 2023, according to the 2024 Wills and Estate Planning Study from Caring.com, an online senior care platform. The figure had crept steadily upward since 2020.

Estate planners saw a spike in wills and trusts at the pandemic’s peak, a time when many Americans were stuck in their homes and preoccupied with their health.

“We saw an uptick during COVID, especially during the beginning part, because people saw their own mortality,” said Ruben Gotlieb , a partner and estate planning expert at the law firm Greenspoon Marder.

Now the pandemic has eased, and Americans' attention has moved on.

Why a downturn in estate planning is bad for survivors

A downturn in wills could be bad news for survivors.

Experts say just about everyone should have an estate plan, especially if they have children or own a home. People who die without a will can leave a thicket of probate problems for loved ones.

“If you are 19, if you are 99 - everybody needs a will,” said Erin Smith, director of estate planning at Edelman Financial Engines, a financial planning and investment advisory company.

Older Americans are more likely to have wills. Yet, even many of them don’t have one.

According to Caring.com, 43% of adults over 55 have wills in 2024, down from 46% in 2023 and 48% in 2020. The study draws from a December survey of more than 2,400 adults by YouGov.

The survey joins a growing body of research that indicates fewer Americans are writing wills.

The share of Americans with wills is in decline

The percentage of over-70 households with wills or trusts has been in steady decline , according to a 2023 analysis from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Between 2000 and 2020, that share dropped from 73% to 64% .

The long-term trend reflects the growing diversity of older America, researchers found. Seniors are more likely than ever to be Black or Hispanic, and those populations are less likely than non-Hispanic whites to leave a will.

But demographic change is only one factor. Americans of all races, it seems, struggle to find the time, money and motivation to prepare a will.

In the Caring.com study, 43% of Americans who lack wills blamed simple procrastination, while 40% said they didn’t have enough assets to justify estate planning. Some said writing a will was too complex or too expensive.

“One of the big answers is procrastination,” Smith said. “But if you look more into that reason, why do people procrastinate? People procrastinate because it feels overwhelming.”

Everyone should have a will, experts say

Many financial advisers recommend that Americans should have a will as part of a larger estate plan that dictates not just what happens to our assets after our death, but also who will manage our affairs in an emergency while we are alive, among other provisions.

Someone who dies without a will might leave big questions unanswered: Who cares for a child? Who gets the family home? Some assets are tricky to divide among multiple heirs.

“People with children should probably have a will. People with minor children should probably have a will, just to determine who will take care of them,” said Gal Wettstein , a senior research economist at the Center for Retirement Research.

But estate planning takes time, and it usually costs money. It’s complicated, but needlessly so, some experts say.

“This is more complex than most people understand, and more difficult than it needs to be,” said Steve Lockshin, co-founder of Vanilla , an estate planning software company.

Do I need an attorney to write a will or estate plan?

The good news, Lockshin and others said, is that you don’t necessarily need an attorney to write a will.

An online estate planning service will generate a will for an average fee of $160, according to the National Council on Aging, a charity that advocates for older Americans. The nonprofit offers an online guide .

“Any will is better than no will,” said Jessica Johnston, senior director of the Center for Benefits Access at the National Council. “If your barrier to entry is cost associated with hiring an estate attorney, then using one of these tools is a better option than having no will at all.”

Other probate experts say it could be a mistake to entrust your will to an online service.

“Don’t let the price dictate. Get it done right,” and use an attorney, Gotlieb said. A do-it-yourself will is a bad idea, he said, precisely because it is a complicated instrument.

Edelman's Smith said she has reviewed online wills prepared by clients who inadvertently disinherited their spouse, instructing that all their assets go to their children. An online will might be appropriate for some families, she said, but it’s not for everyone.

“People don’t know how complex their situation is until they’re talking to an adviser,” she said.

Family Trust: What is it? We explain

If someone dies without a will, the state takes over

In a will or trust, a person instructs how to distribute property and other assets upon their death. When someone dies without a will, the local courts take over.

Anyone with a comparatively simple estate – let’s say, a spouse, a couple of children and a modest list of assets – might assume they don’t need a will.

But probate laws vary, and it can be hard to predict who gets what.

“It’s crazy, and it varies from state to state,” Lockshin said.

If a New York resident dies intestate, leaving a spouse and their biological children, the spouse inherits the first $50,000 of the estate plus half of the balance, and the rest goes to the children, according to an analysis by the online estate planning site Trustandwill.com.

In Florida, in the same scenario, the spouse gets everything.

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