Mindy Kaling Launches Book Studio to Champion Female Authors on Screen

When Mindy Kaling structured her deal with Amazon, she made sure it didn't stop at the bookshelf. The February 2022 launch of Mindy's Book Studio, a three-way partnership between Kaling, Amazon Publishing, and Amazon Studios, gave her editorial authority over acquisitions and the first-producer option on every screen adaptation, a combination that separates the venture from any celebrity book club that came before it.

Amazon Publishing called it "Amazon's first-ever book studio." Under the imprint's design, Amazon Studios holds first-look rights to adapt all titles as feature motion pictures streaming exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories. Kaling's first-producer option sits on top of that arrangement, meaning she controls the creative bridge between page and screen.

The motivation was direct: Kaling described traditional publishing as "impenetrable" and built the studio to operate differently. Writers can pitch through social media with no literary agent and no formal book proposal required. The imprint focuses on diverse voices, particularly women of color. "Throughout my career, I've been labeled as sort of unusual and an outlier for someone from my background," Kaling said. "What I'm finding more and more is that I'm not that unusual — and there's tons of women of color who are interested in comedy and write these incredibly funny books, and I just want to help people get to see them."

The first two acquisitions were announced June 1, 2022: best-selling author Sonali Dev's The Vibrant Years, published December 1, 2022, and debut author Lauren Thoman's coming-of-age mystery I'll Stop the World, published in April 2023. Both arrived a month ahead of their official dates through Amazon First Reads and were also available on Kindle Unlimited, in print, and audio. A third title, Amy Lea's Woke Up Like This, about a high school senior who wakes up as a 30-year-old woman engaged to her archnemesis, joined the catalog shortly after.

The page-to-screen pipeline moved quickly. In March 2023, Amazon Studios announced plans to adapt both The Vibrant Years and Woke Up Like This as feature films, validating the studio model within roughly a year of launch.

Amazon Publishing publisher Julia Sommerfeld praised Kaling's ability to bring "highly entertaining, funny, sharp, and bingeable stories" to life. Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, called Kaling "a pioneering artist, remarkable role model, and philanthropist" and "a relentless innovator in the creative community." As part of the broader deal, Kaling also signed her own debut novel and a new essay collection with Amazon Publishing, adding to a catalog that already includes two New York Times bestselling memoirs.

Kaling arrives at the venture with a production record spanning television and film: creator and star of The Mindy Project, co-creator and producer of Netflix's Never Have I Ever, years on the Emmy Award-winning NBC series The Office as Kelly Kapoor, where she also wrote the Emmy-nominated episode "Niagara," and writer-star of the film Late Night.