Amazon Debuts Exciting New Self-Publishing Platform For Serialized Stories: Kindle Vella

Amazon announces a new Kindle publishing platform for serial or episodic writing.

Kindle is a place where people can go to read eBooks and is one of the most popular self- publishing sites for authors. On April 13th Amazon announced a new self-publishing platform for serialized or episodic works called Kindle Vella. Kindle and Kindle Vella have some differences not only in what is published there but also in terms of rules, earnings, features and previews that are being slowly clarified by the company. Here’s what we know so far.

Vella is a new way that Amazon is offering writers to present their stories in the Kindle mobile app. It is still in Beta and is currently only available to writers in the U.S.

The new serialized Kindle Vella story format, is designed to be read using the Kindle iOS app. The content offered there is different from what is created for the regular Kindle platform and will be offered separately.

Vella allows writers to publish their work one episode at a time so you don’t have to complete the entire story before publishing it. You can indicate whether the story is completed or not when you start publishing it or along the way so that readers will know whether there is a chance they won’t be able to finish reading the work since it is discontinued at some point.

Vella will be easy to use for those who are already familiar with the KDP platform. Writers will be able to submit stories to the Kindle Vella service using Amazon’s usual KDP uploading service.

Readers can start any story they want for free. After three episodes readers will have to pay using tokens in order to unlock addition episodes which will cost them (1) token for every 100 words. Episodes run from 600–5000 words long. While token prices haven’t been finalized yet it has been stated that authors will receive 50% of whatever token prices are earned.

Here is what is stated on the platform along with a potential pricing list:

“We plan to have several bundle options available for readers to purchase Tokens on the web and in the Kindle for iOS app. Token pricing may change before Kindle Vella stories are made available to readers, but here is an example of the Token purchase experience on the web:

The page also states that writers will also be eligible for a “launch bonus” based on customer activity and engagement, although this is not currently defined in monetary terms.

There are three basic restriction regarding what you are allowed to publish on Vella. You can’t take anything you have uploaded to Vella and publish it elsewhere before first taking it off of Vella. You also can’t publish anything on Vella that is in the public domain so if you have something on a blog that people can read for free, you can’t also publish it on Kindle Vella. You also can’t take a previously published work like a novel, break it down into episodes and publish it on Vella.

One of the features that Kindle is focusing the most on for Vella is reader engagement. Vella has new ways for readers to interact with the story and to provide feedback to the author and other potential readers. Readers can give stories they like a “thumbs up” which can be seen by the author and others on the site searching for something to read. Readers who unlock an episode of any story will be given a “fave” which they can assign to the favorite story they read that week. Stories with the most “faves” will be listed on a leader board which will help them gain new readers. Reader engagement will be a major factor determining which stories are featured on lists in the Kindle Vella store.

Writers will also have the opportunity to leave an “Author note” at the end of each episode. Author notes allow the writer to speak directly to their readers to share additional thoughts, insights, or to let readers know when to expect the next installment.

Each story will have its own detail page with a description and list of available episodes. This is where readers can access and start reading the story. Readers can follow the stories they like and have begun reading, which will let them be notified whenever a new episode comes out.

Although writers are already able to begin uploading stories to Vellum, it is unclear when Kindle Vella will be opened up to readers, presumably when the platform has curated enough stories that those in charge feel it is worth it to start pushing the content that has been uploaded. This worries some writers as they wonder if this will be another one of Amazon’s publishing initiatives have fallen by the wayside over the years like Kindle Worlds or Kindle Scout.

Critics have said that this project seems extremely rushed especially for Amazon who usually keeps things quiet until all the bugs are worked out. Some have posited the hurried nature of the launch is an attempt to jump ahead of Tencent China Literature’s planned move on U.S. and Canadian markets. China has announced it intends to target 49 million readers and 100,000 authors in North America this year alone. If there’s any doubt that the company is serious about this, they just have to consider Wattpad which Tencent bought in 2017. Wattpad has over 90 million monthly users.

However, rushed or not, Amazon is clearly hoping that they can make the serialized fiction platform appealing enough with incentives and the potential of a new, paying audience, to attract high quality writers or episodic literature. The success of the platform obviously will depend on how many of those who publish on the platform can actually write serialized fiction well, since it is a different skill set from standard long form fiction.

Amazon has stated that there will be more information about the platform that will be announced in the coming months.