Many authors are writing episodic stories on the relatively new Amazon Kindle Vella publishing platform. What is Vella, you may ask, and it’s a good question. Jacqueline and I have been writing episodes or seasons for Amazon Kindle Vella for a little over a year now. We’ve had a bit of success with the new style of writing, but not as much success as we’d like. Many authors feel the same as we do and we have concluded that we’re not seeing the results from the platform that we’d like to see or believe we could see.
Many of us think one of the problems is that readers haven’t yet quite understood the idea behind Vella and it’s not advertised as well as the traditional way of writing stories. In the spirit of getting the word out about Vella, I thought I’d do a post explaining Vella. I may miss some explanations and not cover all of it so if you as a reader, still have questions after reading this post, please feel free to reach out to me and I’ll find the answers. If as an author with Vella, you see I miss some important aspect, please, reach out to me and I’ll clarify with another post and fill in more details.
What is Vella?
It is a serialized storytelling platform offered by Amazon that allows authors to write, publish, and distribute their stories in a serialized format.
As an author, I upload my story to the platform. The range of an episode starts at 600 words and can go up to as high as 5,000 words. Once I upload my individual episode, I publish it for the reader to view.
A reader can get the first three episodes for free on any story they find appealing. Once the first three episodes are read, if one wishes to continue the story, they may do so by purchasing the fourth episode with ‘tokens’. Tokens are what readers use to unlock each episode. A bundle of tokens can be bought through Amazon and is much cheaper bought in bulk and through Amazon versus the Kindle Vella app. They will give you anywhere from 200 to 500 free tokens to continue reading. A 600-word episode can be purchased for 6 tokens. One token is equal to 100 words.
It costs you nothing to make an account but you will be required to purchase tokens to read episodes beyond episode three.
Authors receive royalties from Kindle Vella based on several factors, although there is no detailed and laid out structure that points to how much or what our royalties are dependent on. Some of the factors that help us authors with royalties are interactions with readers. Inside each episode, at the end of each episode, we can set up poll questions which can be about the episode itself or random questions we generate. The reader, if so chooses, can answer the questions. There is a thumbs-up icon the reader can click if they liked the episode, and there is a comment section below the episode so that the reader can comment on the specific episode, or the story itself. Authors can also leave notes explaining the episode, discussing it, or just leave comments to their potential readers in a portion of it called Author’s Notes.
There is also a follow button you can click on and by doing this, you will get notifications from
Amazon every time a new episode is available to the reader.
As well, on Sundays, you as a reader can ‘crown’ your favorite story when you purchase tokens. I’m unclear on how many ‘crowns’ an author must receive from week to week to lift them in the ranks. If another author has more detail on the ‘crowning’, feel free to message me with the details and I will gladly inform this audience.
From my understanding, our royalties are based on how many purchased episodes are clicked on and read by the audience. Also, authors earn royalties based on the number of tokens readers spend on their stories. Authors earn a share of the revenue Amazon earns from token purchases.
Reviews are of course quite important to authors on any platform be it from Vella, eBook, Print, or Audio. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy review, but one that tells other readers how you liked the book or the particular episode. It can be something as simple as “I liked this story because of its strong plot.” It is okay, if you enjoyed the story in parts, but found the other parts stale or lacking, but enjoyed it overall to leave a review explaining those thoughts as well.
Of course, we authors desire the 5 * reviews, but Jacqueline and I want you to know we do appreciate every review, whether it be a 1 * or a 5 *, just so long as the review is done with respect. We feel we can learn through the reviews on how to become stronger as a writer in particular areas if we see a trend in our reviews stating things we could do better with. So, I ask, that if you do a review, be respectful to the author even if you don’t leave a solid 5 *. Reviews are something that authors lack and need more of, even if they are 2 *. I personally, as a reader, won’t leave a review if I feel the story is not at least a 3 *, but that’s just my choice as a reader. You have the freedom as a reader, to make your own decision on that issue. Please, know that, as authors, Jacqueline and I covet all the reviews we get on our stories. Thank you to those who have read from us and left us reviews.
Any of the above-mentioned things can help the author and their stories gain more attention and rank in Kindle Vella’s ranking and in eBook and print sales.
Kindle Vella can be accessed through a mobile app or the Amazon website and can be read via your phone, computer, or Kindle Fire. Sadly, they can not be read on a Kindle Paperweight.
Kindle Vella isn’t as popular as eBooks or print books yet, but I believe it is an important branch
added to the reading experience, specifically for busy people who want to read but don’t have
hours to sit and read an entire book. One can sit at their lunch break, right before bed, waiting for
a meeting to start, at your doctor’s office waiting for an appt, or in any spare time you might
have, and read a 600-word episode in minutes.
Please note, that for now, Kindle Vella has been open only to English language submissions from US authors since mid-April 2021 and launched to US-only readers in the summer. Some speculate more countries will soon follow.
When you read an episode, your spot will be saved and when you return to the story, you can continue it with the next episode, or you can view previous episodes as well. This is the most appealing thing about Vella to me as a reader.
As an author, I like Kindle Vella because I write the episodes as the story comes to me and it challenges me each day to write because as Vella Authors, we release our episodes periodically to keep the story flowing. If we don’t release the episodes and keep them up to date, we can lose our audience so it’s a motivator to continue writing and meeting my goals for each story development.
Once I complete my Vella story, I can then release the entire story as an eBook or in print form
thirty days after the story completion or the last episode is published but I can also leave my stories
on the Vella platform in episodic form for new readers to hopefully find.
In closing, I’d like to invite you to check Kindle Vella out if you haven’t already. Below are links
to the Vella’s Jacqueline and I have written. I’d love for you to check them out as your first experience as a new Vella reader.
Please, leave a comment in the comments section below this post and let me know if you’ve read from the Vella platform yet and what you thought about it.
Everyone loves entertaining stories and Kindle Vella is just another way for readers to broaden their experience.
Jacqueline Hopkins’s Vella stories
An Escape From Reality 