Have you heard of Kindle Vella? Set to launch this month, it’s a very interesting new take on Kindle e-books and the way they are not only written, but consumed. The path is not completely clear yet, as it is still in beta, but the possibilities are intriguing.
Vella was created for serialized content, similar to Wattpad or Radish. The first three chapters are always free, creating the “hook”, and if you’ve written great content, the idea is that readers will want more. Compelling, unique content for the first three episodes is what will drive subscriptions to the rest of the series. Additional episodes of your story will be purchased via tokens, based on the number of words.
Each episode can be 600 – 6,000 words. Paying readers will be able to thumbs up and fav the stories they love, which will help boost the visibility of a well-written series’.
Initially, Amazon had restricted content published on Kindle Vella, stating that it could not be content published previously, such as breaking down your book into chapters and publishing each chapter. To clarify, content CAN be published elsewhere, but cannot be freely accessible, such as on a public blog. Updated current guidelines reflect the changes with respect to this policy, which is great:
- The last episode of your Vella story must have been published on Vella for at least 30 days before publishing in any other format
- Any other publications created must have at least 10 episodes of the Kindle Vella. (You cannot publish individual episodes as standalone, such as blog posts and such.)
- You can only republish in one book or publication other than Vella.
Note that these guidelines are specifically to content that is still on Vella. If you want to use the content otherwise, you will need to remove it from the Vella platform. The latest guidelines update is here: https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/question/0D52T00005RQ79xSAD/kindle-vella-content-guidelines-update
There is already discussion as to how this can be applied to business. I intend to use Vella two-fold. I am launching a series related to my husband’s business. I have been writing stories of our adventures in emergency towing for promotion for years. (I think his will be more interesting, LOL). We had planned to put it in a book at some point, so this is the catalyst to “test” what interests people before we go to the expense of publishing.
I’m also going to publish a fiction series that I started years ago based loosely on life experiences.
If you’re already an Amazon author, Vella books will automatically be added to your existing author page, so they will show up with your other books. If not, you will have a new author page to set up. They will not be live until Vella opens up to the public, but if you are planning on it, simply sign into Amazon, sign up to KDP here: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200620010. Once you’re signed up, go to https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GR2L4AHPMQ44HNQ7 to sign up for Vella. Amazon makes it very easy to set up and publish.
It is not clear what promotional tools authors will be given as of yet, since it’s not live at this point. Vella will be live and accessible to readers at some point in July. I’m very excited to see how it plays out and to be an early adopter.
To learn more about Vella: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G6F5YEPRLMKR3PV7
Will you Vella – as a writer or a reader or both?
Do you have innovative ideas about how this can be used to promote business?
I’d love to hear your thougths!
