Kindle Vella: A New Way To Read?

If you’re an author and you reside on planet Earth, you recognize the powerhouse names of Amazon and Kindle. As authors, we know many of our sales are probably through Amazon’s book and Kindle platforms, covering print and digital device readers worldwide. But, did you know Amazon has another way for writers to publish their work and make money?
Kindle Vella is Amazon’s new author/reader platform that exemplifies the short read concept. Through reams of reader research and all those fancy retail algorithms Amazon is famous for, the ‘Zon powers-that-be determined that readers enjoy reading short, action-packed stories they can devour on their phones or tablets. Busy lives make reading a commodity, and quick, satisfying snippets are preferable when time is short, but the desire to be entertained is strong.
Launched in July 2021, the digital program gained
quick momentum among unpublished and published authors alike, myself included, but many authors and readers still haven’t heard of it. It’s not an app you can buy on iTunes, and you don’t read it on a normal Kindle e-reader. It’s a platform through Amazon. You can access it by searching for "Kindle Vella". You download and read Vella episodes on your phone, your computer, your tablet, or any device where you can open a web browser.
The reason you may not have heard of Vella is because Amazon hasn’t thrown a great deal of advertising dollars Vella’s way, instead depending on the authors who use it to promote their stories through their own marketing efforts. Vella is also, at present, only available to American authors and readers. Plans to go global are part of the future business model, though.
The concept for Vella is simple. Authors write and upload parts of a continuing story onto the platform and then hit publish, releasing it into the reading world. In fact, Vella’s tagline is: Serial stories to read, one short episode at a time.
In lay terms, Vella’s publishing module is based on the concept of serialized fiction for the masses. This brand of publishing isn’t new; newspapers used it for decades. It’s how authors like Charles Dickens came to fame. Chapters from his books were featured in the London papers once a week for years, until the storyline ended. The public clamored for the weekly literary additions to his latest novel, and he was paid handsomely for each word he gave them… which may explain why his novels are so long.

Read the entire article in the June 2022 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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