Publishing Your Book on Kindle Vella

Remember the good old days when novels were serialized in newspapers and magazines? No? That was probably before your time.

Serialization was popular in the nineteenth century but fell out of fashion after the 1930s. Charles Dickens published most of his novels as installments in periodicals before issuing them in book form. Many of our best-loved classics were also first published in series. The last serials appeared over a half-century ago, with Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood in 1965 and Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in 1971.

KDP [Kindle Direct Publishing] has ventured to bring back serial publishing with Kindle Vella. The target audience is young people who like to read on their phones. The stories can also be read on a tablet or PC but, ironically, not on Kindle.

In the old days, some authors wrote in installments and published as they went along. Later, they would revise and polish before turning out the finished product in book form. Others would start with a completed manuscript and divide it into installments. Most writers used cliffhangers to entice their readers to hunger after the next chapter.

When I heard about Vella, I had a novel nearly ready for publication, under my pseudonym, Marie Q Rogers. I browsed Vella and read the first episodes of several stories to get an idea of what was popular. There seemed to be a lot of science fiction and romance. That’s good. My novel, Season of the Dove, takes place in the dystopian future of 2123. It’s a mix of genres, with romance, adventure, even murder, also popular themes on Vella. I thought my story would fit.

Vella accepts only previously unpublished stories, but after a period of time, you can remove your episodes from Vella and release your novel in a different form.

In preparation, I read the how-to page about Vella. Some of this information is now outdated, but I still found it helpful. Read or scroll far enough on the page, and you’ll find step-by-step instructions on publishing your first episode. The format is easy to work with.

You don’t need a book cover, only a story image. Use something that gives a clue to the story and will intrigue potential readers. I chose a photo of a hurricane, since a category 6 hurricane precipitates the main events of my story.

Vella lends itself to writing and publishing as you go, but I’m not skilled enough, and too much of a perfectionist, to do that. Even my almost-ready novel required editing and revision to break it into episodes. All Vella episodes must be between 600 and 5000 words. I planned to start with short segments, assuming that young readers have short attention spans. My first episode, originally the prologue, is 677 words. The second and third are 1600 and 1900. Later episodes are 2500 to 3000 words in length.

Feedback from a mature reader indicated that those episodes were too short. In retrospect, I should have combined the first two and planned for longer episodes early on. Readers are given three free episodes before they must start paying to read, so you need to hook them early on. Cliffhangers? In my opinion, too many can be annoying, but at the end of each episode is “A Note from the Author” where you set up a “what happens next,” such as “Is that the last they’ll see of Rob? Can they get to the mountains on foot?”

After you upload an episode, Vella takes up to seventy-two hours to vet it. My later episodes went live in a matter of a few hours. I began in late September and had all fifty-two uploaded by the end of October. You can publish your episodes all at once, time them to go live at certain intervals (such as weekly), or upload them as they are ready. That’s what I did. After I edited and proofed each, I uploaded it. I strongly advise previewing each episode before publishing to catch any mistakes or formatting issues. I also broke up long paragraphs because shorter ones looked better on the small screen.

Readers are encouraged to “like” episodes, and each week they can “fave” their favorite story. After three free episodes, readers buy tokens to pay to unlock subsequent ones.

Compensation for authors includes both royalties and an ongoing bonus program. You’re eligible for a monthly bonus based on customer activity and publishing activity. For royalties, you earn fifty percent of what readers spend on the tokens they use to unlock your story’s episodes. I have been pleased with the tidy little bank deposits I’ve received each month for my novel.

I invite you to take a peek at Season of the Dove here. Be sure to give me a thumbs up if you like it.

And who knows? Perhaps you will be the new Charles Dickens as serialization takes off once again.