Amazon’s publishing platform KDP recently unveiled a new feature: Kindle Vella. This is a new way for writers to share serialized stories with readers over an extended amount of time, one “episode” at a time. Readers will be able to access the first episode of a story for free, then pay a fee to read the following episodes. KDP isn’t the first publisher to try this: there once was a website called Jukepop Serials. Jukepop offered the same service, where writers decided which chapters of their stories could be accessed for free and which chapters readers would need to pay to read. While Jukepop is no longer available, the concept seems to have survived and now KDP is giving it a try.
The Way This Works for Readers:
Readers will have access to the first three episodes of a story. If they like what they’ve read and wish to continue reading further episodes, they will need to redeem “tokens”. Tokens can be purchased through Kindle and can be used to unlock other episodes of the story at a rate of one token per 100 words. So, a 638 episode will require six tokens to unlock it. If you’ve ever purchased anything for a game on Google Play, the concept is very similar. There are different packages for different prices, and each comes with a certain amount of tokens.
The Way This Works For Writers:
Writers will still earn royalties. As a writer, you earn 50% of what the reader spent on tokens to unlock the episode of your story. The following information came directly from KDP’s site.
Here’s how earnings per episode will be calculated:
- (Number of Tokens to unlock episode) * (Tokens bundle price/# Tokens in bundle – taxes and fees) * (50% rev share) = Earnings per episode
For example, here’s how we calculate earnings for a 3,025 word episode (30 Tokens) when the Tokens are purchased on the web in a 200 Tokens bundle versus an 1,100 Tokens bundle. In this example, we are assuming no taxes or fees.
- Episode purchased with 200 Tokens bundle: 30 Tokens * ($1.99/200 Tokens – 0) * 50% = $0.1493
- Episode purchased with 1,100 Tokens bundle: 30 Tokens * ($9.99/1100 Tokens – 0) * 50% = $0.1362
Readers will be able to give episodes a “thumbs up” if they like what they’ve read (much like a Facebook post). There will also be a feature called “Author’s Note”, where the writer can interact with the reader to share thoughts and information.
I’m a fan of KDP and I may give this a try, but I would like to do some more research on it first. Everything has a set of pro’s and con’s, and right now for me the con is royalties. If you would like more information about Kindle Vella, please visit their website here.
woolastonentertainment.com 