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- Amazon Kindle Vella: what is it, how much does it cost, how to use it and if it works on Kindle
After being announced in April, Amazon took 3 months to launch the Kindle Vella. This isn't a new tablet, but rather a story subscription service that lets you read serialized fiction written specifically for the platform. Serialization is the act of dividing a story into pieces and publishing it at intervals, like a TV show, and judging by the existence of the Kindle Vella, Amazon clearly thinks there's a hunger for this format. Some may find this a captivating throwback to the novel's origins; after all, traditional writers like Hables Dickens, Jules Verne, and Arthur Conan Doyle have used the serialization format for their works of fiction. And now, in XNUMX, both potential and future writers can use Vella in exactly the same way. However, before we dive right into a captivating romance or heart-pounding thriller, we need to super-saturate your excitement with a huge cube of icy reality: there are plenty of asterisks surrounding the release of Vella. It's only available in the US at the moment, for both readers and authors, and it only works on Vella's site or in an iOS app. No, at the moment there is no compatibility with Android, nor the possibility of reading the texts in a real Kindle and also-reader. So, to get a better idea of what Amazon's Kindle Vella story serialization software is, and whether you can use it, we've written this guide to answer your burning questions.
Come to the point
- What is it? A digital story serialization service
- At what point did it come out? Now in the USA, to be confirmed elsewhere
- How much is it? More or less € two for twenty with zero words
Amazon Kindle Vella Price
You need to purchase tokens to play the Vella series. Each story is divided into episodes, we'll see how it goes later, and you have to spend tokens to acquire each chapter as you read them. Essentially, one card is worth 6 words, so a 0,0120 word chapter will require about 0,009552,500 cards. Simple so far. However, the cost of a token changes according to the amount you purchase. Cost and value of the Kindle Vella token Number of tokens Cost Cost of each token Number of raw words € two thousand one ninety-nine 0,00910 zero € five hundred twenty-five € four ninety-nine €0,0088170 one thousand one hundred €XNUMX XNUMX Zero €XNUMX XNUMX Zero The more tokens you acquire in a transaction, the more affordable each one will be, with multiple packages to choose from. We've made a table above so you can see the packages; the costs are all in US dollars, as that is the only currency currently supported. If you are an avid writer, you should surely know that you only get fifty% of the money spent on your episode, with the other half going to Amazon. Your money also depends on the package the reader has purchased: if you've gone for a better value package, that means you're getting less money per word than if you had gone with the cheaper options. Visit the Kindle Direct Publishing site to find out how it works, with some examples of what you would achieve in certain situations. Suffice to say that you will need to sell a lot of episodes to get real money.
Availability of Amazon Kindle Vella
(Image credit: Amazon) Kindle Vella can only be used in the US today, whether you're a reader or an author. This means that you cannot read with the service if you live outside the US, nor can you submit a story through the platform as an author. We are waiting for official information about the possibility of launching Vella on another site, but it is very possible. Amazon regularly launches services in the US before rolling them out elsewhere, like Halo and Luna. Now, you can use Vella through the official Kindle Vella site or through an iOS app; there's no Android app now, and no way to read series on a Kindle e-reader.
So how does the Kindle Vella work?
By using the Kindle Vella, an author will divide a story into multiple episodes of XNUMX to XNUMX words and, unlike a standard book, purchase each chapter separately, rather than purchase the entire story at once. Amazon advises that authors write stories particularly in series format, which makes the episodes more engaging than if you simply divided a standard book into arbitrary segments. The authors are going to make the first chapter of the series free, to give readers a taste of the story, and then, if you like what you read, you can pay for each new entry in the story. Not all of these episodes will be available at once, though Amazon advises all authors to post a few beforehand. New entries could arrive daily, weekly, or more occasionally, according to the whims of the writer. You can follow a story or an author to get notified when there are new free posts. You can star a story you like, to give the author a dopamine boost of validation, and once a week you can also favorite a story you really like; Typically, preferred works are recommended to more readers on the site. Writers can leave notes at the end of each entry, to thank readers or to add their views on the progress of the story or chapter; some may choose not to, which would make Roland Barthes happy.
Kindle Vella March on Kindle E-Readers?
(Image credit: Avenir) For whatever reason, Vella isn't currently available on Amazon's Kindle e-readers, even though those devices are designed to read. There's no official reason, but we think it's because Kindles are designed to require an unusual Internet connection, while Vella requires constant updates to find new episodes and stories. The process of purchasing tokens to purchase a chapter, rather than simply purchasing a book through your Amazon account, could also add an extra step that, on slow-running Kindles, could be boring. However, one of two things is to be expected to happen. First, possibly a software update will make Vella free on existing Kindles. If not, we'd love to see future Kindle e-readers include the free service. It's been a while since Amazon last released a book replacement device and we're expecting a new Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Oasis to come out this year (or one of them, at least). Either way, it's important that Vella makes it to Kindles at some point, because reading stories on a computer screen or iPhone isn't nearly as enjoyable as doing it on a beautiful e-ink screen.