What is Kindle Vella?

Okay, honestly, it’s not a bad question, and I’ve been asked a few times what it is, how it works, and all that jazz.

Amazon describes its relatively new platform pretty succinctly as:

Kindle Vella brings you stories released one short episode at a time, available on the web and on the Kindle app.

www.amazon.com/kindle-vella

For a couple years now, I’ve replaced my nightly doom-scrolling through Reddit and Twitter/X with reading serialized stories (web novels and comics) that are released on a weekly, bi-weekly, etc. cadence. It’s been a nice change of pace, in my opinion, to lie in bed each night and dive into the latest episode of whatever story–well, stories–I’m currently reading.

(And quick shoutout to Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe. Her story is what got me into reading web toons and novels, and if you’re looking for a genuinely well-written, engaging, and beautiful graphic novel, I sincerely encourage you to check it out!)

I find this concept of serialized stories to be a fun, new way to consume content. And the social element adds another layer to it–that sense of shared excitement when you finish an episode that really had you going and you hop to the comments to see other readers feeling the same. It’s just, well, cool. For lack of a more sophisticated term.

So, I wanted to try it out for myself. Be on the other end of that conversation.

Of Immortal Make is still a work in progress, but I’ve had Act I sitting pretty in my files for what feels like a decade, and I thought to myself… man, I want to know what people think of this. Because I love this little world I’ve created and my little people in it. And I can’t tell you what it means to me when an episode drops and I get to see your reactions. It encourages me all the more to finish this story–not just for me, but for you, too–and publish her all together. That’s the plan, anyway.

But back to Kindle Vella. There’s a few more things to note about it. Here’s how it currently works [as of me writing this blog post] in Amazon’s own words:

• Follow the stories you like to keep up with the latest from your favorite characters.
• When you like an episode, give it a Thumbs Up to let the author and other readers know you liked it.
• The first few episodes [note: currently 10] of every story are always free–after that, purchase Tokens and redeem them to unlock episodes. Tokens may only be used to unlock Kindle Vella story episodes in the Kindle app and on the web at http://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella.
• When you unlock episodes, you will receive one Fave a week that you can award to the story you’re enjoying most that week. We’ll feature Top Faved stories so other readers can find them too.

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