When I heard about Kindle Vella years ago, I recalled the time when weekly episodes of stories were aired on the radio. Before that, authors would submit weekly episodes of their stories to the newspapers. Now that we’re in a digital age, the idea of episodic releases had returned, this time to every handheld device.
Since I didn’t already have a story set up as episodes, I
translated my then newest work-in-progress (WIP), Blood
and Bullets: A Cop and Vampire Story, into an episodic format,
making sure that the next episode was clear on whose POV it was in and dialogue
tags to point out who spoke first in the scene. After a few tweaks, I set out
to upload each one into the online tool.
The cover was a bit different, though. Only a small circular
section of the cover was used for the Kindle Vella story, so I had to capture as
many of the critical elements of the cover as possible.
The neat thing about Kindle Vella was that the author could leave notes about the episode, what inspired the scene, and hints about the
next installment. In addition, the author could also create a fun questionnaire
to encourage interaction with the readers.
Initially, the first three episodes are free, but the reader had to unlock the rest of the episodes with the appropriate number of tokens
determined by the length of that episode. I am definitely glad I tried it and had intended on releasing the second part of my Cop and Vampire story. However, this adventure came to an end a year ago when Kindle Vella was discontinued.
Getting this story back out to the world is on my list of things to do. Stay tuned!
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