Background: Serialized fiction has been on the comeback trail in recent years. The format helped built the careers of the likes of Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, before declining after magazines shifted their focus away from fiction in the mid-20th century. The rise of digital publishing mediums has set the stage for a revival. The service could also give self-published authors a means to make money from their stories while maintaining a second income. What’s in it for readers? Stories on the platform are published one short episode at a time, each ranging from 600 to 5,000 words. The pricing model is a little bit complex. The first three episodes of every story are free. You can then read more of them by purchasing bundles of “tokens.” A single token is worth 100 words, but the cost of each token depends on how many you buy. Prices currently range from $1.99 for 200 tokens (four+ episodes) to $14.99 or 1,700 tokens (34+ episodes). The service also offers the following features: What about the authors? Writers will get 50% of the revenue that their stories generate. Royalty earnings per episode depend on which bundle a reader buys. For example, a 3,025 word episode purchased in a 200 tokens bundle would give an author $0.1493. But if that episode was bought in a 1,110 tokens bundle, the writer would net $0.1362. Some authors say they’d rather serialize their story on the Royal Road website and seek payments through Patreon. That could give them greater control and a larger chunk of revenues, but would likely shrink their potential pool of readers. Vella’s format also gives writers the chance to tweak their stories based on reader feedback. This could help them adjust their tales to the desires of readers, and also build a relationship with their audience. Vella’s features for readers aren’t especially innovative, but they do offer ways to interact with writers that could raise their profiles. The Author Notes looks like a particularly helpful tool for building a following. There are, however, strict terms for authors on the platform. Notably, writers can’t break down previously published books or long-form content into episodes and republish them in Kindle Vella — even if the original content is no longer available or written in another language. On the plus side, the platform doesn’t require exclusivity. Vella stories can be published else as long as they’re not “freely accessible.” Authors can also compile Vella episodes into a book, but it must contain at least 10 episodes, all of which need to have been on Vella for at least 30 days.
