Amazon has rolled out a new serialized reading experience called Kindle Vella that just launched on July 13th.
The way it works is Kindle Vella stories are published one “episode” at a time, and the first three episodes of every story are free. Each episode ranges from 600 to 5,000 words.
After the free starter episodes, you can unlock additional episodes by paying with Tokens that can be purchased from Amazon in bundles. You can claim 400 free Tokens to start (see the link on the top right of the page at Amazon).
The real kicker is Kindle Vella stories are currently only available on the Kindle iOS app and on Amazon’s website.
I keep saying how Kindle devices are no longer a priority for Amazon, and people just accuse me of being negative, but this proves it. How can Amazon release a new Kindle reading program and not offer it on Kindle ereaders? It just goes to show the direction of the company. Now they’re encouraging authors to produce new forms of Kindle books that can’t be read on Kindles. Curious move.
Instead Kindle Vella is designed for short-form phone reading in an attempt to gamify reading and drive more social media interaction. Here’s a list of some of the exciting new features for readers:
- Tagging: Readers can use tags to browse for specific topics and genres to find stories.
- Following: Once a reader follows a Kindle Vella story, they’ll be notified every time a new episode is released.
- Thumbs Up: Readers can leave a Thumbs Up on every episode they like.
- Faves: Once a week, readers who have purchased Tokens will receive a Fave to award to the story they enjoyed most that week. Amazon will feature stories with the most Faves in the Kindle Vella store to help other readers discover popular stories.
- Author Notes: Authors can speak directly to their readers at the end of episodes to share story insights and behind-the-scenes content.
- Sharing: It’s easy for readers to share the Kindle Vella stories they love right from their phones through Twitter, Facebook, and other social channels or via email and text with friends.
Kindle Vella is currently available in the US only.
I agree with your judgement of the program. It’s not only a diss for it not to be offered to e-ink reading devices. Even if it were available on my e-reader devices, it would have zero interest for me.
* I can decide what books I want to read all by myself. I don’t need a game to encourage me to read. I’ve been reading for fifty years already.
* I don’t need to be offered the first chapter free. If I like the idea, I want to buy the whole book.
* Similarly I don’t enjoy reading serialized books. In a magazine, maybe it makes sense. On its own, forget it.
* I don’t really care what other people that I’ve never met may be reading or what they think of it. I talk to my friends about what I read.
* Authors have ALWAYS been able to talk to their readers through multiple channels. Amazon is not offering anything new here.
* Making it “easy” for me to share a book isn’t going to encourage me to share a book. Making it difficult wouldn’t stop me either.
Hear, hear! My thoughts exactly.
In addition, for me serials don’t work. I am a fast reader, and if I have to wait to continue or finish a story, I’ll go on to something else. Then I will lose interest in the rest of the serial.
Read only on my phone??? I can barely read the texts and and apps that I do have. I have been reading for 56 years, and sorry to sound like the old fart that I am, but I need the larger fonts on my e-reader.
I agree with you. There’s no need for this in my world. I want to read the best books available and don’t expect to find much quality literature among contributions to a program such as this one. It’s true that a gem could pop up, but that would be rare indeed.
I am not impressed by this turn of events. As someone that finds it stressful to read on anything but e-ink displays.
I would disagree with you on this point that this proves Amazon isn’t interested in Kindle devices. From the video it seems that these books are a bit more interactive in nature than the kindle device is able to offer. Same goes for animated books. They don’t work on Kindles but this doesn’t mean they don’t care about Kindle devices. Maybe if it becomes more popular they might add it in some way to the Kindle device? I doubt it as the kindle doesn’t have the capabilities of an android or iphone.
That’s cute. They’ll sell you a $250 e-reader, then use the name of that e-reader to sell you stories to read that are incompatible with the $250 e-reader.
I have to say I am impressed to see that the same conservatism that ebook readers have been met with ten years ago from paper book readers has come full circle.
I knew there was some reason I have never owned a Kindle. (No matter how often my friends refer to my Nook, Nova Pro, Aura One, or InkPad as a “Kindle”). I can always seem to find some way to read Kindle content on most of these devices….
Seems like a copy of the setup Wattpad uses already. I also agree that they need to do more with Kindle ereaders. I want the warm light settings to be on kindle paperwhite.
I am not a fan of serial books. There are already plenty of books to read which actually end when I finish the book.
An aside: I wish e-ink kindles supported e-pub books. I often borrow books from the library which are available ONLY in e-pub. I can read them on kindle fire or my ancient iPad. But I prefer e-ink.
Aside #2: my 1st e-reader was a Nook. I still have 2 e-ink Nooks. However, to those who like Nooks, besides the fact that B&N’s Nook library is small potatoes compared to Amazon’s, the killer for me is the inability to borrow library books. I buy books, but as I’m on a pension (retired from a library!) I frequently borrow from the library.
Curious indeed. Seems like Kindles are pretty much done. Also, this program sounds similar to a program that B&N had several years ago called Barnes and Noble Readouts. I think it was eventually phased-out. The major difference seems to be that B&N didn’t restrict their program to a non-Barnes and Noble device.
I don’t like the idea and don’t see it working. 😒 I am more up set that when I got a paperwhite I lost my favorite aid text to speech and no the voice over thing is not the same. I get headaches from reading. I would read an hour then use text to speech for an hour to avoid the headaches. I do not mind using a Bluetooth speaker, I do mind not having the option. Also didn’t they try the token thing for games before…I think I may even have some🤣
But you do have text to voice, it is called voiceview. Now, you do have to dig a little to get to it. But it is there. I use it very often.
I don’t like episodic reading or programs such as this, so not going to support it at all. I do agree it’s annoying they aren’t releasing it on Kindles for those who do want to read it that way, though.