Amazon is jumping on the serial reading app bandwagon. They have devised a new app for the Kindle Mobile platform called Kindle Vella. US-based authors will be the guinea pigs for the Beta version of this app.
The premise is that authors release 'episodes' of 100 words. Readers buy ‘tokens’ to pay for each episode. Readers get the first 3 episodes free. Information about Royalties for authors is still sketchy. KDP added royalty guestimates to their information about the new app and stated that the information 'could change' by the time the platform is live. Call me cynical, but authors have seen this kind of thing before when dealing with a new Amazon product. The product is launched with fanfare and authors are encouraged to sign up - and do so in their droves- without solid information about the royalty payment structure. Then after a few months, the first royalty payment is made and it's peanuts. Once-bitten-twice-shy comes to mind! It would be a good idea to wait until we get some clarity about the true royalties for Kindle Vella so authors can weigh up if we would make more income by publishing a new release as a serial or as a whole e-book for sale on Amazon/ with Kindle Unlimited, or wide. Also, I’d like to know if the content published on Kindle Vella can be used for audiobook episodes- so that is something else I'll look into.
Currently, this is how Amazon envisage the royalties:
" (Number of Tokens to unlock episode) * (Tokens bundle price/# Tokens in bundle - taxes and fees) * (50% rev share) = Earnings per episode
For example, here's how we calculate earnings for a 3,025 word episode (30 Tokens) when the Tokens are purchased on the web in a 200 Tokens bundle versus an 1,100 Tokens bundle. In this example, we are assuming no taxes or fees.
Episode purchased with 200 Tokens bundle: 30 Tokens * ($1.99/200 Tokens - 0) * 50% = $0.1493
Episode purchased with 1,100 Tokens bundle: 30 Tokens * ($9.99/1100 Tokens - 0) * 50% = $0.1362
So, the current royalty information does not include taxes or fees. We know KDP will charge for the delivery of the digital product because they do so with e-books. Therefore, it appears that the royalty per 3k words will be under $0.1493.
Authors cannot unpublish books currently on KDP and chop them up into episodes, so nip those thoughts in the bud, dear author colleagues! If you publish via Kindle Vella it needs to be new content.
Authors also cannot: Incorporate their Kindle Vella content into other long-form content (e.g., a book) in any language. – so you can’t publish bits of a work in progress on Kindle Vella and then publish the complete book. If you wish to incorporate an episode or story into other content, you must unpublish all episodes of that story from Kindle Vella.
Authors cannot: Publish in Kindle Vella content that is in the public domain or freely available on the web.
Authors cannot: Break down your previously published book or long-form content into Episodes and republish in Kindle Vella, even if that book or long-form content is no longer available or is written in another language. If your Episode or Story is derived from another work you have authored (e.g., it continues the story from a book), you may include up to 5,000 words of content from the other work in the first Episode to bridge the story, provided you control the rights to do so.
If Kindle Unlimited is anything to go by, you and I know that fraudsters will be working out how to game Kindle Vella – whether by bombarding the app with reams of ghost-written content or by using plagiarized content. There is always someone willing to try to make a buck from publishing without doing the hard work - the writing!
Amazon has designed this app to encourage reader/author interaction and they want authors to engage a lot with readers in the Kindle Vella app. It sounds like they want it to be a social media platform for authors and readers. If the app is successful and pays fairly I can envisage a shift away from other social media platforms to authors focusing on interacting with their readership on the likes of Kindle Vella. I expect Amazon to integrate Kindle Vella with Goodreads in some way too!
It will be interesting to see how the launch of Kindle Vella goes, (and how long it takes for the platform to be gamed!)