Jill here. Before I get into today’s topic, I wanted to say that I missed you all so much this summer! It has been a crazy time for me. I took on a few too many adventures and had seven trips in three months, five of which involved flights on airlines. Where did I go, you ask?

1. I went to New York City with my daughter as a chaperone for her school drama trip. We saw five shows (Hadestown, Hamilton, Come From Away, Paradise Square, and the Play That Goes Wrong.) It was amazing.
2. I spoke at the One Year Adventure Novel Summer Workshop in Kansas City. I saw OYANers, Stephanie Morrill, and John Otte. It was fabulous.
3. I went to Alaska to visit my family. It had been too long since I’d seen them all, plus I had a new niece! She is adorable!
4. I flew to Philidelphia and took a car to Atlantic City for Realm Makers. I was on staff this year. I taught two workshops and did some mentoring. Realm Makers is always a lot of fun.
5. Brad and I drove to Seattle for a regional Mouse Meet, which was a mini conference for Disney fans. We heard from several imagineers and voice actors, including the voice of Mickey Mouse. Brad won third place for his door design.
6. We went to Europe! This was a trip I’ve dreamed about for years. We flew to Paris, rented a car and drove to England. (Took a ferry across the channel from Calais to Dover.) In England, we spend several days with my husband’s cousins. We visited the Warner Brother’s Harry Potter Studios and saw as much of London as we could. Then we drove back to Paris, went to Disneyland, and explored that city until we ran out of time. We walked 126 miles!
7. Drove up to Tacoma for three days of teacher training for my school. This was nice and quiet after a lot of go, go, going. Then the day after I got home, we turned around and went back to Seattle to take my son to college. I’m not counting that last one as a trip, though, since we went up and back in the same day.

That was A LOT for one summer. Next year, I think I’ll take a sabbatical from writing conferences so I get to squeeze in a restful summer into my break.

Before I go on, I have to share some pictures from Europe just because…

Okay, thanks for allowing that ludicrous display. 😉

I also published Magic Hunters, book one at the end of June, and it turned out super cute. The book is getting very nice book reviews, and I have heard from readers young and old that it is an entertaining story. It’s enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, so if you’re a KU subscriber, you can read it for free there. You can find it here on Amazon and here in my author store.

Okay, now it’s time to talk writing!

I’ve talked a little about how much I wanted to play with Kindle Vella when Amazon first announce the new platform. The book Magic Hunters wouldn’t exist without Kindle Vella, since my husband gave it to me for the purpose of publishing it on there.

What is Kindle Vella? It’s serialized stories that are available to readers exclusively on the Kindle iOS app and on Amazon.com. It’s similar to Wattpad, if that helps, though there is no fan fiction allowed. The stories must be the author’s original work. Each episode can be anywhere from 600–5,000 words in length. You must choose a cover image that fits into a circle. You must pick a title for the story. And you must pick titles for each episode.

There is an art form to all of this.

Before I get into the writing, for readers, there are a few things you need to do to be able to enjoy reading Kindle Vella stories. You have to sign into your Amazon account, then you have to “Follow” the stories you are interested in. Once you do this, the stories you have followed will show up on your Kindle Vella page, and you won’t have to hunt for them every time you want to look for new episodes. Here is a screenshot of my home page. No matter where I am in Kindle Vella, if I click on the “Kindle Vella” words in the top left corner, it will bring me to this page where all the stories I’ve “followed” are listed. (I’ve followed, like, thirty stories, so I would have to click the arrows to move through them all.

What I’ve learned about writing serialized fiction:

Honestly, I’ve learned I’m not very good at it. It’s helping me be productive and finish first drafts far faster than I would otherwise, but I’m not one of the people making a ton of money on the platform. To be fair, I didn’t try to get better at writing serialized fiction. I just posted a novel on the platform, and the platform isn’t really designed for novels. And I keep writing novels on there because the weekly deadline keeps me productive. Some authors have posted novels and done really well, while others (like me) haven’t had that same level of success.

If you would like to know how to write for Kindle Vella, here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Choose a genre that is popular for serials. If you look at Kindle Vella’s Top 25, you’ll see that most of them are some subgenre of romance. Those types of stories seem to do the best on Kindle Vella, though there is more to it than the genre alone. You also want to make sure you choose a compelling image for your story “cover.” Something that catches the eye and correctly communicates your genre.

2. You aren’t writing a three-act structure for a novel. Think in terms of episodes having a beginning, a middle, and a cliffhanger of an ending. Successful serialized stories are written to be continuous, like TV shows or soap operas where each episode of the show is the equivalent to an episode you might read on Kindle Vella. And the show can go on as long as you want it to.

3. Shorter episodes can help your Vella do better. This is for several reasons. The cost of an episode is determined by word count. Since readers pay with tokens, a shorter episode costs fewer tokens and feels more inexpensive than longer episodes. The stories could have the same word count in the end, but if you break them up into smaller episodes, readers will be happier. You’ll also get more story “likes” since you’ll have more episodes overall, and readers can like each episode by clicking the thumbs up button at the bottom. Also, work hard to come up with clever titles for your episodes. These will also help draw in readers to continue reading.

4. Posting consistently is extremely important. My friend Kimberly Titus has been very successful on Kindle Vella with her romantic comedy murder mysteries. She is also excellent at writing witty episode titles. Just go visit one of her Vella pages and click on “See all episodes” to see what I mean. She has this to share about writing for Kindle Vella:

“Technically speaking- keep to a schedule. If you promise new episodes every Sunday. Deliver on Sunday. Or else you’ll make readers mad and turn them off. Writing-wise, you must write compelling characters. Ones people care enough about to come back a week later to read about. They have to be memorable or after a week people will be like, ‘Who the heck is Alice?'”

Kimberly Titus

5. Perfect the art of the cliffhanger. Probably one of the most important parts of writing serialized fiction for a platform like Kindle Vella is how you end your episodes. You want to hook your readers. Every time. You want them to say, “Ahh, I’ll read just one more episode!” My friend Krissi Dallas has found great success with her YA stories. She has this to say about keeping readers on the edge of their seats:

“Strong, thoughtful writing is just as important in serial fiction as it is in long format. You want to bring your readers to the edge of their seats and make their hearts drip with emotion… and then CUT the episode. Leave them dangling on the edge of their curiosity until the next one. There’s an art to cliffhangers and if you can perfect that art, people WILL keep coming back each week for more. Just NEVER make your readers comfortable at the end of an episode.”

Krissi Dallas

That’s a very brief overview of writing for Kindle Vella. Just like any type of writing, the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it. If you decide to give Kindle Vella a try, I recommend joining a Facebook group or finding some other Vella writers so that you can ask questions and bounce feedback off each other. Amazon is constantly adapting the Kindle Vella program, which is technically still in beta mode. In fact, one of the biggest complaints about writing for Kindle Vella is that you have to promote your story and the concept of serialized stories yourself. And it’s a hard sell. Most of my readers weren’t willing to read my stories there. But there are plenty of readers who enjoy this type of format, and where there are readers, there are opportunities for writers to find success.

At the bottom of this post, I will link to my Onyx Eyes Kindle Vella story, to my husband’s Kindle Vella time travel story, and to Stephanie’s Kindle Vella romance story she wrote under her pen name. (It’s a great story, by the way. I read her new episodes every week!) Between the stories linked below and the ones I shared above, there are plenty of Vellas for you to peek at, try, and see what you think. Remember, if you do read some free episodes, please remember to click the thumbs up “like” button at the bottom of each episode. It really helps us authors.

Have you tried Kindle Vella? If so, what did you think? Do you have any questions about the platform? Post them in the comments.

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms, and the author of several young adult fantasy novels including the Blood of Kings trilogy. She loves teaching about writing. She blogs at goteenwriters.com and also posts writing videos on her YouTube channel and on Instagram. Jill is a Whovian, a Photoshop addict, and a recovering fashion design assistant. She grew up in Alaska without running water or electricity and now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two kids. Find Jill online at jillwilliamson.com or on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.