Something New is Coming

 

This will be reduced down to a small thumbnail on the iPhone

In mid to late July Amazon is going to introduce a new reading experience – Vella – a platform for serialized stories that authors can publish one short episode at a time. It is going to be available only on iOS devices, which is to say iPhones. Readers will purchase tokens and redeem a certain number of tokens to read each episode. Readers will be able to read the first three episodes for free before having to unlock the rest of the episodes at a rate of 1 token per 100 words per episode. I don’t think pricing has been exactly settled, but the sample they provide has tokens costing one cent each when purchasing 200 tokens, with discounts for larger purchases. Readers can rate each episode in several ways, and authors can include notes at the end of each episode to add additional insights and engage with their readers. And that’s Vella in a nutshell.

I’m going to have a space opera offering ready to roll for the launch of this new service.

I’m approaching this concept from an old time weekday newspaper comic strip perspective. Think of Mary Worth, or Flash Gordon. Which is to say, brief episodes that move the story along in small steps. The episodes range from 1,200 words to 1,600 words – or about 12¢ - 16¢ per episode. I’ve written the first draft of a novella length story to kickoff the experiment. The story is complete in and of itself, but open ended so that I can built on to it, if it should prove worth my effort. I want to offer a complete story right from the start so as not to leave readers hanging, should I decide not to continue it. I have the option of making all the episodes available at once, or on a schedule. I believe that I will release them all at once for simplicity’s sake.

I am doing this primarily as an exercise in free advertising. It costs me nothing but my time, of which I have plenty off. I’m hoping that there will not be 10,000 space opera available at launch, so that I’ll have a fair chance of getting my name in front of readers who usually do not venture beyond the Kindle Unlimited Program, or who avoid free books as a matter of policy. I’m not expecting this will generate much in the way of revenue, but for me, money is not the point. Advertising is.

The title of my series is The Starfaring Life. It is a space opera –  a new "universe" for me, with starships this time around! The launch story focuses on a starfarer's one night’s leave downside. More on the story, next time.