Fantasy

Serials and serious book talk

Hi Readers,

We hope your weekend was fun. Ours was definitely interesting, but any time a bunch of fictional characters get together to do anything, chaos generally ensues.

First off, book news!

Last week, Kindle Vella launched, and we finally have all the details about it. So let’s dive into that.

What is Kindle Vella? 

It’s a platform Amazon launched last Tuesday that allows authors to write fiction in a serial format by releasing episodes, which are like chapters in a book, as they are written.

​Why write a story that way? 

With more and more people reading on phones, there’s a lot of demand for stories that can be read in small chunks. At the same time, readers like having a long relationship with stories / characters / authors, and serials allow for that. The serial format is a great way to tell a long, complex story with multiple characters, plots, sub-plots, and complex worlds. We think our books lend themselves to this kind of storytelling.

Publishing in a story this way also means you get to read it sooner because it shortens the time between our Scribe writing it and you reading it. And it could potentially lead to our Scribe writing more chapters more often. Exciting stuff, right?

​What is on Kindle Vella? 

Right now? His Angelic Keeper Fallen. It’s 38 episodes long and new episodes (chapters) will publish until August 9.

In August, episodes/chapters from The Lord of the Sea will start publishing.

Stories on deck with TBD start dates:

  • Rogue Spells (this book stars me, Ran, the son of the Curse Breaker)
  • Rogue Ranger
  • His Angelic Keeper Tempted (the official end of our crossover)
  • Curse Breaker Trapped
  • Mage Hunter

***All stories published to Kindle Vella will also be published in the same format on our Patreon account, so if you do not want to buy tokens to unlock each episode or you’re not based in the US, you can just support us by paying one low monthly fee to read everything we post on Patreon. There are no per-episode fees on there. ***

​How do you read Kindle Vella stories? 

The first three episodes of every Kindle Vella story are FREE for everyone to read. But if you want to read beyond that, you must purchase tokens from Amazon to unlock the episode (see below for more on this).

​For a limited time, you can claim 200 FREE tokens when you visit Kindle Vella and use them to unlock episodes.

​How do you read Patreon stories?

You click the button to become a patron on our account and all episodes will be available to you. We just found out we can add merchandise to our memberships that you would receive for no extra fee. So we’re looking into that. Our Scribe has some gorgeous renders.

How often will serials be updated on Vella/Patreon? 

Our Scribe is shooting for 3x a week at a minimum because of changing working conditions due to the pandemic. Once we know what her work schedule will be staring in September and how much she’s able to write around that, we’ll adjust the schedule, hopefully in the upward direction. You know me. I want my page time.

​How do you crown, fav, or favorite a story on Kindle Vella? 

You unfortunately cannot crown / favorite a story UNTIL you purchase tokens. I recommend purchasing the $1.99 / 200 token pack to start, along with the 200 free tokens. That should give you some idea if this reading format / some of the individual stories on there are for you. Roughly, those 400 tokens will give you 40,000 words of reading (1 token = about 100 words). 

Please consider favoriting/crowning our serials.

​How many crowns or favorites do you get on Kindle Vella?  

You only get ONE (1) crown / fav / favorite per week. Use it sparingly, because this is how your favorite authors will be paid and show up on the boards. The more people who favorite a story, the more that story will be seen by other potential readers, so please crown/fav us!

​How do you get notifications that a new story chapter is live? 

On Kindle Vella, You need to click the FOLLOW button to follow the stories that you like and want notifications for. There is a way to do this at the bottom of each episode you read. You can also do it on the story’s main page. There’s a follow button there too.

On Patreon, you don’t need to do anything beyond clicking the button to become our patron. Patreon will email you when we post.

​What do Thumb’s Up / Likes mean on Kindle Vella?  

No one knows for certain. But clicking the like / thumb’s up button lets other readers know that story might be worth their time to read. It could help our readers find that story, so click it often if you like what you’re reading.

Please consider liking/giving our serial a thumbs up.

​Can readers from other countries access Kindle Vella?

No, It’s only open to US readers and authors, which is the other reason we are also publishing everything we do in Kindle Vella on Patreon. We may not publish everything we post on Patreon on Kindle Vella though. Kindle Vella is in a live beta while Amazon works out the kinks.

​Can I review a story on Kindle Vella?

Yes! Please consider leaving our serial a review to let other readers know about it.

How do I access the Kindle Vella Store? 

I recommend using your browser to start, especially if you have a link to a particular Vella book / serial. HERE IS A LINK to our serial, His Angelic Keeper Fallen on Kindle Vella. 

HERE IS A LINK to His Angelic Keeper Fallen on Patreon.

Those links should work for your phone, laptop, tablet, or anywhere that accesses one of the major browsers. You can also access Kindle Vella through your iOS Kindle Phone App, if you own an iPhone. 

​Will you still publish ebooks?

Yes! 30 days after the last episode is published, Amazon allows our Scribe to publish the serial as an ebook. So if serial reading isn’t your thing, we’ve got you covered.

His Angelic Keeper Fallen will publish after September 9th. We’re hoping to get the sequel on Kindle Vella + Patreon around that time, so you can read it as it’s written. How cool is that?

Anyway, that’s all we have time for this week. Next week, we’ll talk about covers, new imagery for our series, and return to our disquieting confrontation with a talking snake. Don’t worry. We haven’t forgotten about that.

Since we’re fictional characters, we only exist when you read our stories, so we needed to take a moment to fill you in all the developments and our plans to get more content to you faster, so you can read us more often. Our survival depends on that.

If you like our stories, please spread the word about us!

–Your newsletter host, Ran, son of Sarn (the Curse Breaker)


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