Serial reading

If you're as old as I am, you might remember reading serial in the newspaper. A new bit would come out each week, leaving you on the edge of your seat and panting for the next installment. If you're older than me, you might even remember serials at the movie house.

Well, Amazon is entering the serial world with Kindle Vella, which launched this past Tuesday. 

Serials are big business in some parts of the world—Asia, for example—and quite popular with younger generations. They're ten to thousands of episodes, each of which is several hundred to several thousand words long—five to thirty-minute reads, that are easy to access on your phone.

The first three episodes of every Vella story are free, and Amazon is currently giving away 200 free tokens to every reader. A token is worth 100 words, so each of my episodes is in the ten to twenty-five token range.

My Vella entry is called The Phoenix and Katie Li. It’s kind of an homage to the old Scarecrow and Mrs. King television show, but set in space. In my story, Katie Li, an ordinary girl working in the call center of a novelties company (anyone familiar with Archie McPhee?) encounters a secret agent who needs her help.

Katie lives on the moon orbiting the planet Lewei—if you read Planetary Spin Cycle, you might remember this USSR-flavored political rival from Triana’s arm of the galaxy. As a result, a lot of the tech will be recognizable, and the light, rom-com style will feel familiar.

If you aren’t in the US, or don’t care for serials, or don’t want to pay Amazon, but want to read the story, I have a couple of options for you:

1. Wait. I can publish the serial as a book 30 days after the last episode goes live. At one episode per week, that’s going to take a while, but it’s an option.
2. Wait until Vella comes to your country. There’s no word on when this will happen, but if it takes off in the US, it’s likely to be fairly soon. After all, Amazon likes to make money. If the US venture isn’t successful, then I’ll pull my story down and publish it sooner rather than later.
   
   But, Julia, I want it now!
3. Join my new Patreon account. I will warn you, paying $2 per month is going to be more expensive in the long run than buying tokens on Amazon, which is why I recommended waiting first. (Although Vella is addictive, so once you’re on there, it’s easy to start spending tokens left and right!) However, if you don’t mind spending a couple of bucks to support me, I’ll appreciate it.
   Patreon Bonus: You’ll get each episode a week before it goes live on Vella.
   PRO TIP: The longer you wait, the better the deal. For example, if you join in August, you’ll get all of July’s episodes and August’s for the same $2. Are you getting the feeling there’s a lot of waiting involved? That’s the nature of serials—you have to wait for the next episode.

By the way, if you decide to join the Patreon account, the $5 option will give you access to chapters from my other works in progress, too. I’m not promising you’ll get to read ALL of EVERY book there, but you’ll see a fair bit.

Jump on the serial bandwagon!