What is Kindle Vella?
First, let’s start off by explaining what Kindle Vella is. Right now, it is not available for readers, but Amazon says that within the next few months, we will be reading amazing serialized stories off our phones.
It’s going to be a mobile first reading experience, like Wattpad or Radish. You can already read Kindle books on your phone using the Amazon Kindle app, but the Kindle Vella stories will be written exclusively for the platform.
Authors are able to write notes that give behind the scenes or commentary on each episode. I’ve been using this feature to make little comments about the content of each story, almost as though I’m reading the story right along with them. I like this interaction and it makes it really fun for me.
You can’t read the story I’m writing yet, but I will share it here when you can!
What am I writing for Kindle Vella?
I’m not doing a continuation of another story with this platform. I’m writing a brand new story, specifically written for this format. It’s called The Disappearance of Susannah Dane and it’s a young adult mystery.
I wanted to write something that was like a cross between Veronica Mars and Pretty Little Liars. I love reading and watching stories about confident, young wanna-be detectives and I devour that kind of content.
I am writing this story as young adult because it really focuses on the main character, Paige Parker, who has to cope with the events. I love crime fiction, but I don’t like excessive violence or glorifying the horrible things that happen. This story is not so much about what as it is about who. The characters must find ways to cope with tragedy and fight against corruption to solve a shocking mystery. Young adult allows me to spend more time in the mess with the characters instead of psychoanalyzing the suspects.
Who is Paige Parker?
The main character in this story is named Paige, she’s a seventeen year old high school senior in the fictional Oregon coast town, Ecola Bay.
She’s been looking forward to the first day of senior year with her best friend, Zeze, but her friend never shows. She must resort to riding the bus with Creepy Jim, the bus driver, and realizes that Zeze has ghosted her. It doesn’t make sense. Zeze is the head cheerleader and she’s been planning the perfect senior year since they were freshman. She wasn’t the type to shirk responsibility. Yet, she was no where to be seen.
Zeze (born: Susannah Dane, this is a life-long nickname) is assumed to have run away, but as the search for her grows longer, Paige begins to lose hope that she will see her best friend again. Dark secrets are uncovered as Paige explores her friend’s mysterious last few days with Zeze’s boyfriend, Owen, and friend/enemy, Sierra.
The list of suspects grows and leaves our leading trio with a burning question: What happened to Susannah Dane?
Is the Story Finished?
Currently, I have 10 episodes that are written and edited that will go live when the Kindle Vella app launches. Each episode can be between 600 and 5,000 words. My episodes range from 1,800-4,000 words long. I also sometimes swap perspectives between characters for each episode, depending on where we need to be in the story. This works really well with the serialized format.
I’m going to keep writing episodes and my plan is to release them after the app launches. I’m not sure about my release schedule yet, whether it will be every day or once a week. I think it will probably depend on how many episodes I have left to write when the app launches so that I’m not falling behind readers as they catch up to where I’m at!
What Does Kindle Vella Offer That Other Apps Don’t?
The biggest drive for me here is that this is a fresh, new market of readers. Publishing early will hopefully increase my chances that I will get my story in front of more readers before the market crowds it out. This will probably be irrelevant if there is a huge flood of stories right from the beginning, but a girl can hope!
I don’t have any clue how many of the stories on Kindle Vella will be young adult. Not all of those readers will necessarily be teenagers, so I hope that the content appeals to lovers of the YA genre as a whole as well as a younger audience.
I will update you all here when the story is finally available!
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