Hello everyone! I know it's been a while since my last post. The good news is that it's because I've been hard at work on final preparations to launch my new serial project, The Fall of Elysium. This new story starts Friday April 21, and chapters will release every Friday after that, with a short hiatus between volumes.
The Fall of Elysium will be syndicated on Kindle Vella, a relatively new service from Amazon for exactly these sorts of projects. Given that it's so new, and tucked a little out of the way, I wanted to give a quick crash course on how to access it and how it works, so you have everything you need to know on launch day.
Where to Find Vella
Vella is available on web browsers and through the Kindle app.
If using the app, you'll want to go to the "Discover" tab. Up at the top where it gives you a few categories, one will say "Kindle Vella". That's the one you want. Currently, tapping this link will take you to the homepage with a big ol' banner inviting you to "find out more" about how to use Vella, which I suggest checking out.
Vella uses your regular Amazon account, so as long as you're logged in, you should be good to go on that front.
How It Works
Vella uses a payment system called Tokens. They can be purchased in packs starting at $2 (which translates to roughly $0.01 per Token), and are slightly discounted if you buy in higher amounts. This is how authors are paid royalties, instead of a percentage of book sales. For the sake of transparency, Token usage is based on word count, and all Elysium chapters will be around 30 Tokens each.
Essentially, you buy some Tokens, trade them in for the chapter of the story you want, and you have access to the chapter.
Miscellaneous
Each week, I'll have the opportunity to engage with you, the audience. This might be polls on where you think the story is going or who your favorite character is, or things like Q & A's over on Goodreads.
In addition, I'll have a goodie or two here on the website. With Vella being new, there isn't yet functionality to add images. So instead, I'll be hosting an interactive map over here. Elysium is a big city with a lot of interesting places, brought to life by the amazing cartographer Ilanthar. The map will be invaluable as you follow each of the five narrative characters on their journeys, and I'm excited to reveal it to you all!
Some of the world's greatest pieces of fiction began as serialization, but it's a format that has been dormant for a long time, Prior to Vella, I wasn't sure how to present this story as intended, or if it was even possible.
With that in mind, I'm genuinely so excited to share it with you all, exactly as I first envisioned it 11 years ago! Mark your calendars, and happy reading!
— A.J.
Comments