The latest Vella Episode and how’s it doing?

Episode 13 of Cynara’s Destiny just went up on Vella last night.  In this episode, Maltron faces some severe worries following his failure to take the princess captive. Now he has a big decision to make.

Having trouble finding the series? Me, too. In fact, it’s one of the things Amazon isn’t doing well and I talk about it in the next section. But for now, here’s the link to the story and I’m going to put it in the right column so you can find it easily from my Loft.

To those who have read a couple of episodes, thank you so much and I hope you’ll read more. Be sure to give me a “thumb’s up” and that all-important review would be so welcome.

The State of Amazon Vella

I hopped on board at the start of Amazon’s new reader platform, Vella. It’s episodic reading. Think of it as a television series, only in book form. But it has its problems.

In some ways, it’s ironic it’s called Kindle Vella since it isn’t, at this time, available to Kindle’s readers. This may be one of the several issues in the newest reading platform from Amazon KDP.

The episodic stories published on Vella are available on readers and phones that support iOS or a computer going directly to the link. For phones and tablets that support iOS, you can download the Kindle iOS app.

Since the program is still in the beta stage, it lacks other features, which could make it better for the authors and readers. Finding stories can be difficult if you’re looking for a specific book or author since it doesn’t have a search option within the Vella section. If you know the name of the story and the author, you might be able to find it on the Amazon search in Kindle. I’ve had mixed results with this.

If you locate a story you want to follow, you can click the follow button. But, it seems to be hit or miss if you’ll get a notice when a new episode is uploaded. Some readers report getting notified on their phones or tablets, but not always. If you are using a computer to read, you don’t get anything.

Right now, Vella is only available in the United States. British and Canadian authors are anxious to give it a try, but I think when the beta period ends, they will have better results than the U.S. Guinea pigs.

Amazon hasn’t advertised or promoted Vella much, seeming to rely on the author users to do most of the promotion but not providing an advertising platform for it. Most try to attract readers through mailing lists, blogs, and social media. Many authors are struggling to reach readers. Some genres perform well, while others show only a few.

Established authors with extensive mailing lists have an advantage here, just as they do on Kindle. But they are experiencing some frustrations also as some of their readers are annoyed they can’t read the episodes on Kindle. One writer reported an unhappy fan wrote a poor review because she had to read it on her computer.

While Amazon is giving 200 tokens to new readers and the first three episodes are free, the reader needs to buy additional tokens to continue reading episodes. The number per episode is determined by the number of words, one token per one hundred words.

Some of the reluctance for Amazon readers to embrace the new format stems from either a preference to read the entire book at one time or concern the subsequent chapters won’t be posted. The second option is a valid one since already I’ve seen authors pulling their stories from Vella with plans to publish them as a book. Other authors simply get discouraged and quit posting or are posting so slowly their readers lose interest.

While my story is written, I am doing final edits and some rewriting before I post. So they are coming out every other week rather than weekly as I’d initially planned. I intend to stick with it as long as the platform continues, but I believe Amazon needs to take some steps to make it work better for the authors and readers.

Two of my fellow writers are publishing on Kindle, Kitty Turner and  Russell Jones. So, Id like to give them a shout out here. We all could sure use your help to get more traction on the system, so if you would go to Vella and read, then give a thumbs up, it would be appreciated. A review would be awesome!

Here are the stories and links:

Kitty Turner
Financial Freedom Through Writing – If you’re a writer, this is a great book to teach you some marketing basics. I’ve only read a few chapters, but I’ve learned things I didn’t know. I plan to read more as soon as I have the time.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/product/B092XTJJYW

Lillian I. Wolfe
Cynara’s Destiny – A young sorceress must step up to her position as ruler of a star system before she is ready. With the governors doubting her abilities, she must try to convince them they are being threatened by an alien race who want their worlds. If she can’t control her gifts, she will lose everything.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/product/B093BJMBJ4

Russell D. Jones
Call of the Void – A fast-moving science fiction story, this one will keep you turning the pages. Dr. Beth Adler is a medical researcher aboard a colonization ship.  When something goes awry on the planet and an injured man is brought on board, the doctors discover a bigger problem that threatens the whole ship. Ultimately, Beth is the only one who can solve the problem.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09BW2ZCPX

To find the Vella stories from your computer or tablet, go to this link:

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GR2L4AHPMQ44HNQ7

Are you a suspense romance fan?

If you like it or even just  enjoy suspense novels and thrillers, my alter ego (aka other pen name) is part of a giveaway on Book Funnel. With over thirty books in the promo, you’re sure to find something to read, so check it out. And check out Riona Kelly’s book, Bitter Vintage. It’s a classic suspense romance set in the 1960’s in the Northern California vineyards.

Go to the link.

Until next time when I hope to have a good update on my time travel novel (still in editing), thank you so much for reading. I appreciate it so much.

Lily

Virtual Con Going and a Reminder

 

 

Here we are – almost to the end of August. And I still don’t have the editing to Splintered Time done! One thing after another has gobbled up my time. So, it’s delayed a little longer, but I do want it to be the best I can make it before I release. New target is mid-September. Fingers crossed (but it’s hard to type that way, so just imagine they are!) If you haven’t checked out the first book of the series, Time Walker, you can find it here.

Convention Going in the Covid Era

One thing I did this weekend was to attend the Highlander Convention hosted by Highlander World Wide. Anyone who knows me can tell you I’m a huge Highlander the Series fan. Yes, I did like the movie, but I really fell for the TV series. I loved the actors, plots, and the flashbacks, yet the heart of the episodes were often the moral dilemmas Duncan MacLeod faced from week to week.  The stories made you think and in the HL fandom,  that meant a lot of online discussions.

I was fascinated by the Methos character, a 5,000 year old Immortal who  looked like a young, hip college student as played by Peter Wingfield. So, I started going to conventions and I eventually became president of Peter’s fan club (under another name). This led to a twenty-plus year friendship with lots of the members as well as Peter. Sadly, Peter wasn’t at the convention this weekend. He’s now a doctor in Los Angeles, so he couldn’t get away from work to make the event. But just about everyone else from the cast and key crew made it. What fun to talk about those episodes again and learn the backstories and other tales of filming.

This was hosted on an interesting platform called Floor, which Adrian Paul uses for his Sword Experience. When you enter, it’s set up with a lobby, then places to click for the stage, lobby, lounge, and vendors. After using Zoom for meetings for the past year, this set up really impressed me. If I were to have a big meeting, I’d definitely consider using the Floor platform.

Reminder about the August Vella Promotion

In case you haven’t had a chance to check out Vella yet, there’s still time to get over and look at the great episodic sci-fi and fantasy stories my fellow authors and I have running there. You can read the first three episodes of any or all of them for free, then Amazon gives you 200 token if this is your first visit to use to unlock additional episodes.

Please check it out by clicking this link. (Feel free to share with anyone you think might be interested.)

I just released episode 10 of my story, Cynara’s Destiny and plan to release episode 11 this coming Friday. So check it out.

This is an adventure story set in another solar system as a young sorceress struggles to control her powers when an outside force threatens her worlds.

 

That’s it for this month. Enjoy the rest of summer.  Look for the release of Splintered Time soon!

Stay safe, stay well. All the best – Lily

 

 

 

Amazing Vella Promotion

As I mentioned last post, Vella has arrived at Amazon. Sadly, the big A doesn’t seem to be promoting this new format much, so several of the Vella authors, including yours truly, have banded together to do a promotion through Book Funnel. That’s right, 17 Vella stories are included to entice you to read a few chapters. Simply click on the image below to go to the page to check out the great assortment of stories.

Image for Book Funnel promotion.

Among the offerings is my novel, Cynara’s Destiny. So far, nine episodes are available to read. I’ve been trying to get the eps up every other week, but I hope to pick that up to each week at the end of August when I plan to have Book 2 of my Time Threads series ready to publish. In case you’re wondering, Destiny is completely written and I am doing the final edits just before posting each episode, so it will be a completed book. I know some people don’t like to read a serialized story until all the episodes are up.

But here’s the good part. The first three episodes are free to read. Check out any of these stories you’re interested in, then decide if you want to keep reading. Amazon is giving you 200 free tokens just to give it a try. This format is for tablets and phones, but if you have Google Chrome, you can also read it on your computers. So, what are you waiting for? See what’s being offered on Vella now.

Vella is Here!

The new Kindle Vella format is now live! That means you can go read the first three episodes of my new story “Cynara’s Destiny” for free. After that you can purchase tokens to continue reading. The first 6 episodes are live with two more ready to release soon. After that I will be putting up a new episode every two weeks (or maybe sooner) as I get the final edits done on them.

The story is completed, but I am doing the fine tuning and a little rewriting to make it read better and make sure it’s clean. So, check it out and give me a like on each episode if you enjoy it! Once you get going and purchase tokens, you can vote for a favorite also. Hope it’s mine!

When an alien force threatens, a sixteen-year-old sorceress must learn to use her birthright gifts to save her solar system. Cynara faces opposition and doubt regarding her theories about possible other world invasion from the planet’s governors and she doubts her own ability to protect the whole the system. Telepathically connected to her companion, a frost leopard, the team sets off to discover the truth when crops start dying in the west and the river waters are fouled.

Find “Cynara’s Destiny” at this link:

And be sure to share this link with your friends and other sci-fi/fantasy lovers! Thank you so much!

New Storytelling Format Is Coming

Status of Time Threads second book

Gosh, it’s June already and I’m still editing Splintered Time. I am sorry this is taking so long, but the time travel novel is complex and I don’t want to miss anything or make it too confusing for all you guys to follow. I still plan to get it out in the next month or so.

Introducing a new reading format

The latest trick from Amazon is a treat called Vella. I’m not sure when the exact start date for this new format is, but I thought I initially saw July. Since then, the terminology has changed to a few months. But I am working on a sci-fi fantasy story for it. The concept is to publish the story, episode by episode.  Readers can download the episodes to their phones or tablets or read them on their computers. The Vella Store will be a separate area on Amazon.

Initially, the first three episodes are free to read, then you begin paying tokens for each episode after that. The ratio is 1 token per 100 words in the episode. So, if an episode is 2500 words, it will cost 25 tokens to read it. Tokens are sold beginning at 200 for $1.99. The more you buy, the more extra ones you get. For instance, $14.99 buys 1700 tokens. The idea is the offer episodic fiction to people to read on their phones or tablets on their way to work or while waiting for someone.

With this in mind, I’m rewriting and adapting a story, currently called “Cynara’s Destiny” (that may change), for this new format. I’m really excited about the format and the adventure I’m writing for it.  I’m hoping you’ll be enthused about the possibilities and the tale I’m spinning.

Waiting in the wings…

Overdue, but in the works, Outer Rim is the second book of the O’Ceagan Saga. The first draft is almost done, and it will go into editing after I finish Splintered Time. For now, I’m targeting a Spring 2022 release.

We’ll be following Grania O’Ceagan and her brothers on an adventure that takes them back to Earth, then on to the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

Next on the finish the draft list is Gatekeeper, the first book of my Connected Worlds series.  More about this series later, but I am hoping to get the draft completed by the end of this year. It’s about one-third done now.

That’s all I have this month, but I hope to finally get on a more consistent schedule of updating my blog and newsletter once a month.

Hope you’re almost summer days are going well and see you next month.

Lily