Cliffhangers. Those were the short series films that came just before the Saturday movie matinee enticing you to come back next week to see what happens next. It might be Hopalong Cassidy being chased by the bad guys or Buck Rogers warding off space aliens. Either way, it left you begging for more.

The series marketing method followed with popular magazines publishing books one chapter at a time each month. Or it might be today’s reality television series or your favorite YouTube channels.

Amazon has picked up on this platform by creating a venue entitled Kindle Vella. This segment of Kindle publishes the author’s work formatted for the smart phone, one chapter at a time and allows the reader to peruse the first three chapters for free. If the reader is enticed to follow the story, then the cost is in tokens charged per episode. For example, if the segment is 935 words long, the reader pays 9 pre-purchased tokens. The minimum requirement is at least 600 words per episode.

Kindle Vella is a great platform for the aspiring writer as well as the seasoned author.  Episodes can be written and published prior to completion of the book. There is no charge to the writer. All one must do is create a Kindle Vella account of author information and include arrangements for receiving payment.

This platform is ideal for those with time or creative constraints. And one can make edits and corrections in previously published episodes. Just make those changes and re-publish that chapter. Each episode is reviewed by Kindle Vella prior to publication.

The most exciting part of this process is to receive an email from Amazon stating that you have earned a royalty from last month’s readers. For an example of this format, go to www.amyalone.com by V Burnish. This is a completed Young Adult novella in 20 adventurous episodes.