Kindle Vella

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Weird. Were you quoting my post?


Yours shows a different user name and the link doesn't seem to go anywhere.

Yes, I was quoting your post. No idea why it's all messed up.WEIRD.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Only if it's free.

Even free it's too expensive as it costs my time when I could be reading something I may enjoy instead of something not ready to be read.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even free it's too expensive as it costs my time when I could be reading something I may enjoy instead of something not ready to be read.

I agree, it has to be worthwhile to read too.

[binaryhermit]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even free it's too expensive as it costs my time when I could be reading something I may enjoy instead of something not ready to be read.

So I assume you don't read a series of books until the entire series is "complete"?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

So I assume you don't read a series of books until the entire series is "complete"?

Actually, for myself, if the series is one single story with no resolution until the end, yeah, I'd wait. I've been burned by cancelled TV series like that, which is one reason I greatly prefer episodic shows, and not big season or series long arcs. As a secondary background plot line, ok, but I want a story with a beginning, middle and end in each episode, or at least within a few (already produced) episodes.

But thankfully most book series are nothing like that at all. Harry Bosh solves the murder by the end of each book. Miles Vorkosigan completes whatever task is in front of him.

I won't be investing anything (time, emotion or money) in Vella. Thankfully it's not like they are replacing all ebooks with this format, forcing us into it.

[binaryhermit]

How would something like Harry Potter fit within that?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

How would something like Harry Potter fit within that?

I only read the first Harry Potter book. Saw the movies, though.
Speaking of Harry Potter, I'd be surprised if there wasn't some serialized sort of thing like this on Pottermore at some point. It does seem like something that would go over well with that fanbase.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

How would something like Harry Potter fit within that?

There are numerous writers (yes, Dan Brown, I'm lookin' at you!) that write content well suited for the likes of a Vella-type (serialized) environment. Any author you've ever read, pretty much, that uses the action/reaction methodology in his/her writing, that "forces"you to flip the page at the end of the chapter or scene-break, is ideally suited for it.

I don't remember the HPs well enough to argue the case, but it seems to me that JKR wrote chapter endings in such a way that you wanted to turn the page and get on with it. It might work in that environment, but again, I don't recall the writing well enough.

Hitch

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

So I assume you don't read a series of books until the entire series is "complete"?

A series of books is different from WIP's, or 'chapters'. Unless the book series is all cliffhangers (which I hate and won't read if I find this out ahead of time) a WIP, Chapter, or 'Serial' posted stories aren't complete stories until the last bit is given. They're just bits of the arc, however small, that don't have a conclusion or a natural stopping point.

It's not like getting to the end of the first Harry Potter story, for example. Or even a full tv episode. They're like someone picking a random chapter in the book and tearing the later chapters out, then handing you that first bit. You may, or may not, ever, get the rest of the story.

The author may not even know what the rest of the story will be. It's part of the reason so many WIP's are abandoned. Even the author gives up and moves on. (When I was saving WIP bits, years ago, I found that about 35-40% were not finished, even after five years)

Or like watching a tv episode, where a commercial break comes up part way through, and finding out that the commercial break has an indefinite period. It may be a few minutes, a day, a week, a month, a year, before it takes back up where it was interrupted. You may never know, as many authors promise posting dates they can't keep.

When it does come back on, will so much time have passed that 1) you don't remember what was going on, or 2) care?

At least with a book series, I can place my bet that that bit of story arc is complete. However small. But I can't count on that if I get invested in a partial story. Been burned WAY too many times with that.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

A series of books is different from WIP's, or 'chapters'. Unless the book series is all cliffhangers (which I hate and won't read if I find this out ahead of time) a WIP, Chapter, or 'Serial' posted stories aren't complete stories until the last bit is given. They're just bits of the arc, however small, that don't have a conclusion or a natural stopping point.

It's not like getting to the end of the first Harry Potter story, for example. (snippage)

The author may not even know what the rest of the story will be. It's part of the reason so many WIP's are abandoned. Even the author gives up and moves on. (When I was saving WIP bits, years ago, I found that about 35-40% were not finished, even after five years)

(snippage for space)...
When it does come back on, will so much time have passed that 1) you don't remember what was going on, or 2) care?

At least with a book series, I can place my bet that that bit of story arc is complete. However small. But I can't count on that if I get invested in a partial story. Been burned WAY too many times with that.

I agree. I've never gotten over being infuriated with Melanie Rawn and the Ruins of Ambrai series--she either developed a writer's block the size of Manhattan, or wrote herself into a corner from which she couldn't get out, but she'd involved her readers in what, 8 books or so, in the Sunrunner's Fire universe, and then...kablooey? Nothing? No sequel, no last book in the 3rd trilogy, to wrap it up? First I waited a year...then 3...then 5, then 10, then 20...and still NOTHING. (Hell, someone would probably have to tie me down and force me to listen to the third/ninth book, at this point.)

(This is why I've never started GRRM's books. When it's done, fine, then I'll start 'em. He's...mature, for one thing and secondly, Melanie Rawn's behavior burned me on this for life.)

And cliffhangers? I just stopped reading an author I'd come to really like a lot, over this. Nope, if you cliffhang me, I'm breaking up with you. It's one thing to do it at the end of a chapter. It's another to do it at the end of a bloody book, with no sequel in sight.

I wouldn't even mind it, (cliffhanging) in Vella, IF (if if if) the entire series is up and posted. But as the last live one? No. I obviously now have trust issues.

And yes, with WIP stuff....especially today, they are abandoned left, right and center. I keep hoping that Vella will clarify to all these very obviously very young writers that it's not meant for WIP crap. 99% of it isn't even WIP stuff that you'd get from young/new writers in a CW101 class (or 102, etc.); it's this freeform worse-than-sh*tty-first-draft stuff from folks who don't know structure, don't know an inciting incident from a beat, etc.


Hitch

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Hitch

And yes, with WIP stuff....especially today, they are abandoned left, right and center. I keep hoping that Vella will clarify to all these very obviously very young writers that it's not meant for WIP crap. 99% of it isn't even WIP stuff that you'd get from young/new writers in a CW101 class (or 102, etc.); it's this freeform worse-than-sh*tty-first-draft stuff from folks who don't know structure, don't know an inciting incident from a beat, etc.
Hitch

Stop beating around the bush. Tell us how you really feel!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Stop beating around the bush. Tell us how you really feel!

I am beating around the bush. I'd get b*tch-slapped by the mods if I said exactly how I feel, trust me.

Hitch

[jhowell]

I also have no interest in reading a single long story carved up into short pieces and dribbled out a week at a time. The idea of paying to read a work in progress that may never be completed does not appeal to me either.

Vella allows episodes up to 5000 words, the length of a shortish short story. My preferred Vella content would be short stories with a common theme or set of characters, with each story concluded within three sequential episodes. Best would be stories using characters already established by the same author in a traditional book series that I already like. That would get me reading Vella.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Hitch

And cliffhangers? I just stopped reading an author I'd come to really like a lot, over this. Nope, if you cliffhang me, I'm breaking up with you.

I call this "I'm Breaking Up With You":

Spoiler:

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Best would be stories using characters already established by the same author in a traditional book series that I already like. That would get me reading Vella.

I could go with complete short/side stories, or prequels. There are a few, very short, side stories in Michael J. Sullivan's "Riyria Chronicles" fantasy series that I enjoyed. As well as some of the short stories in the "Dresden Files" universe, by Jim Butcher.

But I'd have to trust the author, and the stories would have to be complete.