Book Genie Articles

Download Free Safe Zone Templates for Instagram Reels and TikTok: Boost Your Author Brand!

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 01:59:19 GMT

Hello authors! We've got something special to help enhance your online presence. Introducing our free downloadable image safe zone templates for Instagram Reels and TikTok!

Why Use Safe Zone Templates?

As an author, it's essential to create eye-catching visuals that resonate with your readers and fans. Safe zone templates provide a handy guide to ensure your images align perfectly on different screen sizes and devices. By using these templates, you can be confident that your graphics will grab attention and look professional.

Download and Customize

Ready to make your visuals stand out on Instagram Reels and TikTok? We've provided two easy-to-use downloadable templates:

1. Instagram Reels Safe Zone Template: Download Here

2. TikTok Safe Zone Template: Download Here

How to Use the Templates

1. Download the preferred safe zone template file.

2. Open your favorite design software or app.

3. Import the template as a separate layer or overlay.

4. Customize your image within the designated safe zone, ensuring important elements are within it.

5. Once you're satisfied, remove the template layer and save/export your file.

What a Romance Novel is…and is Not

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 23:42:51 GMT

I can’t help myself. Every time I meet a happy couple, I need to know how they met. The stories are always so different and so fascinating! You probably have at least one great meet-cute story in your family, circle of friends, or in your community. But why is it a truly terrible idea to take the love story of someone you know and turn that into a romance novel? Can’t I just call my grandma by a different name, change up the facts a little, and write up a romance novel that honors my family’s story?

Well, you shouldn’t. And here’s why.

1) Love stories are not romance novels.

A story is a version of events that contains a beginning, middle, and end. A story tells the listener or reader what happens.
A novel is a story told according to the conventions of the genre to which it belongs.
A romance novel is a specific type of novel, and so if you’re going to successfully write a romance novel, you’ll need to do much more than just tell a love story. What are the conventions of the romance novel? What do you need to include to have a successful, well-structured novel, and not just a love story?

A romance novel is the story of characters who overcome obstacles and resolve those obstacles so they can come together in either a happy ever after ending, or in a happy for now ending.

2) Overcoming the obstacles that stand in the way of love is a critical aspect of the successful romance novel.

No romance novel is complete without both the obstacles and the satisfactory resolution of those obstacles.

I’ll tell you a quick story about a love story that sounded a lot like a romance novel… but it would have failed if I’d tried to write it!

The most magical meet-cute I’ve heard about in a long time happened like most magical things do. It started out as a mundane, routine Saturday night. A girl went to a bar in the city with a group of friends. Let’s call the girl Andi. Andi at one point walked up to the bar to grab some water. Someone sitting alone at the bar struck up a conversation with Andi while she waited for the bartender’s attention. The guy alone at the bar happened to be from the same small town where Andi was raised.

Let’s call the solo man at the bar Robbie. So Robbie chatted Andi up. They knew lots of people in common, shared some history from their small town, and after a few minutes, Robbie invited Andi to a party nearby. Andi told Robbie she was at the bar with people and she couldn’t leave her group. Robbie said, “Everyone can come!” And so within the hour, Andi and her entire group of friends knocked on the door of a stranger’s apartment, expecting to be welcomed in by Robbie.

When the apartment door opened, the person who answered the door was not Robbie. And Robbie never actually showed up at the party. Andi actually never saw Robbie again!

But, a couple of hours later, Andi was head over heels in love with the guy who lived in that apartment. Let’s call him Jake. But there was a complication. Andi lived in another state! She happened to be visiting friends in the city for just that weekend.

But since this is indeed a magical story of romance and meet-cutes, Andi moved back to her home state to be closer to Jake. And wouldn’t you know—they got their happy ending!

Now this sounds like fodder for a great romance novel, right? Romance, tension, drama, unexpected twists, the “will-they/won’t they” question… But this love story would not in fact make a successful romance novel. Why not?

Because critical aspects of the romance novel are missing: goals, conflict, growth, and character arcs!

If you want to learn more about developing the essential building blocks of your book, knowing how to balance too much/not enough conflict, or how to test whether the plot you’ve crafted is strong enough to support your romance novel, sign up for our newsletter or reach out for a personal consultation. We offer workshops, manuscript evaluations , online courses and education, and individual coaching . Until then, enjoy those love stories… and write them down in a journal or idea board. But before you decide to turn that love story into a romance novel, remember the story of Andi and Jake…because it’s just that: a love story !

Kindle Vella - Beginner Performance & Planning Tracker

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 23:38:22 GMT

I wanted to share a beginner template for logging Kindle Vella performance and planning out a series in a google sheet.

It's 100% free and I use it with several authors. If you'd like to share feedback to improve the sheet for new authors feel free to reach out to me.

January 2023 - Survey Results

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 19:49:23 GMT

Disclaimer

The data I'll be referring to was manually submitted anonymously by Kindle Vella Authors and as such we can make no warranty or guarantee regarding the correctness or authenticity of the data. You can read the full disclaimer regarding the data available here: https://www.book-genie.com/kindle-vella-bonus-breakdown . Readers should note that these are informal calculations gathered by unvalidated third party submissions.

NOTE: Amazon has the authority to change the weighting of each variable at any point in time. Our findings shouldn't be considered outside the month measured. (January 2022)

The Process

During the survey I asked Authors to report their results for each each series individually. The following list are metrics I focused on for this month:

“Bonus” - The bonus earned for a single series as reported in the Vella Dashboard
“Top 250 Faved Rank” - If the same series ranked in the Top 250 Faved at month end its position was recorded. Series that didn’t rank were marked with a “Did not rank” tag
“Royalties Earned” - The total royalties accrued for the month. Due to Amazon’s rounding in the dashboard, the results may be rounded to the nearest dollar.
“Total Episodes Unlocked” - The total episodes unlocked for the series in the month of January as reported in the Vella Dashboard
“Paid Episodes Unlocked" - The paid episodes unlocked for the series in the month of January as reported in the Vella Dashboard
“Episodes Released in January” - The published episodes released in December. Completed series were marked as 0.

When analyzing the bonus it is important to remember that authors are paid from a finite pool each month.

This means that the sum of all authors bonuses cannot exceed the total bonus pool announced for the given month. For example in the case of January the bonus pool was $1,000,000 . Adding up every bonus that the authors received in January would therefore give you $1,000,000.

Since the bonus pool is finite, each author’s bonus would therefore be relative to the bonuses of all authors on the platform for the given month. In short, your bonus earnings aren't just dictated by your performance, but compared to the performance of all other authors on the platform.

This means there is no single formula that can be consistently used month on month to accurately predict your bonus. Monthly fluctuations can be influenced by both your performance and the performance of every other author on the platform. Changes in the average author’s performance, an increase in the number of series on the platform, and changes to the bonus pool can impact your bonus.

It should also be noted that episodes unlocked with free tokens are compensated within the bonus. However, we cannot accurately separate these earnings from the bonus.

The correlation coefficient which I have used to compare each variable against bonus earnings is defined as a statistical measure of the strength of a linear relationship between two variables. Its values can range from -1 to 1. Indicating at -1 a perfect negative correlation and at 1 a direct positive correlation, with 0 indicating no correlation.

Simplified for the non-mathsy the closer to 1 the coefficient is the greater the relationship between that variable and the bonus. The closer to 0 the weaker the relationship.

For the statisticians reading I understand that there are other models we could use. However, given the time taken to reach out, compile, and write up this post I've opted to focus on linear correlation. In addition, based on the size of the data I was working with, I determined correlation coefficients were the most practical starting point.

Publishing frequency was analyzed against bonus earnings to determine its significance towards earnings, however, no relationship could be identified.

The Results

I asked submitters to share how their bonus in January had changed from that of December. I’ve attached a chart below comparing those who saw an increase in their bonus, those who saw a decrease in their bonus, and those who had not received a bonus for the prior month.

As per previous articles I will first show the results for relevant correlations with the entire data set . (NOT EXCLUDING OUTLIERS) With that being said the correlation coefficient of each variable to the bonus.

The next step is to remove significant outliers. Next I’ll list the correlations for all bonuses less than $5000.

Lastly for bonuses less than $1000 the correlation were as follows.

This month, our analysis of the correlations between the independent variables and bonus for the month of January 2023 has revealed some interesting insights. While typically we would focus on the differences in correlations to determine the overall impact of each independent variable, this month has shown that the top three variables remain closely correlated. However, what is particularly noteworthy this month is the continued strong relationship between bonuses under $5000 and under $1000. In previous months we've found the strength of these relationships to dip quite dramatically. For example this could indicate a few things from algorithmic changes to the weightings of each variable with a greater weighting on Episode Unlocks (Free and Paid) along with Royalties. It could also indicate a decrease in platform engagement rates.

December 2022 - Survey Results

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 19:19:26 GMT

Disclaimer

NOTE: Amazon has the authority to change the weighting of each variable at any point in time. Our findings shouldn't be considered outside the month measured. (December 2022)

The Process

During the survey I asked Authors to report their results for each each series individually. The following list are metrics I focused on for this month:

“Bonus” - The bonus earned for a single series as reported in the Vella Dashboard
“Top 250 Faved Rank” - If the same series ranked in the Top 250 Faved at month end its position was recorded. Series that didn’t rank were marked with a “Did not rank” tag
“Royalties Earned” - The total royalties accrued for the month. Due to Amazon’s rounding in the dashboard, the results may be rounded to the nearest dollar.
“Total Episodes Unlocked” - The total episodes unlocked for the series in the month of December as reported in the Vella Dashboard
“Paid Episodes Unlocked" - The paid episodes unlocked for the series in the month of December as reported in the Vella Dashboard
“Episodes Released in December” - The published episodes released in December. Completed series were marked as 0.

When analyzing the bonus it is important to remember that authors are paid from a finite pool each month.

This means that the sum of all authors bonuses cannot exceed the total bonus pool announced for the given month. For example in the case of December the bonus pool was $1,000,000. Adding up every bonus that the authors received in December would therefore give you $1,000,000.

It should also be noted that episodes unlocked with free tokens are compensated within the bonus. However, we cannot accurately separate these earnings from the bonus.

Simplified for the non-mathsy the closer to 1 the coefficient is the greater the relationship between that variable and the bonus. The closer to 0 the weaker the relationship.

The Results

Royalties Earned: 0.997
Paid Episodes Unlocked: 0.987
Total Episodes Unlocked: 0.982

The next step is to remove significant outliers. Next I’ll list the correlations for all bonuses less than $5000.

Royalties Earned: 0.719
Paid Episodes Unlocked: 0.744
Total Episodes Unlocked: 0.826

Lastly for bonuses less than $1000 the correlation were as follows.

Royalties Earned: 0.122
Paid Episodes Unlocked: 0.176
Total Episodes Unlocked: 0.225

Readers of my November bonus results might remember that for November, royalties earned was by far the clearest indicator for bonus earnings. The results above for the month of December would suggest that Royalties played less of an impact compared to both paid episodes unlocked and this months highest correlation, Total Episodes Unlocked. This change could be due to the smaller sample size we had to analyze for December as we see Royalties remains the strongest of correlations with outliers included. Alternatively, this could suggest a shift in how Amazon calculates the bonus.

Publishing frequency was analyzed against bonus earnings to determine its significance towards earnings, however, no relationship could be identified.

The impact of a series being marked as complete on bonus earnings compared to an on-going series was analyzed. We found universally that series marked complete earned on average less than on-going series. Furthermore, the average series that did not publish an episode in December AND WAS NOT marked as complete earned a higher bonus than a series marked complete.

Lastly, I asked submitters to share how their bonus in December had changed from that of November. I’ve attached a chart below comparing those who saw an increase in their bonus, those who saw a decrease in their bonus, and those who had not received a bonus for the prior month.

Romance Writer to Reader: Panel Discussion with Jeanne DeVita, Austen Rachlis, Taylor Capizola

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 00:19:28 GMT

November 2022 - Survey Results

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 04:04:49 GMT

Hey Everyone, I wanted to update you all on my findings from the survey I took around the November Kindle Vella Bonus.

Disclaimer

The data I'll be referring to was manually submitted anonymously by over 100 Kindle Vella Authors and as such we can make no warranty or guarantee regarding the correctness or authenticity of the data. You can read the full disclaimer regarding the data available here: https://www.book-genie.com/kindle-vella-bonus-breakdown . Readers should note that these are informal calculations gathered by unvalidated third party submissions.

During the survey I asked Authors to report their results for each each series individually. The following list are metrics I focused on for this month:

“Bonus” - The bonus earned for a single series as reported in the Vella Dashboard
“Top 250 Faved Rank” - If the same series ranked in the Top 250 Faved at month end its position was recorded. Series that didn’t rank were marked with a “Did not rank” tag
“Royalties Earned” - The total royalties accrued for the month. Due to Amazon’s rounding in the dashboard, the results may be rounded to the nearest dollar.
“Total Episodes Unlocked” - The total episodes unlocked for the series in the month of November as reported in the Vella Dashboard
“Paid Episodes Unlocked" - The paid episodes unlocked for the series in the month of November as reported in the Vella Dashboard
“Episodes Released in November” - The published episodes released in November. Completed series were marked as 0.
“Gained Followers” - An estimation of gained followers in November (Bucketed into groups of 50) - Followers was a hard metric for authors to accurately measure as Amazon does not show historical data in the Vella dashboard and so will be excluded from this and future surveys. For the same reason series likes is difficult to accurately report on at scale.

When analyzing the bonus it is important to remember that authors are paid from a finite pool each month.

This means that the sum of all authors bonuses cannot exceed the total bonus pool announced for the given month. For example in the case of November the bonus pool was $1,000,000. Adding up every bonus that the authors received in November would therefore give you $1,000,000.

Since the bonus pool is finite each author’s bonus would therefore be relative to the bonuses of all authors on the platform for the given month. In short your bonus earnings aren't just dictated by your performance, but compared to the performance of all other authors on the platform.

It should also be noted that episodes unlocked with free tokens are compensated within the bonus. However, we cannot accurately separate these earnings from the bonus.

We can look at each variable (e.g. Paid Episode Unlocks) that has been publicly stated by Amazon to impact the bonus and look at its individual relationship (Correlation) to the bonus to predict the weighting of each variable. NOTE: Amazon has the authority to change the weighting of each variable at any point in time. Meaning our findings shouldn't be considered outside the month measured. (November 2022)

Simplified for the non-mathsy the closer to 1 the coefficient is the greater the relationship between that variable and the bonus. The closer to 0 the weaker the relationship.

For the statisticians reading I understand that there are other models we could use. However, given the time taken to reach out, compile, and write up this post I've opted to focus on correlation. In addition, based on the size of the data I was working with, I determined correlation coefficients were the most practical starting point.

My first experiment was to measure the correlation coefficient between the Bonus authors recorded against every other variable. For the first round to help paint a clearer picture I left significant outliers (Bonuses that were abnormally distant from the rest) in. As such these results were heavily influenced by a small set of bonuses.

(Reminder: The closer to 1.000 the stronger the relationship to the bonus the closer to 0.000 the weaker the relationship.)

Royalties Earned: 0.994
Paid Episodes Unlocked: 0.987
Total Episodes Unlocked: 0.984
Episodes Published: 0.015

At this point I decided to remove bonuses larger than $5000 to have a clearer sense of the weightings for the majority of submitters.

With bonuses under $5000 the correlation coefficients were as follows

Royalties Earned: 0.890
Total Episodes Unlocked: 0.535
Paid Episodes Unlocked: 0.525
Episodes Published: 0.159

In this test Royalties had the strongest correlation of all metrics. This trend continued for bonuses under $1000 where the correlation coefficients were as follows.

Royalties Earned: 0.631
Total Episodes Unlocked: 0.24
Paid Episodes Unlocked: 0.216
Episodes Published: 0.160

I’ve included the scattergraphs comparing bonuses “Y Axis” under $5000 & $1000 respectively against royalties “X Axis”

It should be noted that at smaller values (in particular bonuses ranging from $200-$500) the deviation from the trend-line increased. Hence why the correlation coefficient is decreasing as we filter to smaller values.

The reasoning for this could be one of many factors. For example at smaller bonuses other variables that are known to impact your bonus e.g. engagement rates such as number of faves, follows, and likes earned tend to have a wider variance.

I did attempt to investigate what additional variables would cause the variance for bonuses under $1000. Faves earned in a month was unfortunately unmeasurable. Since the top 250 faved list only measures the top 250 highest crowned series, the quantity of faves earned by a series could not be measured. It also meant many series who did not rank but earned a bonus could not be used in this comparison. As such the impact of faves remains unknown.

Engagement such as likes and follows is not historically reported in the dashboard. For this reason we weren't able to gather accurate metrics to analyze the impact here. Episodes published were compared though with the data collected.

No correlation could be found between a higher publishing frequency and bonus. In future I'd like to include the option for completed series to mark themselves as complete in the survey. Secondly I’d like to add an option for new series to mark themselves accordingly.

From the data gathered I found that for the month of November, Royalties had the strongest relationship to the bonus earned.

While I'm sure you all have questions, I'd prefer not to make any predictions as this is an exercise in learning what we can. I fully expect these findings could fluctuate month on month, but to the extent that this helps you better understand what we can learn about the Vella data, I hope this gives some insight (at least as far as we can extrapolate from the voluntarily submitted information.)

Thank you to everyone who contribute to the survey!

Kindle Vella Bonus Breakdown

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 20:51:57 GMT

If you write multiple series please submit them individually. Once submitted refresh the page to reset the form

Past Announcement Dates

Past Announcements By Day

Bonus Pool Sources

Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved Breakdown (February 2022)

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 17:43:49 GMT

The data logged in this article was manually gathered [March 1st, 2022] from the Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved list from information publicly available at the time this article was written. Please be advised the data and insights provided are the opinions of Book Genie. We make no warranty or guarantee regarding the correctness or authenticity of the data, as these are informal calculations gathered via our independent research and is in no way affiliated with or should be construed to represent Amazon, Kindle Vella, or any other Amazon entity.

None of the authors, contributors, administrators, owners, or anyone else connected with Book Genie, in any way whatsoever, can be responsible or liable for your use, reliance, or distribution of the information contained in or linked from these web pages. We respectfully remind readers that we assume no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this data. The information contained here is provided for general informational purposes only on an "as is" basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness. Percentages listed may be rounded.

% Occurrence in 250 Top Faved List

The first chart displays the most frequently occurring genres in the top 250 Faved list on Kindle Vella. We determined these numbers by relying on the genre designations (both primary and secondary categories) for each series. For example, if a series is listed as dystopian and paranormal, that series was counted once in dystopian and once in paranormal. The author's story "tags" were not factored into this analysis.

Month/Month Comparison - Count of Genre Occurrence on the Top 250 Faved List

Continuing to explore the distribution of Genres (both primary and secondary categories) in the Top 250 Faved List I’ve added a Month/Month comparison to display the changes in occurrence from October (2021) to February (2022).

Series Marked as Complete

This section of the report “Series Marked Complete” tracks the percentage of series that finished this month on the Top 250 List that were labeled Complete (using the marker available in the Vella dashboard). In December, 33 (13.2%) series marked complete ranked on the Top 250 Faved List. In January, the number of completed series ranked on the Top 250 Faved List reduced to 28 (11.2%). In February, we can observe the same number of completed series (28) in the Top 250.

Average Series Likes Per Published Episode - Month/Month Comparison

Likes per episode is one method by which authors can evaluate the performance of a series. Authors can use this data to set goals, make projections, and evaluate their series relative to similar series.

In the chart above I have recorded the likes per episode for each series and once again assigned the results to both the primary and secondary genre designations.

While there are many factors that can indicate how a series is performing (unlocked episodes, story follows, etc.) authors can use episode likes to gauge the relative "engagement" of their readers, since likes are a very visible way authors can see that in fact a reader "engaged" with the episode.

While this might be overwhelming news for authors with a small number of overall episodes likes, there is good news. Dividing the likes a series has by its number of published episodes provides an average like per episode. If you compare a 100-episode series to a 10-episode series, a small series may have the same ratio of published episodes to likes.

For example, a series with 100 published episodes and 50 likes has the same "relative engagement" as a series with 10 published episodes and only 5 likes. While the goal of every author is to grow likes and paid episode unlocks, the average number of likes per episode can be a great way to see the performance of your series relative to a series with much larger numbers.

This month I once again have added a comparison to previous months. In so doing we are able to spot growth or decline in engagement by genres.

Average Series Likes - Top 250 Comparison

In the next series of charts including the one above, I wanted to compare series ranked on the Top 250 Faved List. For this analysis, I've created an average of the total likes in groups of 25. The reason for this is the current page view on Vella indexes series on the Top 250 List in groups of 25 per page.

The above chart shows the average number of likes each series has accumulated. For comparison the months November through February are listed.

Therefore the series that rank between 1 and 25 on the Top Fave list average 10698 likes per series.

Average Episode Count - Top 250 Comparison

The above chart shows the average number of episodes each series has accumulated for each group (page). For comparison, I’ve shown the results from November through February.

Publishing Frequency Distribution in the Top 250 Faved

The above chart displays the distribution of publishing frequency in the Top 250 Faved List on Kindle Vella. For this chart, series marked complete were excluded.

Conclusions

Platform Growth Continues at a Slower Pace.

As we can see from the graphs which plot likes per episode, on average series saw an increase in month-on-month engagement per episode regardless of genre. The rate of growth however has slowed down in February compared to January. There are several reasons that this could be the case. However, the burst in reads brought on by the Android/Kindle release in January I believe to be the most likely reason for the slower growth in February.

Higher Positioning = Exponential Engagement?

Observing the series average series likes broken down by page, we can see that series engagement (Likes) exponentially increases the higher up a series appears in the Top 250 Faved List.

Furthermore, the month-on-month change in engagement is exponentially greater for higher-performing series.

It’s possible that the higher the position a series can maintain the greater its engagement on Vella. However, it should also be noted that in order to achieve a higher rank on the Top 250 Faved List a series would need to first increase its series engagement.

Frequently Occurring Genres Have Stayed Relatively Consistent.

Looking at the graph comparing month on month the count of genres on the Top 250 Faved List, we can see that since November the genres represented on the Top 250 Faved List have seen negligible change, which suggests that the most frequently occurring genres on the Top 250 Faved List are likely to remain consistent.

Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved List Breakdown (January 2022)

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 01:50:37 GMT

The Data

The data logged in this article was manually gathered [February 1st 2022] from the Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved list from information publicly available at the time this article was written. Please be advised the data and insights provided are the opinions of Book Genie. We make no warranty or guarantee regarding the correctness or authenticity of the data, as these are informal calculations gathered via our independent research and is in no way affiliated with or should be construed to represent Amazon, Kindle Vella, or any other Amazon entity.

None of the authors, contributors, administrators, owners, or anyone else connected with Book Genie, in any way whatsoever, can be responsible or liable for your use, reliance, or distribution of the information contained in or linked from these web pages. We respectfully remind readers that we assume no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this data. The information contained here is provided for general informational purposes only on an "as is" basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness. Percentages listed may be rounded.

Series Genre Distribution in the Top 250 Faved List

Month/Month Comparison

This month I’ve added a few new sections to the report due to author interest. Continuing to explore the distribution of Genres (both primary and secondary categories) in the top 250 list I’ve added a Month/Month comparison to display the changes in occurrence from December to January.

Series Marked as Complete

This section of the report “Series marked complete” tracks the percentage of series that finished this month in the top 250 list that had labeled themselves with the Completed marker available in the Vella dashboard. In December we saw a total of 33 (13.2%) series marked complete finish in the top 250. However, in January the number of completed series ranked in the Top 250 has reduced to 28 (11.2%).

Series Likes per published episode - Month/Month comparison

In the chart above I have recorded the likes per episode for each series and once again assigned the results to both the primary and secondary genre designations.

While this might be overwhelming news for authors with a small number of overall episodes likes, there is good news. Dividing the likes a series has by its number of published episodes provides an average like per episode. If you compare a 100 episode series to a 10 episode series, a small series may have the same ratio of published episodes to likes.

This month I once again have added a comparison to the previous month. In so doing we are able to spot growth or decline in engagement by genres.

Average Series Likes - Month/Month Comparison

In the next series of charts including the one above I wanted to compare series ranked on the top 250 List. For this analysis, I've created an average of the total likes in groups of 25. The reason for this is the current page view on Vella indexes series on the Top 250 List in groups of 25 per page.

The above chart shows the average number of likes each series has accumulated over the total numbers of published episodes for each group (page). In addition I’ve added to the chart December’s results for comparison.

So the series that rank between 1 and 25 on the Top Fave list average 7859 likes per series.

Average Series Likes/Episode - Month/Month Comparison

Like the previous chart, the chart above groups series by their position on the top 250 Fave List again per page view, 1-25, 26-50, and so on. This chart provides the average number of likes that an episode has received for series bundled per page view, 1-25, 26-50, and so on. So for example, series that rank between 1-25 on the Faved List averaged 179 likes per episode. Again I’ve added December's results for comparison.

Publishing Frequency Distribution in the Top 250 Faved

The above chart displays the distribution of publishing frequencies in the top 250 Faved List on Kindle Vella. For this chart series marked complete were excluded.

Publishing Frequencies of the Top 25 Series

Finally, the above chart looks at the distribution of publishing frequencies and counts publishing frequency within only the top 25 series on Kindle Vella (as opposed to the above which includes the entire 250 Tope Faved List).

Conclusions

Once a week is the most common of release schedules.

As we can see from both reports on publishing frequency the most commonly occurring publishing frequency was “4 in the last 30 days” with both 3 & 5 performing high too. This publishing frequency closely tracks with a once per week publishing schedule.

However, it should be noted that publishing frequency does not seem to factor into how high a series can rank on the top 250 list. The top 25 series show a wide range of publishing frequencies. Authors should use once per week as a rough guide for what is common on Vella.

The platform is growing!

As we can see from graphs plotting likes per episode, we can see across the board significant increases in the engagement per episode regardless of genre. This would signal that either the ability/incentive for readers to engage has increased or that the volume of readers that are contributing to reads has increased. The latter of which I believe to be the case due to recent updates from Amazon, the addition to both Android and various Kindle devices, and finally monetary incentives being sent through push notifications to Kindle app users.

Romance remains dominant.

As we can see from the genre distribution reports there appears to be very little shift in the percentage of genres that finish in the top 250 Faved List, with Romance remaining the significant leader.

Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved List Breakdown (December 2021)

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 01:37:16 GMT

The Data

The data logged in this article was manually gathered [January 1st 2022] from the Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved list from information publicly available at the time this article was written. Please be advised the data and insights provided are the opinions of Book Genie. We make no warranty or guarantee regarding the correctness or authenticity of the data, as these are informal calculations gathered via our independent research and is in no way affiliated with or should be construed to represent Amazon, Kindle Vella, or any other Amazon entity.

None of the authors, contributors, administrators, owners, or anyone else connected with Book Genie, in any way whatsoever, can be responsible or liable for your use, reliance, or distribution of the information contained in or linked from these web pages. We respectfully remind readers that we assume no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this data. The information contained here is provided for general informational purposes only on an "as is" basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness. Percentages listed are rounded.

Genre Label Distribution in the Top 250

Series Genre Distribution in the Top 250 Faved List

The first chart displays the most frequently occurring genres in the top 250 faved list on Kindle Vella. We determined these numbers by relying on the genre designations (both primary and secondary categories) for each series. For example, if a series is listed as dystopian and paranormal, that series was counted once in dystopian and once in paranormal. The author's story "tags" were not factored into this analysis. In descending order the genres represented on Vella are ranked as follows:

Distribution of Total Episode Likes per Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

This chart displays the distribution of episode likes attributed to each genre. As in the previous chart, each episode "like" has been counted twice: once in the primary genre (category) designation for the series and once for the secondary (category) genre designation of the series.

For series with only one genre designation, the likes were attributed only to that single genre. This graph, in comparison to the previous, allows us to draw some insights into the engagement levels for each genre.

For example, in the first chart, Paranormal ranked as the third highest occurring genre designation on the Top Fave leaderboard, following Romance and Fantasy. However, when we compare total likes, we can see that Paranormal series earned more likes than Fantasy series (again for those series ranked on the Top 250 list).

Romance series earned the greatest number of likes per episode, which makes sense since the largest number of series on the Top 250 list are categorized as romance.

Distribution of Volume of Episodes Published per Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

This third chart shows the relative volume of episodes published by genre for series that ranked on the top 250 Fave List (grouped again by genre designation for both primary and secondary genres). This is an inclusive roundup, meaning that all episodes available for purchase by readers in November 2021 were counted, regardless of when they were published by the author. As you can see, the genres with the highest representation on the Top 250 Fave List (Romance, Fantasy, and Paranormal) are also the genres with the highest relative rate of published episodes.

Average Likes per Episode by Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

Likes per episode is one method by which authors can evaluate the performance of a series. Authors can use this data to set goals, make projections, and to evaluate their series relative to similar series.

In the chart above I have recorded the likes per episode for each series and once again assigned the results to both the primary and secondary genre designations.

While this might be overwhelming news for authors with small overall episodes likes, there is good news. Dividing the likes a series has by its number of published episodes provides an average like per episode. If you compare a 100 episode series to a 10 episode series, a small series may have the same ratio of published episodes to likes.

December 2021 saw a rise in the engagement per episode for series categorized as humor substantially ahead of other genres.

Genre Combinations in the Top 250

Most Frequently Occurring Genre Combinations in the Top 250 Faved List

The above chart displays another way to look at the genre designations for the series on the Top 250 Fave List. In the previous charts, each story was given two scores, one for each genre designation. The chart above combines the two genre categories for each of the Top 250 series into one "designated genre combination."

What that means is that instead of a dystopian paranormal series being counted once in dystopian and once in paranormal, we counted the series as "dystopian paranormal." In so doing, we compare not only the two genre designations per series, but the overall genre pairings used in the top 250 faved list on Kindle Vella. For clarification, the genres Paranormal/Romance and Romance/Paranormal are labeled under one group: Paranormal Romance.

Accordingly, the top two most frequently occurring combinations are as follows:

Paranormal/Romance (19.4%) Fantasty/Romance (10.8%)

The Top 250 Compared by Rank

Average Series Likes for Series on the Top 250 List

In the next series of charts including the one above I wanted to compare series in the top 250 List. For this analysis, I've created an average of the total likes in groups of 25. The reason for this is the current page view on Vella indexes series on the Top 250 List in groups of 25 per page.

The above chart shows the average number of likes each series has accumulated over the total numbers of published episodes for each group (page). So the series that rank between 1 and 25 on the Top Fave list average 4069 likes per series.

Average Number of Published Episodes of a Series by Rank on the 250 Top Fave List

The chart above looks at each series by its rank in the top 250 Faved List group by 25 (the per page view on the Fave List). This chart reflects the average number of published episodes per series, so series that rank between 1-25 on the Fave List average as of month-end December 2021, 39 published episodes and so on.

Average Likes per Episode of a Series by Rank on Top 250 List

The final chart in this series groups series by their position on the top 250 Fave List again per page view, 1-25, 26-50, and so on. This chart provides the average number of likes that an episode has received for series per page view, 1-25, 26-50, and so on. So for example, series that rank between 1-25 on the Fave List averaged 103 likes per episode.

Conclusions

Individual genres (e.g. Paranormal as opposed to Paranormal Romance) on the whole saw little change to the chances that they’d occur on the top 250 list.

The Paranormal Romance combination saw huge growth in occurrence within the top 250 list. An increase from 11.2% to 19.4% meaning that almost 1 in every 5 of series on the top 250 list was categorized as Paranormal Romance.

The average likes per episode of a top-performing series as judged by its position on the top 250 list has increased from the previous month (November) with ranks 1-25 on average increasing their likes per episode by 25%. What I would take from this is that series which have finished in the top 25 position this month saw on average a 25% increase in engagement/the number of accumulated likes. What this may also mean is that the volume of new readers coming to the platform is increasing.

Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved List Breakdown (November 2021)

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 00:22:09 GMT

The Data

The data logged in this article was manually gathered [December 1st 2021] from the Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved list from information publicly available at the time this article was written. Please be advised the data and insights provided are the opinions of Book Genie. We make no warranty or guarantee regarding the correctness or authenticity of the data, as these are informal calculations gathered via our independent research and is in no way affiliated with or should be construed to represent Amazon, Kindle Vella, or any other Amazon entity.

Genre Label Distribution in the Top 250

Series Genre Distribution in the Top 250 Faved List

Distribution of Total Episode Likes per Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

For example, in the first chart, Paranormal ranked as the third highest occurring genre designation on the Top Fave leaderboard, following Romance and Fantasy. However, when we compare total likes, we can see that Paranormal series earned significantly more likes than Fantasy series (again for those series ranked on the Top 250 list).

Romance series earned the greatest number of likes per episode, which makes sense since the largest number of series on the Top 250 list are categorized as romance.

Distribution of Volume of Episodes Published per Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

Average Likes per Episode by Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

My favorite metric is captured in the table above: likes per episode.

In the chart above I have recorded the likes per episode for each series and once again assigned the results to both the primary and secondary genre designations.

I find it interesting to note the genre that has the highest engagement on Kindle Vella (based solely on the average episode likes) as of December 1st appears to be Nonfiction, after which we see Paranormal, Romance, and Dystopian.

Genre Combinations in the Top 250

Most Frequently Occurring Genre Combinations in the Top 250 Faved List

Accordingly, the top three most frequently occurring combinations are as follows:

Paranormal/Romance (11.2%)
Erotica/Romance (7.2%)
Romance/Humor (6.4%)

The Top 250 Compared by Rank

Average Series Likes for Series on the Top 250 List

Average Number of Published Episodes of a Series by Rank on the 250 Top Fave List

Average Likes per Episode of a Series by Rank on Top 250 List

Insights

Romance has seen huge growth

In the month of November (2021), the romance genre increased its majority share of the top 250 Faved series on Kindle Vella. In particular we’ve seen a rise in Erotica/Romance as well as Humor/ Romance. However, Paranormal/Romance remains the dominant genre combination on the platform. Romance makes up a staggering 29% of episodes on the top 250 Faved List and a whopping 34.5% of the total likes.

Multi-Genre listings remain prominent on the Top 250 List

Consistent with October data, we can see that in November it was more common for a series with two categories/genres to be listed on the Top 250 List than a series with only one genre category identified in the story details. In particular, the number of series that combine Romance with another genre have increased in presence on the Top 250 list over October.

Leading Genres

At the time of writing this article, Paranormal, Romance, and Dystopian series are the fastest growing genres (as determined by likes per episode) on the Top 250 Faved List.

Top Performing Series have more published episodes on average

As we can see from the chart, the higher ranking series on average have more episodes available to their readers than those which rank lower.

Top Performing Series have higher rate of likes per episode

The charts suggest that series higher on the Top Fave list received higher rates of likes per episode than series lower on the list.

**There are many ways to evaluate the performance of a series, including using data that Book Genie would not have access to, including series follows, paid episode unlocks, reviews, and "crowns," or the number of "fave" designations a series has received from readers. Using publicly available information about Likes, Numbers of Episodes Published, and etc. is one method to review data and draw conclusions, but this data alone will of course not create a complete picture of the performance of any series.

If you'd like to learn more about writing and marketing a series on Kindle Vella, consider joining our community on Book Genie. We offer classes on craft for writers at all stages of their careers, marketing and platform building services, and we have a robust network of free resources and community discussion where you can engage with professionals as well as peers for moderated discussion and evidence-based content.

If you're a writer on Vella, reach out with questions or comments any time. If you decide to share this graph or data, please be sure to use the image with the Book Genie logo and acknowledge the team whose efforts put this information together. We appreciate your consideration!

Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved List Breakdown (October 2021)

michael@romancewritingacademy.com (Michael Lee) — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 07:31:23 GMT

The Data

The data logged in this article was manually gathered [November 21st 2021] from the Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved list from information publicly available at the time this article was written. Please be advised the data and insights provided are the opinions of Book Genie. We make no warranty or guarantee regarding the correctness or authenticity of the data, as these are informal calculations gathered via our independent research and is in no way affiliated with or should be construed to represent Amazon, Kindle Vella, or any other Amazon entity.

Genre Label Distribution in the Top 250

The first chart displays the most frequently occurring genres in the top 250 faved list on Kindle Vella. We determined these numbers by relying on the genre designations (both primary and secondary) for each series. For example, if a series is listed as dystopian and paranormal, that series was counted once in dystopian and once in paranormal. The author's story "tags" were not factored into this analysis. In descending order the genres on Vella are ranked as follows:

Romance (22.7%)
Fantasy (14.1%)
Paranormal (10.7%)
Action & Adventure (9.5%)
Teen & Young Adult (8.2%)
Science Fiction (8.0%)
Thriller (5.1%)
Humor (4.4%)
Mystery (4.4%)
Erotica (4.2%)
Dystopian (3.6%)
LGBT Fiction (2.7%)
Historical Fiction (1.9%)
Nonfiction (0.4%)

Genre Combinations in the Top 250

The second chart displays another way to look at the genre designations. In the first chart (previous), each story was given two scores, one for each genre designation. This second chart combines the two genres into one "designated genre combination." What that means is that instead of a dystopian paranormal series being counted once in dystopian and once in paranormal, we counted the series as "dystopian paranormal." In so doing, we compare not only the two genre designations per series, but the overall genre pairings used in the top 250 faved list on Kindle Vella. For clarification, the genres Paranormal/Romance and Romance/Paranormal are labeled under one group: Paranormal Romance.

Accordingly, the top three most frequently occurring combinations are as follows:

Paranormal/Romance (10.4%)
Fantasy/Action & Adventure (6.8%)
Fantasy/Romance (5.2%)

Insights

Love is in the air

As of October 2021 data, the romance genre makes up almost a quarter of the top 250 faved series on Kindle Vella. Authors writing in any of the genres (e.g. Paranormal Romance, Fantasy Romance, Romance [No Other Label]) are seeing on average more prominence in the top 250. Even Erotic Romance which has been troubled with countering a mature filter put in place on Kindle Vella's indexing has managed to outperform several non-romance genres.

In particular, paranormal romance, which was the most frequently listed genre in the top 250, is dominating the platform with nine series more than its closest rival Fantasy/Action & Adventure.

Multi-Genre listings are more prominent on the top 250 list

From this data we can see that it was more common for a multi-genre series to be listed on the top 250 list than series with only one listed genre. Fantasy is a brilliant example of this. Series designated as one genre, Fantasy only, made up only 0.8% of the 250 list. Series designated as Romance and Fantasy make up 5.2% of the top 250 list, and Fantasy with Action & Adventure 6.8%. Fantasy-Humor make up 1.2% of the top 250 list.

Nonfiction is lagging

It's early days for Kindle Vella so genre popularity is certain to fluctuate over time. However, one genre that is certainly lagging behind the others is nonfiction. In October 2021, only 2 of the top 250 series on Kindle Vella were labeled nonfiction.

It's still early days

As Amazon has said in interviews and other publicly available information, this is "Day One" for Kindle Vella. As readership expands and the platform gains not only exposure with readers but participation by writers publishing on the platform, trends may emerge that can help writers understand which types of series and which genres may perform best on Vella.

We would not recommend at this time that authors use this information to make decisions about your publishing plans. For example, you may be the writer whose nonfiction work leaps to the top of the leaderboard and teaches writers that follow you a lot about how to find your niche on Vella. We share these stats for information only, but encourage each author to use at your discretion.

We'll be studying trends, changes, and the development of the platform and hope you're as excited as we are about contributing to Vella's growth and success.

If you'd like to learn more about writing and marketing a series on Kindle Vella consider joining our community on Book Genie. We offer classes on craft for writers at all stages of their careers, marketing and platform building services, and we have a robust network of free resources and community discussion where you can engage with professionals as well as peers for moderated discussion and evidence-based content.

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Conclusions

﻿

Once a week is the most common of release schedules.

The platform is growing!

Romance remains dominant.

Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved List Breakdown (December 2021)

The Data

Genre Label Distribution in the Top 250

Series Genre Distribution in the Top 250 Faved List

Distribution of Total Episode Likes per Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

Distribution of Volume of Episodes Published per Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

Average Likes per Episode by Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

Genre Combinations in the Top 250

Most Frequently Occurring Genre Combinations in the Top 250 Faved List

The Top 250 Compared by Rank

Average Series Likes for Series on the Top 250 List

Average Number of Published Episodes of a Series by Rank on the 250 Top Fave List

Average Likes per Episode of a Series by Rank on Top 250 List

Conclusions

Kindle Vella Top 250 Faved List Breakdown (November 2021)

The Data

Genre Label Distribution in the Top 250

Series Genre Distribution in the Top 250 Faved List

Distribution of Total Episode Likes per Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

Distribution of Volume of Episodes Published per Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

Average Likes per Episode by Genre in the Top 250 Faved List

Genre Combinations in the Top 250

Most Frequently Occurring Genre Combinations in the Top 250 Faved List

The Top 250 Compared by Rank

Average Series Likes for Series on the Top 250 List

Average Number of Published Episodes of a Series by Rank on the 250 Top Fave List

Average Likes per Episode of a Series by Rank on Top 250 List

Insights

Romance has seen huge growth

Multi-Genre listings remain prominent on the Top 250 List

Leading Genres

Top Performing Series have more published episodes on average