I’m doing something different with All the Colors of Death, my latest offering on the Kindle Vella platform: writing it on-the-fly instead of posting the completed work in scheduled episodes. So far, it’s working out okay…

For those not familiar with Vella, which offers serialized fiction and nonfiction, an “episode” is what they call a chapter. The first three “episodes” of any work are free (kind of like the “Look Inside” feature for ebooks). After that, you purchase tokens to unlock subsequent episodes. The number of tokens each “costs” depends on the word count, which can be anywhere from 600 to 5000. After the completed work’s been on the platform for 60 days, you then have the option to publish it, either on KDP or elsewhere. So far, only The Dispossessed has made it to ebook/paperback, but my short story collection, Nightshades, with bonus content not available on Vella, is in the works!

With that in mind, I’ve been cobbling cover designs together for Nightshades. Both incorporate photos/images from royalty-free sites. What do you think?