Hey all! Welcome to the first blog post on a new fortnightly cycle. I’ve been meaning to make the switch for a while – it’s hard to keep up regular, well-researched blog posts weekly whilst also juggling all the other PhD-related things – but kept forgetting to say I was shifting to fortnightly. I’m doing it now and, in my opinion, with one really interesting blog post. Last week I spoke about the cost of self-publishing but what I didn’t get a chance to properly cover was the time investment on the author side. Later in the week, I had a presentation about self-publishing at my university and spoke about some of the interesting ways of publishing nowadays, such as through subscription-style Patreon models. And then, as if all of this had been building up to it, I heard the news about Kindle Vella. So, let’s talk about it.
What is Kindle Vella?
The basic gist, from my understanding, is that Kindle Vella is a way for Amazon to make money from serialised storytelling. But why not let them explain?
So, the TL:DR version is that Kindle Vella enables authors to write and release stories chapter by chapter rather than all in one go. They’re basically bringing back the Charles Dickens way of writing. Readers get to have a nibble at a story series for free and then, if they like it, they can pay to view more chapters with these “tokens”. Is this a new concept? No. Wattpad Premium does something similar, for example. Or you’ll have seen those endless Facebook ads about clickable choose-your-own adventure-esque stories. They also tend to work with a system of some free content and then you pay in tokens for the rest, which you can either earn through watching ads or by being patient. But it’s new to Amazon. Or at least Amazon in the US – it hasn’t hit the UK yet and I haven’t been able to find out when it will.
Potential wins
Looking at Kindle Vella, there are some clear positives out of Amazon launching this. So, who does it help?
Amazon
I can definitely see the strengths of Kindle Vella from Amazon’s perspective. They’ve already seen that a subscription-style service works through Kindle Unlimited, so why not try to capture another popular method of storytelling? It also seems like it would be financially viable for them. The tokens are essentially microtransactions, encouraging readers to keep buying bundles without thinking about the return they’re getting on them. Also, from what I understand, the cost of a new chapter you’re interested in will be priced based on word count, which implies that there may be occasions where you’re just a few tokens short to open a new chapter. Why not buy more?
Authors
There’s no denying that this could work well for authors. In my previous self-publishing post, I didn’t really talk much about the time cost of doing it alone, or the risk that all that investment won’t pay off. It’s an unfortunate reality though – self-published e-books are often sold cheaply, despite the time spent on writing or crafting a social media presence, and that’s not even considering the actual financial costs. But the serialised method… The author could churn out a chapter once a week, building up an audience, and keep making money. If readers don’t go for the story? Kill it. It seems like a good way to test the waters, building up your skills and audience, without it necessarily taking the same level of investment.
Another factor I think is beneficial to the author is the potential for engagement. Amazon is so big that there’s an already established reader community on there, but it’s never really provided the opportunity for authors and readers to engage beyond reviews. With Kindle Vella, readers can like, follow, and even “crown” a weekly fave that could be featured in the online store. The author, meanwhile, can add author’s notes onto the end of their chapters (reminding me heavily of the old days of fanfiction.net). It’s not a real conversation, but it’s a more direct way for readers and authors to talk than they’ve ever really enabled before. This really could allow authors to find their niches and adapt more quickly to suit their audience.
Readers
Out of the three, I think readers are probably the ones who benefit least from Kindle Vella, but there are some perks. While the token idea seems like an easy way to force readers to spend lots of money, serialised fiction seems more fitting to life today. Reading a quick chapter on the way to work, knowing that the next one isn’t going to be released until next week, is surely better than starting a book your boss won’t let you keep reading at your desk. And, of course, there’s the fact that the investment seems so small. Rather than buying a whole book you might hate, you get to test a couple of chapters first. In our time-crunched world, this seems like a good idea. I’m certainly tempted by it.
Potential Issues
Where there are good sides, there have to be bad sides. Honestly, I can’t see bad sides from Amazon’s perspective – the worst that can happen is that it doesn’t take off, much like Kindle-in-Motion – but for others… Yeah, there are potential issues with Kindle Vella.
Authors
Much as with self-publishing generally, there’s always a risk that you won’t find your audience. Kindle Vella doesn’t seem like it’s going to change that, especially if you’re an author outside of the US. Amazon haven’t said when it might expand elsewhere but, by the time it does, there will most likely be a good number of established authors. These authors will have the readers’ trust, therefore maintaining much of their popularity, meaning everyone else will have to scrabble to catch up. I do understand why Amazon has gone for a limited launch while beta-ing Vella, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel unreasonably anxious about the idea I’m missing out…
Somewhat connected to this, I do wonder about the author/reader relationship in Vella. As I noted above, there are some ways to engage but it sounds very stilted. With lots of tokens to spend, I find it hard to imagine readers investing in the author themselves. Why follow them outside the platform? They are just the faceless creator of content, which is then immediately replaced by other content. The only way to get around this would be to churn out more for readers to engage with.
Readers
Obviously I’ve mentioned my issues with the token system from the reader perspective previously. I do think this is quite an exploitative move by Amazon, with the main cost being faced by readers. But, alongside that, many of the good sides experienced by authors sound like potential downsides for readers. You read this really story that is nothing like anything you’ve seen before? The author got bored with it five chapters from the end and never finished it. Found a series you love that you want to read over and over again? The author has removed it from Vella so that they can publish it as an e-book. And lets not mention the fact that the pressure to churn out content may mean weaker content. The reader could be paying lots and just not getting much out of it.
Would I use Kindle Vella?
Honestly, despite some very clear flaws, I still really want to experiment with Vella. I’m honestly so frustrated that it’s not in the UK yet. Even worse, that it wasn’t in place when I first encountered the Shifting Sands problems. I can see how it would work with the “unstable” e-book idea, allowing readers to choose their own way forward within the narrative. They’d probably get a jumbled timeline but that’s not the end of the world. I’m still going to work out my own solutions for Book One but for Two and Three… Vella might be my way forward.
But, for future work outside of Shifting Sands? I’m not sure. Like I said, serialised storytelling isn’t new, nor is Amazon the first to monetise it for a digital age. It’s very like the Patreon model on sites like Royal Road, where readers can pay for advanced chapters and extra content. The difference being that the reader will definitely have to pay at some point and the author has less control. There are less choices, for both author and reader. I have a few projects in mind that I want to play with the Patreon model for and, while Kindle Vella is interesting, I feel like what I really want out of my writing will come from outside Amazon.
So, what do you think about Kindle Vella? Are you looking forward to reading serialised stories, or do you already get them eleswhere?
