Yesterday, 30 January, the last episode of Tales Macabre and Arabesque went live. The collection of stories is now complete.
You can read my previous update here. I have nothing to add, other than I did get a 40 something dollar bonus for November.
The last locked episodes were read on November 30th. After that, I had a free episode read on December 12th. And that is it. All told, I received $.31 in royalties and $52.36 in bonuses.
For me, Vella is a bust. Sure, the 52 bucks and change was nice. But it won’t break the bank if I don’t get it.
One Vella author advised me to hang out on some of the Vella Facebook pages, where I could tell others about my project, and cross promote with other Vella authors.
And I could do that. But I have no desire to add more time on social media to my schedule. In fact, I have reduced my time to just a couple hours a week so I can focus on writing my next novel.
Attempts to get my mailing list subscribers and followers on Facebook and Twitter to go to Vella all failed. Perhaps due to my older audience. Vella being geared towards a younger smartphone dependent demographic.
All of which leads me to believe that Vella is a closed universe: like Chanillo, Wattpad, Writing.com, and the poetry forums I used to hang out on. And closed universes are difficult to get new people to join.
My other complaint about Vella, is that the romance writers have taken over.
When I did a search for mystery stories, for example, I got romantic suspense, cozy romance mysteries, paranormal romance mysteries, and other equally non-satisfying results.
A search for horror got me monster romance, vampire romance, werewolf romance, shifter romance, and the list went on.
Very disappointing.
Vella was a nice try, but it’s not for me. I’ll continue to follow the couple authors I know there, but I won’t otherwise be reading or publishing on the platform.
I’ve also decided to unpublish Tales Macabre and Arabesque from Vella. Amazon will remove the story collection in a couple months.
So if you want to read some of my spooky and bizarre fiction for next to nothing (tokens are pretty cheap, and the Zon may even give you free ones) — head on over to Kindle Vella.
Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!
CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.
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Thanks for writing this, CW. Most interesting to hear about your experience.
I had zero temptation to try it myself, but that didn’t stop my mild curiosity. What I most relate to is you not wanting to expend any more social media effort for Vella. It definitely isn’t worth time you could be spending writing. 100%. If I were a reader only, it wouldn’t appeal to me either. But we are all different.
I do applaud you for trying it out.
Best,
L.
You’re most welcome, Lisette!
I gave it a try because a friend is making some decent pocket change — and for us retired guys that’s quite often enough.
I’ve only read completed stories on Vella. Never cared much for serials.
But today’s younger crowd of readers might be different. After all, they read fan fiction and Wattpad and both are usually in serial format. Plus they use their phones, and Vella is designed for the phone. I only read on my phone in emergencies, or while waiting in the doctor’s office.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say. And I got 50 bucks out of the deal. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!