Kindle Vella Update

[thetalentedmrwulf]

Part of the reason I'm as sketch about Vella as a platform is because their current ebook market is so hyper-specialized that bad market shakeup will obliterate an entire ecosystem of people that only succeeded because of weirdly specialized market forces. I'm writing again, but I have a lot of material that I'm cleaning up and putting back out, but until I'm back writing close to what I use to, I don't have enough archive material to split audiences, or drop big binge-worthy projects in places they won't thrive. Heck, I'm just happy to have an audience again. I was to a point of despair and generalized depression that I was going to delete everything, burn all my hard copies, and just resign myself to a life of sales that I can't stand. It was... bad.

[therosesword]

They are literally doing this for the couple percent advertising pop this gets them in potential readers. These are the RPG min/maxers of writing. Many can write, but the successful among them are way more talented at manipulating a single algorithm than in anything vaguely resembling story-building.

take a guess how many times Miss Loud Mouth Truthtalker (me) has been BANNED from the karen's fb page and must have all posts "approved."

I feel so priveleged.

these are gate keeping boss babes and really... MLM all the way. They have "clubhouses" for group chats and.... ewwwwwww. I'm sure the first time they'd here me say... well that there is f**** I'd be out on my ear... and happy about it.

[cherrystark]

The biggest reason I'm giving it a chance is that there aren't a ton of online sites that cater to my genres: sci-fi/fiction. Since Amazon does cater to all, I figure why not? And if anything, my work will be a welcome change from the already overwhelming romance genre. I also have Fictionate.

[therosesword]

if you show up on vella... you've got us. we have an FB page and we've flat out told people, only truth, no speculation and we've already smacked done one or two who haven't listened. We're pantsers so we keep it to pantsing and writing serialized style.

[cherrystark]

Don't forget we were also both blocked by a girl for questioning her methods! I legitmately didn't understand what she was talking about and then she blocked us.

[therosesword]

The biggest reason I'm giving it a chance is that there aren't a ton of online sites that cater to my genres: sci-fi/fiction.

Same with me, I write Wuxia... there's a market for it there. I'm kinda new at it so if I can feel comfortable after there I can go to the REAL wuxia sites.

[rajillustration]

Hopefully they will move on after their strategy of what may have worked on platforms where quality just didn't matter, and you only needed one sale to sell a book--probably won't work on a platform where you buy a book piece by piece. It's a lot harder to engage an audience long term.

[thetalentedmrwulf]

MLM all the way

YES. That is EXACTLY it. Argh, I despise that crap.

I'll definitely keep a mind open to it. I've got a paranormal detective story I started that would probably do well, but I'll have to see if I can get it just a little further in because I'm not stoked about setting up posts with as small a buffer as I have ready for it right now.

[therosesword]

this has been so revealing and good for us because we just couldn't figure out why everyone was being so.... stupid?

Now we understand and we can move on and let them... go do their thingee.

[cherrystark]

I have two episodes (novella length) stories up and the rest are going to wait until after rewrites are done (which will probably be after the launch). If you decide to upload to Vella later on, I think it's smart to have the story further along. I hate writing to meet the buffer window.

@therosesword I needed this post. I feel SO much better nown.

[thetalentedmrwulf]

Yeah. Tbh, I fell into the same trap. I dove into sub4sub because, embarrassingly, I'm hard-wired to exploit algorithm for previous job marketing businesses. I actually intend to follow up with everyone, consistently, that I subbed to, so that's my attempt to make it right and not just exploit number manipulation.

[jkb4753]

@cherrystark I think we had this convo in the group chat, I called kindle vella support and they said tapas novels COULD NOT be uploaded to vella. I know you have uploaded yours, which is a direct contradiction to the guidance I received. Others in the FB groups have also shared direct correspondence about NOT uploading novels that used to be free. I'm not saying you're wrong or I am right. I'm saying I'm confused. I remain confused. Any insight on this?

also contradictory:
spoke on the phone with a vella rep who said words on covers are okay. so, thats apparently a thing

[cherrystark]

A lot of other people have contacted them about the "free" issue and are getting the same answer. As long as it's not free when you start uploading it to Vella, you're good. The bots are hypersensitive but they are approving the chapters.

[jkb4753]

That's so weird? The rep I spoke to explicitly said it "can NEVER at ANY POINT have been free. NEVER."

I'm naturally paranoid, so I need to think about it. I'm personally hesitant to do something after a rep explicitly told me not to. Granted, thats totally a 'me' issue.

The bots approved your story, which means I guess its okay? And like, lets not pretend there are tons of people doing this, uploading free stories after taking them down.

[therosesword]

bots approved my work too and I have an email stating mine is fine. if you talk to someone tell them it is serialized fiction. do not mention "book." I've unjoined most of the FB pages but one of them actually had a copy of something stating as long as everything was done etc. and they said it was written in guidelines. But.... there's so much wild speculation that I just keep doing what I'm doing and if they tell me no... so be it.

[cherrystark]

And like, lets not pretend there are tons of people doing this, uploading free stories after taking them down.

I honestly think that's why they changed the ruling. Too many people with stories for free. And for the most part, they've been pretty good at reviewing chapters that have been denied by a bot.

[therosesword]

they've been pretty good at reviewing chapters that have been denied by a bot.

Definitely. that one chapter of mine "Drowning" matched up with a whole free online book in a genre totally different than mine and when I started hounding them they backed off and looked at it.

[justasicanbesocruel]

So, question - does Tapas count as being published?

I've recently finished a story on here that's 89ish chapters longs, and I'm sort of thinking about taking it off of Tapas and putting it up on Vella. I'll be editing the **** out of it because, well, it's very much a first draft, and by the time it's done with editing it'll likely have a further twenty chapters...

I ADORE everyone here on Tapas and the readers have been chef's kiss, but a bitch needs milk money, lol. Readers have been kind enough to donate ink, but Tapas isn't really, uh, putting bread on the table, ya know?

So what I'm asking is...if I took my complete serial down from Tapas and worked on it - got rid of spelling errors, added chapters, buffed the story up a bit - does that still count as it having been published elsewhere?

I'm getting some conflicting views on this from several sources, so I thought I'd ask you guys as well.

[cherrystark]

I get it. I've met some amazing people here but grocery money is grocery money. The only hang up with having your stuff published on Tapas is the lack of a paywall. Since Tapas is a free site, the bots will go crazy..

Howeveras long as your work isn't available for free somewhere online OR is behind a paywall of some kind when you start uploading to Vella, you'll be just fine.. There are a lot of writers with stuff on multiple apps so that's a rule Amamzon had to clarify.

[justasicanbesocruel]

I see! Thank you so much.