Strange, Weird, HUH? with Kindle Vella Writers

[cherrystark]

Their thinking is that their best shot for readership is to stay around 1.5K words, for every chapter and if you go longer they'll get bored and too short, the readers will feel cheated. While there is a grain of salt to this idea, I love variety in my chapter lengths as a reader.

My favorite bits of "logic" circling these groups is to "load up" your first free chapters (which are free) to draw readers in and cut the word count in half for the rest of the series. (Think 3.5K to 1.5K words)

The other bit is that it's better to widdle down your word count to fit their guidelines and loose money instead of dividing the section into smaller chapters. These "edits" come after your regular editing. One newer writer had a 6k word chapter (yikes) and instead of just splitting it into smaller increments like a lot of writers here do, one lady (same lady who blocked @therosesword and I) encouraged the writer to scrap a good 75% of it to get it down to the "sweet spot".

[therosesword]

(same lady who blocked @therosesword and I)

I consider it badge of honor and I wear it proudly

another aspect of the people cutting things down was (according to the lady who did what she did) was, she would read through and cut two words here, and one word there and maybe three words in another spot.

I thought I'd scratch my head raw reading her "advice."

[jmccubbins]

So.. this has caught my curiosity... a lot. I'm thinking of trying it just to see what happens...lol

[therosesword]

and lets not forget the conversation about adding 20 words to hit the next one hundred words... oh, that... now THAT was a conversation. or did we cover that on another thread... we may have

[therosesword]

even if you're not a pantser you have to join our fb page, although, our folks are pretty good, it's some of the other pages that leave you wondering when you got the lobotomy

[cherrystark]

AND!!! I might have already shared this story but the same, sweet, sweet crazy lady took it upon herself to edit another graphic designer's cover image to better fit the "genre" she assumed the artist was going for. Nowhere did the original artist ask for feedback or critiques on the image. They just asked us to guess which genre fit for their picture. Needless to say @therosesword and I were very quick to defind the artist. (Their work was better than her edits.)

[therosesword]

the same, sweet, sweet crazy lady took it upon herself to edit another graphic designer's cover image

ooooohhhhh, that was epic!

[jmccubbins]

Ah ok how do i do that?

[therosesword]

well, if you're on FB request to join the group: Kindle vella Pantsers and Serializers. but remember, the really wacky stuff doesn't happen that much on our page because we nip it before it starts.

We ask three questions and you can tell us your tapas handle and we'll know who you are unless it's the same name as here, then we'll know

[jmccubbins]

Ah ok. uh i don't have Facebook but i may just have to make an account for this lol

[cherrystark]

I made a FB account just to promote my series. There is no rush or pressure to join. The idea of the groups is theoretically like the forums, a place for authors to socialize and collaborate.

[Kaydreamer]

I'm on retreat on 5 acres with deer, I think the deer just scattered I'm howling with laughhter.... dang, girl, that was funny

Glad I could be of service!

Their thinking is that their best shot for readership is to stay around 1.5K words, for every chapter and if you go longer they'll get bored and too short, the readers will feel cheated. While there is a grain of salt to this idea, I love variety in my chapter lengths as a reader.

Yiiiikes. Whatever happened to "make sure each chapter is well-written, immersive, and tells the story it needs to tell in a satisfying way?" Seems like a better approach to me.

I get the feeling these women aren't very good writers, and their answer to that (rather than facing the fact that they need to work on their craft) is to figure out how to game the system somehow.

[therosesword]

Yiiiikes. Whatever happened to "make sure each chapter is well-written, immersive, and tells the story it needs to tell in a satisfying way?" Seems like a better approach to me.

I get the feeling these women aren't very good writers, and their answer to that (rather than facing the fact that they need to work on their craft) is to figure out how to game the system somehow.

You have no idea how many times I've stated "quality over quantity" and "don't worry about that, just make sure the writing sells the story" etc. etc.

they need to work on their craft) is to figure out how to game the system somehow.

totally. That's what it sounds like most of the time. I have yet to hear any discussions about writing other than which genre do you think will sell best.

sigh

[cherrystark]

Yiiiikes. Whatever happened to "make sure each chapter is well-written, immersive, and tells the story it needs to tell in a satisfying way?" Seems like a better approach to me.

I get the feeling these women aren't very good writers, and their answer to that (rather than facing the fact that they need to work on their craft) is to figure out how to game the system somehow.

I looked up some of their work on Amazon and read some samples of their work and imo, their stuff was cringey. But it wasn't my cup of tea. They had the rave reviews but there was an equal amount of 1 star reviews.

Like @therosesword said "quality over quantity". I am in the same mindset as you to "make sure each chapter is well-written, immersive, and tells the story in a satisfying way". It's a much better frame of mind.

[cherrystark]

Or the discussions on "how long should each season be?" or "how many seasons should I have?"

We've had discussions on "seasons" here but the general consenus seememd to be to write the season length that worked best for you.

[NinaWrites]

@cherrystark or @therosesword what's Amazon vella's policy in publishing smutty, dirty, sexy, explicit sex words? (I.e. erotica)

[cherrystark]

You'd have to look at their site for that but yeah, there are a lot of erotica writers in the groups. They do "approve" each chapter to meet their TOS and I did read a post where a lady's chapter was banned because it was TOO disturbing.

[NinaWrites]

Bwhahahaha I don't know why I laughed at that comment. I can imagine "mature" ladies discussing over tea the flowery language one might use to describe an act of copulation (based on the current theme you and rosesword are telling us on their conduct) hehe

[therosesword]

One of the things that, frankly, bugs me is that they (vella) don't have a way of identifying things like here on tapas where you can put up a notice that says "explicit"

You just have your general categories

[NinaWrites]

Oh that really really sucks. I would be concern for minors - which I'm assuming can easily access such content without their knowledge. I can see a possible legal dispute over that.