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Kindle Vella launched July 13, 2021, which was during the height of the global health crisis. Lots of people were still indoors, and serial fiction apps were booming in popularity. Of course, Amazon wanted a piece of that pie, so that was when they jumped into the serial fiction space with Kindle Vella.
As an author who has participated in a few of Amazon’s programs like Kindle Worlds and Kindle Scout, I was skeptical about this. For one, Amazon is not known as a serial fiction company. Not like places like Webtoon, Webnovel, and Radish. Because of this, I had a feeling they would be setting themselves up for failure. But, like many authors, I decided to check it out and see if maybe I would be proved wrong about Amazon’s business decision. I wrote a short serial and added it to the platform, but I had no intentions of putting extra energy into it and taking it seriously for the long term until I was certain Amazon would be taking this program seriously.
Right off the bat, Amazon was dishing out free money (bonuses) to authors for uploading their stories. It was like a mini gold rush. Of course I cashed in, like many other authors, but I knew that it wouldn’t last long, so it was just a waiting game until those bonuses dried up. They were doing all these incentives and very little advertising of the platform to readers (from what I could see), and it seemed like they were relying on the authors to bring in the readers.
Problem is, most of Amazon’s audience are not serial readers. They like full-length books and cheap/discounted books. I’m not sure what Amazon was thinking when they decided to delve into this space when they clearly have defined themselves as a bookstore (not a serial store) for the past 30+ years.
The writing was already on the wall. Many authors made great money with the program, but that was short-lived. Amazon made changes to the program and started encouraging more free chapters. Much like with many of these serial fiction apps, they went down that road of favoring those who wrote tons of content for free. Basically turning authors into sweatshop creators. So many serial fiction apps have and continue to do this, and I find it downright criminal.
I had pulled my story out of the Kindle Vella program not long after the changes had been implemented. It was a turning point for me when it came to writing serial fiction. I was also on the Radish platform, and they were doing the exact same thing.
I will not work for free.
Now, the announcement about Kindle Vella officially closing (early 2025) had been made, and I am not at all surprised. Of course, I feel for all the authors affected who had been relying on this program for their living expenses. The rug has literally been pulled out from under them. Kindle Vella’s lifespan is about on par to the other Amazon programs that have came and went—about 4-5 years.
This is yet another reminder of why authors should not be building their business on rented land. Anything could change in an instant. Always have a backup plan (and a backup for the backup plan). The industry changes faster than a blink, and authors need to always stay on top of things in case stuff like this happens.
And I cannot stress enough: your IP (intellectual property) is your most valuable asset. No one cares more about your IP than you do.
There will be a lot of displaced authors once the Kindle Vella has been officially shuttered. I think we’re going to see this trend happening to a lot of serial fiction places. There are very few places out there that I would recommend at this point. Patreon is one place that has been around a long time, and has been a tried and true subscription platform for all types of creatives. Substack is another popular one. There’s also Ko-Fi, Buy me a Coffee, and Payhip, just to name a few. And of course, you can host your own subscription right on your own website, which is what I currently do. There are many options and alternatives out there, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to read the fine print and protect your IP at all costs no matter what you decide.
As an indie author, I’m no stranger to these things happening. Companies come and go like the wind. But authors like me have remained resilient and adapted to this change for the long term.