R.I.P. Kindle Vella

[skeletor]

Just got the email. They're finally axing Kindle Vella. "We've made the difficult decision to gradually wind down Kindle Vella in February 2025 as the program hasn't caught on as we'd hoped."

I don't really know what their hopes for the program were, seeing as how they scarcely advertised it over the years, but those few who actually managed to earn decent bonuses are likely to be mad about this. I'm just surprised that they didn't pull the plug sooner.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Yeah, I had a hard time convincing myself that Vella was a better path than publishing full-length novels as usual.  I got the feeling that Amazon didn't really care if it worked or not and was just going through the motions in order to have a product comparable to those at competing sites.

[Lynn]

Not glad to see it fail but definitely saw it coming. They treated it like a failed project from the start.

[TimothyEllis]

They never even made it available to everyone, so no surprise it failed.

[LilyBLily]

I read parts of a book by a favorite author in Vella, but since she was writing it as she went, I was reading too fast for her. That's the reality for a voracious genre reader. We gulp books down. A long, drawn-out serial is not for us.

[TimothyEllis]

I read parts of a book by a favorite author in Vella, but since she was writing it as she went, I was reading too fast for her. That's the reality for a voracious genre reader. We gulp books down. A long, drawn-out serial is not for us.

How often were the installments posted, and how big?

[alhawke]

So what happens to the authors who created all those shorts? Are they transferred to the main store as short stories? Or are they eliminated? I almost contributed to Vella but it never seemed to take off well. Glad I didn't.

[Lynn]

So what happens to the authors who created all those shorts? Are they transferred to the main store as short stories? Or are they eliminated? I almost contributed to Vella but it never seemed to take off well. Glad I didn't.

The message says it will all be deleted. So nothing will happen. Which makes sense, because there was never anything in the terms that said they had the right to do anything with the stories other than using them in Vella. It's really the only thing they can do without a huge backlash. They did change the terms to allow immediate publishing in KDP if you want to republish your story, and there's a tool coming soon that will allow you to download your stories. (I assume for the people who wrote in the dashboard? Crazy, I know. I would never... :D)

[Lynn]

Here are some useful links if you want more information on it.

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GUJHP3574Z3DLPZD#changes

https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/Kindle-Vella-Announcement?language=en_US&forum=KDP%20Forum

[LilyBLily]

I read parts of a book by a favorite author in Vella, but since she was writing it as she went, I was reading too fast for her. That's the reality for a voracious genre reader. We gulp books down. A long, drawn-out serial is not for us.

How often were the installments posted, and how big?

Honestly don't remember. Short chapters. It was an interesting story, but I did the math about paying for it, and that also discouraged me. Plus, to be honest, I didn't really feel I understood the system of free versus paid. There were credits? It reminded me of visiting a casino and being given some free chips.

[Bill Hiatt]

The fact that people had to pay much more for the Kindle Vella installments than it would have for an equivalent ebook was an important factor in the program's demise. When I was checking out Vella, I noticed a lot of reviewers complaining about that very thing, with comments like, "I liked the story, but it cost too much."

Reviews at the time also revealed another problem--many of the participating writers weren't consistent enough or fast enough to satisfy readers. What they probably should have done was have the whole serial written before they started so that they could release smoothly, but a lot clearly didn't do that.

On the whole, I'm surprised Vella lasted as long as it did.

[writeway]

I never used Vella. I could tell when it started that it wasn't gonna be much because Amazon started off relying on authors to do all the legwork with gathering readers, advertising, etc. I'm not shocked it shut down but shocked it did NOW. I knew in my heart that it wouldn't last much longer though especially when I saw how bad the bonuses got and when they started that new Vellys thing, *eye roll*, it just reeked of desperation.

That said, I feel sorry for any author who this negatively impacts.