Vella: The Longer and Shorter of It

Vella: The Longer and Shorter of It

A few months ago, I blogged about my experiences on Amazon’s new(ish) serial platform and interviewed Vella author N. Y. Seely. You can find that article here if you want some background on the platform overall. 

Vella has been up and running, albeit with some glitches, for about seven months now, and has recently done a new marketing push to include Android devices as well as IOS. This opened up new possibilities and gained attention from both authors and readers. In addition, Amazon has thrown quite a bit of money at new readers with free tokens, so you’re more likely to have heard about, or even tried, Vella since my last blog. I’m sure many indie authors have been curious about this platform.

Currently, I’m writing two serials: a humorous adult science fantasy and a middle grade ghost adventure. Both are doing reasonably well all things considered; both make far more from the bonuses than they do actual royalties. As a case in point, I’m having what appears to be a coveted “read through” (a new reader reading all the way through my series in one sitting; they’re on episode 38 as I write this). My total earnings? 11 cents. That’s because they likely read my first 36 episodes with their free “bonus” tokens, for which authors receive no royalties.

So why then, if I’m earning so little, am I telling you about this series? That’s because the bonuses have been sizable, and the garnering of a new audience has been helpful to my social media presence.

However, instead of touting my own serials, I’d rather have N.Y. Seely follow up on her experiences since last December. Seely is one of the few authors with two “crowned” serials (indicating strong reader support).

So with no further ado, here’s her follow-up interview!

You imagined this Sidekick series specifically for Vella back in October. How has it evolved?

My first series, Who Wants to be a Sidekick? is still going, and it’s my most popular. I think the voice and snappy pacing work for Vella even though I haven’t been able to do the deep dive edits that I do on a manuscript. I’m pretty much pantsing it at this stage, which is both fun and stressful.

You also transitioned over an epic fantasy to Vella. Why did you make that choice, and how has that fared?

The fantasy was already written, 145K words, and basically just taking up space on my hard drive. I had tried querying it but didn’t get anywhere. So I started uploading it on Vella because there was basically nothing to lose and maybe a chance of some readership and money. It hasn’t done as well as Sidekick, but I have a few readers and Amazon has thrown some money at it, which is much better than nothing, which is what it was earning before.

What’s your experience so far with drawing in readers or retaining an audience you had prior – did they follow you? And from where, and why, do you think?

My previous work is a mystery/suspense novel, so a totally different genre. A handful of people (we’re talking single digits here), friends who support my work, followed me over to Vella. Some who read widely stayed to read Sidekick because they loved the voice of that character. But the vast majority of my readers are new.

What is working for you about this platform?

I’m having fun, and although I’m not getting rich, I’m earning more from Vella than I have from Kindle. It feels like fan fiction, to be honest, like everyone is just writing what they want and reading what they want and not worrying about gatekeepers and market expectations. The author community is very supportive, and it’s more enjoyable than working on a novel in isolation.

What isn’t working?

It’s still not very visible to people, or user friendly. Most people don’t know what it is, or how to access what they want to read. I have to reach out to others by sending a specific link to my story, because otherwise it’s hard to find. There’s constant glitchiness with the platform, and also a ton of ‘fake’ content uploaded by folks trying to cash in on Amazon’s bonus system. I’m literally talking about government documents uploaded as stories, bad google translations of whatever that don’t make any sense.

How has publishing serial episodes affected your creative process? How about the aspect of having a “live” audience?

The pacing is definitely faster than a novel, plus there’s the need to end each episode with a question or upswing in the tension so the reader goes on to the next. Because people are expecting the next episode, I can’t sit on my laurels. And it’s gratifying to connect with readers and followers of the serial. Also, it’s a good place to try out new ideas without putting in the huge effort needed for a book. That being said, I’m still working on the sequel to my novel, but Vella has definitely been a shiny object.

Thanks N. Y. Seely!

If you want to check out N. Y. Seely’s serials, you can find Sidekick here and her fantasy, Leviathan, here. As always, the first three episodes are free; however, even viewing them usually requires you to log in to your Amazon account, a barrier that we Vella authors know is daunting to many. With all the writing we do, who can even remember their password?

Please comment if you find this blog useful, as I hope to publish another in a few months on deciding if Vella is right for you and how you might go about preparing a launch!