Hi fiction lover! I am here with some sad news. Let’s jump right into it—On October 29, 2024, Amazon announced that they’re shutting down Kindle Vella, the platform that wished to revolutionize serial fiction. This is very devastating for indie authors who wish to make a living from serial fiction—such as those who love to release weekly chapters and connect with their audience while receiving feedback in real time. The program won’t close immediately. We have until February 2025. But the Kindle Vella shutdown is definitely making waves in the writing news space.
Kindle Vella Shutdown — Why?
Kindle Vella launched in July of 2021. The excitement was spread throughout the indie author space. After all, Amazon is the giant in self-publishing. The fact that they wanted a space for authors and serials gave a lot of hope for writers wanting to explore this model. As the program expanded, authors received generous bonuses for their postings. However, the readership did not grow as much as was hoped.
Despite all this excitement, it eventually died down, and authors and readers of Kindle Vella became skeptical about the opportunities for growth. Amazon states that Kindle Vella has not “caught on.” People are still preferring to buy whole novels from Amazon. Although getting tokens and using them to redeem chapters sounded like a fun way of reading, buying the tokens constantly put a lot of readers off. In addition, sites like Wattpad gave competition by offering a lot of serial fiction for free.
So is serial fiction dead? Many authors argue that there is a place for it. For example, on Royal Road, a lot of authors serialize their fiction and link to a Patreon, where they receive subscriptions/donations for their releases. Kindle Vella wished to promote something similar, but the support just wasn’t there compared to KDP/Kindle Unlimited.
Changes for Authors
There is good news, though! There are sites where serial fiction authors are finding success in. One of those sites is Ream, where authors are doing monthly subscriptions for access to their novels (most of the time, early access). There is also Laterpress, which offers subscriptions and the option for authors to offer their ebooks directly through their own site.
Amazon doesn’t seem to be going anywhere in regards to KDP, and they are optimistic about the programs they will offer for authors in the future. It’s just too bad about Kindle Vella though! I was going to join the program a year or so ago but decided not to. I was wondering, have you ever joined or thought of joining Vella—even as a reader? Author, I’m praying you find clarity in your career, no matter what option you decide to use to get your work out there.
What are your thoughts? Are you also sad about this news about the Kindle Vella shutdown? Just know that there will always be a way for you to share your work, whether you go direct or with a newsletter, or whether you use something big like KDP. I hope you’ll join me on my blog again! Thank you for exploring fandom, stories, writing news, and more with me.
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