I wanted to go the indie author route (and have, in that I have published a book on Amazon and at some point in the near future hope to publish the sequel) but turning out books on a constant basis (at least every 90 days) is never likely going to be my strong suit. It's so much work to write a good book with everything tied up neatly, and then deal with covers, editing, layout - it's exhausting, especially if you have another job.
With Vella (which for me is an experiment) I'm hoping to avoid a lot of the things that scare me off publishing books (and frankly have been psychologically holding me back from finishing I think). I've been blogging for years and get the shorter form/regular posting. I can handle the imperfections of the cycle. I can explore stories more fully without having to strictly adhere to the standard novel structure. So it seems like a good fit for me personally as well as for the stories I've been writing.
Right now I have one "novella" that I am polishing up to post before Vella launches, and another story behind it. They aren't true episodic fiction, and I don't think I would want to write that way anyway, but I am trying to revise to be better suited the platform (having 'episodes' be more or less 1000 words, with a strong opening/closing).
So we'll see. I *think* I can keep going even when I don't have anything waiting in the wings. But by that point, I'll also know if Vella is working for me or not. After a few months, I don't expect thousands of readers, but surely dozens, maybe more.
If it is all a big failure I don't feel like I will have lost anything through the attempt, plus I may gain some readers and I will have some stories I can republish on Kindle. So why not give it a whirl?
That sounds great. Really, what do you have to lose? You might make a few bucks and feel motivated once people are reading your story. And if it sucks and you hate it or your story doesn't catch on, you can always bail.
Jackie, this sounds interesting. Thanks for the information and your assessment of it so far. Vella might even get me back in motion on publishing my big SF novel.
It sounds a lot like the concept that was presented to one of the Austin indie meetings in December of 2019 by the people who started rAthe publishing (https://rathe.app/). Vella sounds more promising, though, because it has the horsepower of Amazon’s market that can make it happen and bring far more potential readers to it. One thing I did not like about rAthe is that they would chop your story to publish in segments that just cut off at or within 10% of 625 words, not at, say, a logical chapter end. Crude. Strange non-genre classifications, and it was a start-up (but seems it is still operating) and who knows how small their paying audience pool actually is?
You spoke about how you’ve run into hurdles to self-publish and find your audience. I’ve found it so daunting to do all the marketing and networking things necessary to self-publish my book that I’ve had to back shelf it and turn my energies elsewhere. I also can’t afford 1k for a secondary pro edit and then maybe a big rewrite. Perhaps I can just parcel out what I have now to this new system and see what happens. At least my novel is long enough that it will last a good while when segmented and serialized like that!
Yeah this is how I looked at it too. It helped that I had a story that (I think) lends itself to this format. I mean, it's not truly episodic (I couldn't really say, "tune in next week to find out...") but I wouldn't really want to read something like that anyway. So we'll see. I might get a ton of readers or just a handful.
I love the fact that I can focus mostly on the writing. Sure there is marketing, but it's different and not so daunting. I have a newsletter (this thing) and will post stuff on social, but for now that's about it. Maybe I'll run some FB ads if it feels like I'll get traction there, but we'll see.
Regardless of how much marketing I do or don't do, one thing is for sure: If I keep going (and I wanted to do so with my series anyway, even when I didn't know if they would ever have a publishing home), I will have some books under my belt. Amazon allows for us to publish complete stories after the fact. And since I am envisioning at least 5 "seasons" of my story, that means 5 books that are basically ready to go (hopefully with a bit of reader feedback if I want to tweak them).
I wanted to go the indie author route (and have, in that I have published a book on Amazon and at some point in the near future hope to publish the sequel) but turning out books on a constant basis (at least every 90 days) is never likely going to be my strong suit. It's so much work to write a good book with everything tied up neatly, and then deal with covers, editing, layout - it's exhausting, especially if you have another job.
With Vella (which for me is an experiment) I'm hoping to avoid a lot of the things that scare me off publishing books (and frankly have been psychologically holding me back from finishing I think). I've been blogging for years and get the shorter form/regular posting. I can handle the imperfections of the cycle. I can explore stories more fully without having to strictly adhere to the standard novel structure. So it seems like a good fit for me personally as well as for the stories I've been writing.
Right now I have one "novella" that I am polishing up to post before Vella launches, and another story behind it. They aren't true episodic fiction, and I don't think I would want to write that way anyway, but I am trying to revise to be better suited the platform (having 'episodes' be more or less 1000 words, with a strong opening/closing).
So we'll see. I *think* I can keep going even when I don't have anything waiting in the wings. But by that point, I'll also know if Vella is working for me or not. After a few months, I don't expect thousands of readers, but surely dozens, maybe more.
If it is all a big failure I don't feel like I will have lost anything through the attempt, plus I may gain some readers and I will have some stories I can republish on Kindle. So why not give it a whirl?
That sounds great. Really, what do you have to lose? You might make a few bucks and feel motivated once people are reading your story. And if it sucks and you hate it or your story doesn't catch on, you can always bail.
Jackie, this sounds interesting. Thanks for the information and your assessment of it so far. Vella might even get me back in motion on publishing my big SF novel.
It sounds a lot like the concept that was presented to one of the Austin indie meetings in December of 2019 by the people who started rAthe publishing (https://rathe.app/). Vella sounds more promising, though, because it has the horsepower of Amazon’s market that can make it happen and bring far more potential readers to it. One thing I did not like about rAthe is that they would chop your story to publish in segments that just cut off at or within 10% of 625 words, not at, say, a logical chapter end. Crude. Strange non-genre classifications, and it was a start-up (but seems it is still operating) and who knows how small their paying audience pool actually is?
You spoke about how you’ve run into hurdles to self-publish and find your audience. I’ve found it so daunting to do all the marketing and networking things necessary to self-publish my book that I’ve had to back shelf it and turn my energies elsewhere. I also can’t afford 1k for a secondary pro edit and then maybe a big rewrite. Perhaps I can just parcel out what I have now to this new system and see what happens. At least my novel is long enough that it will last a good while when segmented and serialized like that!
Yeah this is how I looked at it too. It helped that I had a story that (I think) lends itself to this format. I mean, it's not truly episodic (I couldn't really say, "tune in next week to find out...") but I wouldn't really want to read something like that anyway. So we'll see. I might get a ton of readers or just a handful.
I love the fact that I can focus mostly on the writing. Sure there is marketing, but it's different and not so daunting. I have a newsletter (this thing) and will post stuff on social, but for now that's about it. Maybe I'll run some FB ads if it feels like I'll get traction there, but we'll see.
Regardless of how much marketing I do or don't do, one thing is for sure: If I keep going (and I wanted to do so with my series anyway, even when I didn't know if they would ever have a publishing home), I will have some books under my belt. Amazon allows for us to publish complete stories after the fact. And since I am envisioning at least 5 "seasons" of my story, that means 5 books that are basically ready to go (hopefully with a bit of reader feedback if I want to tweak them).
Or I can just keep writing. We will see.