Amazon Dropped the Ball with Kindle Vella

I learned a short while ago Amazon will be discontinuing its Kindle Vella platform later this year, winding it down at the end of the month and no longer publishing new episodes by December. This is a disappointment for both me and every other independent writer that has published Vella content. However, it frankly also wasn't much of a surprise since Amazon failed to make it what it could have been.

Image courtesy of Pixabay

For those of you unfamiliar with the platform, the premise wasn't a bad one. Instead of paying for an eBook you may or may not like, you could purchase a book or series an episode at a time for a few pennies each episode. Authors, in turn, were paid a 50% royalty plus a bonus from a monthly pool.

The problem was, Amazon never seemed to be fully invested in the idea. They didn't offer any sort of marketing program, forcing authors to do their own marketing through social media and at their own expense. This meant Vella stories were less visible and made it a bit ironic that the reason cited for the discontinuation was "it hasn't caught on as we had hoped."

I personally think the way the episodes were purchased was a bit confusing for the average consumer as well. To buy an episode, you first had to buy tokens and use those. I suspect that turned a lot of people off.

I'm also certain the influx of AI-generated material didn't help matters either. It seemed, right around the same time Amazon was asking the question "did you use AI to write this," the bonuses started to drop considerably. I, for example, went from making as much as $1000 in December of 2022 to less than $100 last month. As those bonuses dropped, the number of human authors choosing to leave increased.

I've been writing long enough to know nothing good lasts forever. I guess I'll just count my blessings for the extra money I did make while Vella was a profitable venture and re-shift my focus. Perhaps it's even time to finally sit down and write that murder mystery I've had bouncing around in my head. We'll see.