Is the Amazon Kindle Vella the Right Publishing Platform for Me?

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As a Kindle Direct Publishing author, I've been receiving emails from KDP promoting its new publishing platform Kindle Vella. Here's a brief description they sent about this new program.

Kindle Vella is a new storytelling option from Kindle Direct Publishing to self-publish serialized stories, one short 600–5,000 word episode at a time.

To begin, we recommend publishing at least five episodes before Kindle Vella is available to readers. Then publish regularly to keep your followers coming back for more.

I researched online some regarding opinions of this new online publishing option. One article that was particularly informative for me was from the Reedsy website, "What Is Kindle Vella? And Should You Join as an Author?" The article provides an overview of Vella, describing how it works, the audience, and how authors will earn money for their writing. Bottom line, it's a lot like Wattpad. 

I tried publishing on Wattpad for a while and then finally removed my writing from the platform. The reason is that serialized writing is something that you have to keep at to keep your audience. The most known authors on the platform are those who publish to their stories regularly . . . and therefore develop an audience of engaged readers who wait (hopefully with bated breath) for the next installment. The audience is mostly young readers--defined as readers who have grown up reading a lot on their phones.

I quit Wattpad because my writing routine didn't fit that pattern, but now here comes Kindle Vella, and I'm asking myself again, "Is this something I should do?" Off the top, my answer is a "no" and now I should move on. That was my perspective for about two days, and then I remembered something.

I have an idea for a young adult science fiction novel that I've been carrying around for many years. Now I have to ask myself, "Could I write the novel in a serialized form on Kindle Vella?" The Reedsy article characterizes Vella in the following manner: "Kindle Vella is Amazon’s foray into the  'serialization market,' currently dominated by established apps such as Wattpad or Radish, and with a readership consisting mostly of young readers." It sounds like Vella--or the other platforms--could provide a good incentive for me to write my tucked away story about space travel, aliens, kids (including alien kids), and skateboards that are hopped up by new technology. 

I've wanted to write this novel for a long time. I think it would be fun, and having a readership to keep me encouraged and regularly writing would be great because writing is work, at least after the first ten thousand words. I find the idea intriguing, though, so I'll keep you informed. 

And I don't believe that kids on hopped up skateboards saving friends and civilizations is just a story for kids. A few of us older kids enjoy reading such stories, too!

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