Is Kindle Vella Worth It? Pros and Cons of KDP's New Publishing Platform
About two months ago I got a life-changing email in my inbox. An announcement from Kindle Direct Publishing that the platform would be launching a new publishing program in the near future.
As the owner of an independent Christian publishing company, I was ecstatic.
There’s a lot to discuss and break down about the new program—I’m sure you have tons of questions, as do I, but the program hasn’t been fully released yet and KDP has been pretty tightlipped about specific details.
Nevertheless, I’m going to share all the knowledge I’ve gained so far and hopefully clear the air for some authors.
What is Kindle Vella?
The Kindle Vella program is an extension of the KDP platform. That means it is designed for self-published authors and can be accessed from your KDP homepage. KV’s intent is to spotlight short stories—specifically novellas, hint, Kindle VELLA. Though some information released by KDP has indicated your story can be much longer than a traditional novella.
How does it work?
KV allows authors to upload their manuscripts one chapter at a time, set their own release schedule, and even communicate with readers at a level we’ve never seen before. Authors can leave author notes at the end of each chapter, responding to reader concerns, sharing thoughts about the story, or just dropping a hint at when the next chapter will be available.
Readers will be allowed to thumbs-up, favorite, or follow stories they like, while contributing Tokens to the books they want to finish. This is where the money comes in.
How are authors paid?
The first three chapters, or episodes, of every story on the platform will be absolutely free to all readers. But if audiences want to continue with a story beyond those sample chapters, they will have to purchase Tokens from the Kindle store—likely Amazon—and contribute a set amount to unlock each future chapter. Authors will receive compensation based on how many tokens their chapters collect.
This is the grey area. I haven’t found any sort of conversion chart on the Kindle Vella platform to demonstrate how much each token is worth for authors. But the landing page for KV mentions its royalties and says authors will be paid 50% of the money readers spend on Tokens used to unlock their story episode.
There is also what looks like a price chart for Tokens set up on the site as well.
140 Tokens (equivalent to 2+ episodes) for 1.99
368 Tokens (equivalent to 7+ episodes) for 4.99
770 Tokens (equivalent to 15+ episodes) for 9.99
How much each episode is worth depends on the word count. Episodes are capped at a 5000-word limit. This might seem debilitating to some authors but a few wordy emails from KDP seem to indicate that while episodes have a cap, your story may be never-ending. So, if you’re planning an epic fantasy of the same scale as Game of Thrones, building a loyal readership will have massive benefits.
I have two stories available on the platform now, one chapter is 3990 words and is worth 39 tokens to unlock. That means someone could read that chapter and two more for just 1.99. Which, presumably, would leave me with about 0.99 in royalties. So you’re looking at making about 1 buck per three chapters.
Considering KV is centered on novellas; let’s say you have a 10-chapter story at 50,000 words, worth 50 Tokens per chapter. That’s a total of 500 Tokens, roughly 8 bucks from the Kindle store. Which would leave you with about 4 USD for that entire story. It may sound small, but Kindle Vella is geared toward self-published authors who are likely selling their books for 4.99 or less anyway. So, really, it’s around the same price you’d charge for a book published through KDP Select.
I emphasize around the same price because KDP allows authors to choose between 30% royalties and 70% royalties, versus the locked rate of 50% here in Kindle Vella.
So, selling a novella at 7.99 USD in the Kindle store would leave you with around 5.53 USD at 70% royalties or 2.80 USD at 30% royalties. Versus getting about 4 USD for a book worth 500 Tokens—equivalent to the purchase price of roughly 8 USD—in the Kindle Vella platform.
This is quick math and rough estimates here. If you truly want to sit down and calculate whether you think Kindle Vella is worth it in royalties, you’ll need to compare your own book and total word count with KDP’s royalty rates.
When will Kindle Vella be available?
Right now, KV is available to authors. All you need is a KDP account and a story. You can upload each episode and set a release date, but you’ll have to wait for KV to approve the chapter before it goes live.
Kindle Vella isn’t available to readers just yet. That means when you upload an episode, it will just sit in the system until launch. You will still have the option to edit and make changes to it until then.
For a few weeks, KDP has been sending emails which say the program will open to readers in the next few months. This morning, however, I found a post on Instagram that included a screenshot of an email from KDP which stated the Kindle Vella program will launch for readers in mid to late July. That’s next month.
I haven’t been able to verify if this screenshot is legit, and I haven’t received an email from KDP with this information just yet, but I think it’s still wise to keep an eye on the program and make sure your story is as ready as possible before launch.
Now, let’s try to answer the big question here: Is Kindle Vella Worth It?
Your books will be broken down chapter by chapter, KDP calls them episodes, and will be uploaded in a serial manner. This means your books will be read continuously, almost as if you are uploading to social media, rather than publishing traditionally.
Responses to your story will be immediate. Readers will be alerted of new episodes and will be able to read and respond right away. Feedback may have an influence on your story on a chapter-by-chapter basis—if you’re an easily swayed author, this might mean your audience could determine the direction of your book.
As an indie author, I think this is a great new experience that will, at the very least, help build readership and stabilize your platform. We have never seen serialized storytelling on this scale before. When I was a teenager, I had a slight taste of this concept when I was writing fanfiction on the Fanfiction.net platform. That website is actually set up exactly the same way as Kindle Vella—without the Tokens or royalties.
Judging from my experiences there, I can definitely say the program has potential. People are indeed willing to read serialized stories, follow their favorite authors, and stay loyal to longer stories with 25+ chapters.
That being said, I do believe there are some drawbacks to the Kindle Vella program.
1. Initial Setup
Absolutely every book on KV will be an eBook—this immediately locks out about half of readers worldwide. I read about 30 books per year; I personally enjoy eBooks and do 90% of all my reading on my phone or iPad, however, I can’t deny or ignore that there are many others who still prefer printed books. I’m not saying the sacrifice in readership will be so great as to eliminate the program altogether, but keep in mind that publishing through KV will somewhat limit your reach.
It should also be mentioned that Kindle Vella, like any other platform, requires a cover photo. The artwork needs to follow different dimensions from most book covers you’re used to working with. It is smaller at 1600 x 1600 and even then, only part of that picture will be shown—you’ll see a preview once you visit the uploading page. Also, your book cover won’t need to include the book’s title or author name as that will be listed beside the cover image, along with a description.
I didn’t have a problem with this format as, bless the Lord, I’m decent enough with Procreate and was able to design my book covers myself. But this is something you should know ahead of time when planning your book’s release. Especially if you are looking to have your cover art professionally designed.
2. Kindle Vella is a publishing platform—not a distributing platform.
This means your book will only be available through the Kindle store. You won’t find chapters floating through the Apple iBook store or on Barnes & Noble Nook. Each episode of your story will be assigned its own individual ASIN. So, once you hit publish, KDP owns that story. Your audience will be limited to anyone with a Kindle or Kindle app.
3. The platform is limited in category
You can select up to two genres and 7 tags to help categorize your story right now. That sounds great, but when I uploaded both my manuscripts, I realized one of my key genres was missing.
There is no genre available for Christian books. As a Christian author, this was a total bummer for me. Now, I’m used to writing to secular audiences—both of my traditionally published YA books, The ‘I’ Word and Patches, are labeled as secular fiction and have received great ratings and reviews on Goodreads and Amazon—but authors within my publishing company have written books that are exclusive to the Christian community. Meaning, you are less likely to appreciate their work if you aren’t a member of the Christian faith. So … How am I supposed to categorize these books? Placing a Christian story in the mix with secular works may lead to a negative experience with a reader who isn’t Christian. But, as of now, there is no way I can make that distinction on the Kindle Vella platform.
While Amazon has been accused of discriminating against religious authors in the past, I think this particular issue stems from Kindle Vella being in its initial release stages. Especially considering there is not only a religious fiction genre in the Kindle store, but there is specifically a Christian genre and many Christian subgenres.
It is also worth noting there are more missing genres than just Christian or religious fiction. Currently, Kindle Vella does not list non-fiction, spirituality, African American interest, children’s or middle-grade fiction, poetry, westerns, contemporary, or new age. There is also no general fiction or literary fiction, and there are no subgenres of any sort—by this, I mean, there is science fiction but no space operas, there is fantasy but no distinction between epic fantasy, historical fantasy, Christian fantasy, fairytales, or military fantasy.
Again, I believe this is due to the program being in its early stages. As more books are uploaded to the library, I’m sure Kindle Vella will add more genres and subgenres to help filter their content. For now, authors like me, and any authors of other missing genres, will have to pick whatever category fits best and take advantage of the seven tags we get to help serve as filters.
4. Royalties
We already did some quick math with examples above, but I want to open the discussion on royalties and payment again. Do you think the royalty setup is better or at least equivalent to what authors are offered in the traditional KDP program?
I think we’ll have to wait and answer that question after Kindle Vella has been open to readers for at least a year. I say this because the royalty system may offer less to authors now, but the exposure and readership may compensate for that in the future. Readers nay never even find your story in the millions available in the Kindle store, let alone be willing to pay 4.99 for it upfront. But readers may be willing to follow along, episode by episode, in exchange for cheap Tokens on a different platform.
Everything takes time, and the best part is, you’re not limited to Kindle Vella. You can still publish your works traditionally if you feel this program isn’t right for you. For now, all we can do is wait.
If you liked this article, keep an eye out for more to come. I’ll definitely be posting news as I get it, and keeping you updated with the progress of my own stories. Join the family by subscribing to my monthly newsletter to be notified of new posts and articles.
God bless.
Take a look at these two stories available on the Kindle Vella platform, both written by authors from TRC Publishing!
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