Vella | CW Hawes

Final Vella Update

Yesterday, 30 January, the last episode of Tales Macabre and Arabesque went live. The collection of stories is now complete.

You can read my previous update here. I have nothing to add, other than I did get a 40 something dollar bonus for November.

The last locked episodes were read on November 30th. After that, I had a free episode read on December 12th. And that is it. All told, I received $.31 in royalties and $52.36 in bonuses.

For me, Vella is a bust. Sure, the 52 bucks and change was nice. But it won’t break the bank if I don’t get it.

One Vella author advised me to hang out on some of the Vella Facebook pages, where I could tell others about my project, and cross promote with other Vella authors.

And I could do that. But I have no desire to add more time on social media to my schedule. In fact, I have reduced my time to just a couple hours a week so I can focus on writing my next novel.

Attempts to get my mailing list subscribers and followers on Facebook and Twitter to go to Vella all failed. Perhaps due to my older audience. Vella being geared towards a younger smartphone dependent demographic.

All of which leads me to believe that Vella is a closed universe: like Chanillo, Wattpad, Writing.com, and the poetry forums I used to hang out on. And closed universes are difficult to get new people to join.

My other complaint about Vella, is that the romance writers have taken over.

When I did a search for mystery stories, for example, I got romantic suspense, cozy romance mysteries, paranormal romance mysteries, and other equally non-satisfying results.

A search for horror got me monster romance, vampire romance, werewolf romance, shifter romance, and the list went on.

Very disappointing.

Vella was a nice try, but it’s not for me. I’ll continue to follow the couple authors I know there, but I won’t otherwise be reading or publishing on the platform.

I’ve also decided to unpublish Tales Macabre and Arabesque from Vella. Amazon will remove the story collection in a couple months.

So if you want to read some of my spooky and bizarre fiction for next to nothing (tokens are pretty cheap, and the Zon may even give you free ones) — head on over to Kindle Vella.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

Share This!

New Project and Vella Update

Threads that Bind is a new blog launched by Jack Tyler, a long time indie author.

The blog is a coalition of authors and artists specializing in things macabre. It doesn’t matter the genre, just as long as the subject matter is chilling. Because, as some argue, horror isn’t a genre, it’s a mood, it’s the atmosphere that is brought to a genre.

Aside from Jack and myself, David Lee Summers, an indie author who has also been around the block a few times, and Venus Tyler, an upcoming young artist who is demonstrating a superb command of the artistic media, are also involved in the project.

It is our intention to add other writers and artists to our consortium. So that we can get varied perspectives on the genre, the craft, and the art of the macabre.

So take a look at our new project and feel free to add comments as to what you would like for us to discuss and we will take that under advisement.

My inaugural post can be found here: https://threadsthatbind.net/2022/11/25/fear-is-always-with-us/

I talk about my own introduction to the horror genre, which goes back 60 plus years, and why I find the macabre captivating. I hope you enjoy the post! And the blog!

Vella Report

As you may recall, I launched Tales Macabre and Arabesque on Vella back in October.

So far, I would have to say the results are underwhelming.

I published the first four episodes in October, and have been releasing a new episode every Monday starting with Halloween.

Yesterday, Episode #8, “Diaphanous, In Red Silk”, was published. It is a flash fiction piece, that in Japanese literary fashion, provides the middle of the story, and invites you, the reader, to provide the beginning and end. I hope you enjoy it.

Thus far, there have been 20 episode reads; 7 of which were locked episodes. Which means readers paid tokens to read those seven episodes. The other 13 reads were of the initial free episodes.

Amazon told me that I earned a $10 bonus for October, and I noticed that so far for November I have earned 24¢ in royalties.

I do have 4 folks following the story, and have received 13 thumbs up. A nice bit of positive response there.

As I contemplate the less than stellar performance of my entry story, it may be due to the fact that I only have one story up. A story that is actually a short story collection.

And it may be that the indie mantra of write fast and publish often also applies to Vella.

If that is the case, then I should probably be running at least two, if not three or more series at one time. And that’s a lot of writing.

Another possibility for the underwhelming performance may be freebie grabbers.

Those are the folks who will read anything for free and suddenly disappear when they have to fork over some money.

I’ve run into freebie grabbers with my mailing list promotions, where I offer a free book in exchange for adding the person to my email list.

The freebie grabber takes the book and immediately unsubscribes or proceeds to never open a single email from me. And those folks usually constitute at least half of the responses I get on such promotions.

Amazon, by giving away the first three episodes of a Vella story for free, is, in my opinion, inviting freebie grabbers to the party.

I will have to talk with other Vella authors to find out if they have an issue with freebie grabbers. These are only my initial ruminations, and may need to be taken with a grain of salt.

On the positive side, from what I hear, for those who can produce the necessary product at a swift enough pace, some decent pocket change awaits. And who doesn’t like pocket change?

In the new year, I may have to consider running a couple of series and see if that moves the income needle more in my favor.

The one big advantage of Vella, as I see it, for now at least, is that it operates outside of the normal KDP world. It is its own entity.

Another is that Vella is sponsored by Amazon. It avoids the obscurity of platforms like Chanillo and provides a monetary incentive, unlike Wattpad. And who doesn’t want the advantage of prominence and money?

I encourage both readers and writers to give Vella a try. It just may prove to be the next best thing since sliced bread.

You can find Tales Macabre and Arabesque here: https://amzn.to/3u2mAwm

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

Share This!

Giving Kindle Vella a Try

After talking with a friend who is having some well-deserved success on Vella, I’ve decided to give the platform a try.

After all, who doesn’t like success when it comes not only in the form of folks saying they love what you’re doing, but also in the form of checks to the bank account?

What is Kindle Vella?

Vella is a way for writers to share stories with readers — one episode at a time. It’s like TV for fiction.

Or if we go way back, serializing a novel was basically how most long popular fiction was first published up until the 1960s.

Back in the 1800s, newspapers and magazines published poetry, short stories, and novels (in the form of serials, one episode at a time).

During the heyday of the pulp magazines, many magazines serialized novels. Most of which were never published in paperback or hardback.

Vella is today’s recreation of a time-honored method of publishing fiction.

Vella exists as an app for your phone and tablet, and also as a website (which is how I use Vella).

How Does Vella Work?

Vella is a platform for you to read serialized fiction. The first 3 episodes are free to read.

Think of this as Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature. The free episodes help you decide if you like the story enough to spend money reading the rest of it.

If you like what you see, you can unlock the further episodes by buying tokens and then using the required amount of tokens to unlock the additional episodes.

Episode length determines how many tokens you need to spend to read that portion of the story.

Why Vella?

More and more people are consuming content, both entertainment and informational, on their phones.

Many people find it difficult to engage with and commit to a full-length novel. The size alone of some of these books is daunting.

After all, we’re busy. And when you’re time deprived, looking at a 500 page novel just might be a commitment you don’t want to take on.

I think this is one reason why audiobooks have taken off. One can listen to an audiobook while doing something else.

In fact, my step-daughter has said this very thing: she doesn’t have time to sit down and read a novel. But she loves stories. So instead of reading, she listens to audiobooks while cooking, or driving to work, or riding her bike.

But audiobooks aren’t for everyone. I don’t particularly care for them myself. Often the narrator is not at all good, and that results in a less than optimal experience.

Vella takes a different approach. An old approach and makes it new.

Vella allows readers to read short bites of text. Instead of staring at the whole pan of lasagna, you are only looking at one short, exciting scene or chapter. One little mouthful.

This makes Vella perfect for reading on coffee break or on the commute, or even when you’re in the bathroom.

Join Me On Vella

I’m giving Vella a try. When I was a working stiff, reading was sometimes a chore. The book never seemed to end.

But with episodes no longer than 5,000 words, it’s easy to get in your reading fix at least once a day. And maybe more.

Tales Macabre and Arabesque is my first foray into the world of Vella.

The first 3 (free) episodes will go up the 28th, 29th, and 30th of October. That’s this weekend. On Monday (Halloween), the first locked episode will be available for you to unlock. And a new episode will appear each Monday thereafter for 13 weeks.

Tales Macabre and Arabesque is a collection of 15 short stories. Some of the stories are bizarre. Some, uncanny. Others, unsettling. A few are weird. And a number qualify as dark humor.

Fifteen tales, divided into 17 episodes, that will take you to worlds you never knew existed and inside the minds of some you perhaps don’t want to see.

Join me. Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BK7N75BJ

See you there!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

Share This!