So, the rumors were true.
I know y’all don’t run in the same media circles I do. I don’t run in the same media circles others do. I barely run in any media circles so I usually don’t know what’s going on. But, sometimes I run in the right circles, at least enough to keep me updated as to the things that might be coming up… yeah, I know… what the fuck did she just say?
I’ve been hearing/reading for a while now that big changes were coming to Kindle Vella. Not good changes from a creator POV. Maybe good for readers, but at what cost. It really is a double sided coin of how this news lands.
So, Vella, I jumped in at the end of ’22 just in time for my husband to nearly die of Covid related symptoms. I think I made a grand total of 8 bucks for those early chapters. I put the book on hold until I could manage to get back to it only for the compensation rules to change. I haven’t made another cent on the chapters I did publish. I stopped publishing chapters because of the changes.
Anyway, I follow TicTok’ers who talk about rumored upcoming changes the writing community needs to be aware of. Again, it’s all speculation and just that, rumor. But where there is rumor, there is often times truth.
And I got the email today letting me know that rumor was in fact, truth.
Vella has changed it’s terms. It’s a win for readers. But not for writers.
As it was, for writers of the episodes, the first 3 episodes were free to read, and each episode after that was paid based on word count and tokens charged per episode. Each episode had a minimum word count. I believe it was 600 words. I don’t know if there was a maximum word count, I can’t remember. I know that I write chapters between 1000 and 2000 words. So each episode had a different token cost. And new readers were gifted 200 free tokens to get them started. Tokens were then sold in lots. Don’t ask me how that worked. I was confused about it then.
At some point over the last year, or maybe it was always the case, but those free tokens stopped counting toward compensation for episodes read. So, no royalties were paid to writers for the first three chapters, nor any chapter read that was paid for with free tokens. And with 200 tokens that could be whole books. From what I heard, and yes it is all hearsay, most readers abandoned the program after the free tokens were used up. Again, I don’t know.
I’m not saying it’s wrong for readers to use free tools when provided. Use those free things that are provided. It’s wrong for the provider of free items to change the terms of service to the creator of the product being consumed… does that make sense? If the provider of free services, IE the seller, offers the consumer a free service, and tells the creator of the product they are offering for free that the creator will be compensated for the free service, then the provider of free should not be able to change the terms of compensation to the creator without giving them alternative avenues of income………………. SIGHS! I’m muddling this up.
Okay… anyway, the new terms of KV are as follows, paraphrased.
Readers wanted more free episodes to “hook” them into spending money on tokens. The free episodes have now gone from 3 to 10 with no compensation for those 7 additional episodes, no matter how long those episodes are.
But readers will no longer be offered the 200 free tokens, since the next few episodes are now free.
AND the cost of token bundles is being streamlined into lots of 100, 300, 900… etc. I don’t know how that works but that’s what I can report. While the cost of all episodes, no matter the word count will now be 10 tokens. Across the board. A 600 word episode and a 2000 word episode will now cost the same to the reader. Great for the reader, not great for the writer.
Now, I’ve always been confused as to compensation for episodes read. I think I made a dollar in actual royalties early last year, the other 7 bucks was from the bonus slush fund. I think I had 90 episodes read, including free episodes. I am still confused as to how they will be compensating writers. It is still 50% of the purchase price of paid tokens. I was not compensated from the bonus slush for free episodes last year. I don’t know if those 10 chapters will be counted in the bonus slush pay.
I just… it’s a terms of service change with little to no actual notice for a service that was already murky… so… I requested to have my two stories removed. I guess the Zon anticipated the mass exodus and had operators on stand-by. My two stories were down in less than half an hour.
So, yeah, SIGHS!
There were reasons I stopped updating the episodes.
So, if you were wondering what’s going on with Vella, now you know. I don’t think a lot of people in my circles know or care about Vella so there’s that. But if you do, and you notice stories you follow changing, or disappearing entirely, this is why.
Again, I have no problem with readers being offered a better reading experience. I participate in Kindle Unlimited for this reason. I do have a problem with writers bearing the brunt of the experience. I believe the providers should make sure they are fairly compensating their creators while making the reader experience better. I do not see how the changes being made to Vella now are fair to the creator. And that is all I’m going to say on the subject.
Speaking of Kindle Unlimited… that’s a much different conversation that needs to be had… again… but I’m just too tired to have it.
Peace,
Mercy
