As you probably know, Kindle Vella launched last week and since then, I’ve been really diving into the platform. There are absolutely things I love and things I’m hoping will change soon (I can’t wait for it to be international and I can’t wait for it to be on Kindle readers!). Overall, I’m loving it.
I wanted to reach out to fellow Kindle Vella author, Ash Von Eck. They are also a writer of mystery stories on Vella, so naturally, I was dying to learn more about them. Ash Von Eck is the author of Listen to the Dead Girl. In this interview, we discuss the challenges of publishing on a brand new platform.
1.Your story has done great on Kindle Vella! You’ve stuck firmly in the Top 100 since the launch. I definitely have been watching your story’s success and it’s exciting. What attracted you to the idea of publishing on Kindle Vella?
Thank you so much! I’m really excited to see people enjoy my story, especially when there is so much great content on the platform already!
I think there are two factors that really make me excited for Kindle Vella. First, it’s new. When you look at past trends, early adopters of platforms like this (Kindle or even social media such as Vine and Tik Tok) have a much easier time building an audience. If these platforms are successful, these early adopters see a similar success that they can then leverage to other platforms and ventures. Even if the platform doesn’t last long, this audience building can still be extremely useful. There are so many Vine Stars that leveraged their audience to find success on other platforms when Vine closed.
We have no guarantee that Vella will be successful, but I think there are a lot of great indicators that it will be. Amazon is already the go-to place for indie books (something like 80% of the ebook market), and similar services are finding success without the huge power that Amazon brings. If Vella fails, I still have plenty of options for my story, so it seems like a very small risk right now. (And honestly, it’s worth it just to see how Amazon launches a new product–I think it’s fascinating!)
Second, I have ADHD, which makes revising hard. I hate rereading what I wrote. I’m the worst with writing first drafts and then never going back to revise them. Creating the story is the fun part for me. But Vella allows me to get a dopamine hit every time I publish an episode. It’s been a really effective way to keep myself motivated through revision. If Vella fails, I will probably move to Patreon or another similar platform because it has been game-changing to my writing process.
2.Some writers have been a little frustrated by the token system. What are your feelings on it?
I don’t understand the frustration on the tokens. I think getting someone to make a single purchase is easier than getting them to make 100 mini-purchases. If you buy 1,000 tokens, you’ve decided to spend that money on Vella stories. It’s easier for me to compete with the other Vella stories (via tokens) than with the entire Amazon store (direct payments).
3.What do you like best about the new platform?
I’m trying not to get attached to anything. I think this platform will look wildly different a year from now, so I’m trying to simply experiment and be open to change.
4.Did you write your story and publish it all at once or are you publishing each episode after you write it?
I actually wrote my story back in 2016. Then I revised it in 2018. Then I did nothing with it. (ADHD problems). Even though I love my story, I could never decide what I wanted to do with it. Once I heard about Vella, I knew this was the perfect story to use to test it out.
I have a few more episodes left to post. One of the things I’m most curious about is how my numbers will change when I mark it complete and stop updating it.
Now I have to decide if I want to fast draft and post as I revise, or write episode by episode. I’m excited to experiment with what works best for the platform and what works best for me.
5.Have you done any marketing for this story?
I joined Facebook groups, let my friends know about it (but since I’m writing with a pen name, this was just a few friends I trusted), and made a Twitter account.
Nobody understands how the algorithms work for this and I don’t think the audience has arrived yet. I’m in the top-100 and I haven’t made enough to buy my go-to Starbucks drink (espresso frappuccino). Maybe other people are making more (again–nobody understands how the Top 250 is calculated), but I think it’s just too early to spend money on marketing.
Once Amazon has fully launched the product and readers arrive, I’ll start marketing. Right now, there are too many unknowns for me to feel comfortable making a plan.
6.Your story, Listen to the Dead Girl, is a mystery about a teacher that gets mixed up in a murder investigation. What is one thing everyone should know about your story?
There are so many things I want to say here (like thank a teacher!), but you summed up my story pretty well. My main character, Sam, gets involved with a murder investigation when one of her students is murdered and another student is charged with the crime. While teaching isn’t usually this dramatic, it is a work of emotional labor, and Sam spends quite a bit of time learning how to set boundaries around her job. You can be the judge of how successful she is at that.
Thanks so much for hosting me on your blog!
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