My Big Mistake with Kindle Vella and Why I’m Starting Over

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

You may have heard me shouting from the rooftops about my Kindle Vella story when Amazon’s new serialized story platform launched in July. The YA cozy mystery I’d penned back in 2019 and secretly uploaded to Vella in April was chosen as one of a dozen featured stories on the new site, and naturally I was thrilled. I posted twice about it in a flurry of celebration. And then I went quiet.

Why? Because ten days after Vella launched, one of my dream agents, who I’d queried back in the spring, emailed. She was intrigued! She wanted to see more! Could I send a partial? My heart sank. Instantly I regretted publishing the book. There was no way she’d consider Murder by Milkshake now that it was publicly available on Vella.

But what if I unpublished it? It hadn’t even been two weeks. I would just be honest with her and explain the situation and hope for the best. I sent the partial and notified Vella that I wanted the story taken down.

Are you sure? they asked. That decision would be permanent; it could not be undone. I would lose my likes, my reviews, my subscribers. I said I was sure, and Vella processed my request. Two weeks later, the agent sent a rejection.

At first I was undeterred. I’d only submitted Murder by Milkshake to a dozen agents and that had resulted in two requests for partials and four personalized rejections—pretty good numbers. I told myself I’d just keep submitting and pursuing a traditional book deal.

But my heart wasn’t in it.

It’s not that I’ve given up on the idea of traditional publishing, it’s just that Kindle Vella is something fun and fresh and new. And I think differently about self-publishing than I used to; I love the idea of it. I forget where I read this, but someone mentioned how ego is not what drives writers to self publish, ego is what prevents them from doing it. And that makes sense to me. I remember how afraid I was to start blogging back in 2013 and how, once I got over myself, I started to really enjoy it. Because it’s just a blog. And a book is just a book.

Murder by Milkshake is pure genre fiction, the kind of book that can do well as an indie. In the seven weeks it was on Kindle Vella it earned more money than my traditionally published book earned in seven years. People were reading it and showing support, and I made a mistake in throwing all of that away simply because an agent came calling.

When she rejected the manuscript, it was just that—another rejection. But unpublishing the book came with a real sense of loss. I’d been a part of something daring and new and I’d taken a risk; giving that up felt terrible. But I’m glad it happened, because it helped me realize the self-publishing path I’d chosen for this particular book was the correct one.

I know because I republished Murder by Milkshake last week on Kindle Vella. And my heart is definitely in it.