Free To Do My Own Thing

A final update on the Vella situation, and what I plan to do from here.

Free To Do My Own Thing
Photo by Mohamed Nohassi / Unsplash

Wow, it's been a busy month! I'm behind on a few things, due to a bit of...interesting developments. I guess I should start from the beginning.

I made a post recently stating I was pulling back from Kindle Vella, but this was before Amazon began revamping some things, causing a bit of confusion among authors. The changes are relatively good, although the handling of information was less than stellar. These changes would put Kindle Vella more in-line with traditional serial apps, such as free ten episodes (previously 3), and a uniform token price (which I was very happy about), but we won't be paid for those extra freebies, which has upset a lot of people.

That aside, I am so glad they fixed the token thing. It's less confusing overall, and as a writer, less stressful to consider word counts and token costs. None of these changes had an effect on me pulling my stories from the platform. It's moreso the assertion that Vella won't be going international anytime soon, something me and countless others were hoping for since the platform launched. I've decided I'd be better off running a subscription off my own site and on other serial sites, such as Neovel.

This is a good opportunity to mention that Last Train Home has been on hiatus while I upload the story here and on Neovel. I currently have the first three seasons up on my site and on Neovel. Having Spring Break free (from school, anyway) made that much easier, but I'm still balancing two WIPs.

I'm happy to say I'm almost done with one WIP, and that's the urban fantasy thriller. Book 2 of Early Adopter is still in its infancy, with only half of what I need written done. I can say that having to push beyond work fatigue has produced some satisfactory results and little twists I came up with on the fly. I'm excited to see how my editor responds to this WIP, as it'll be much longer than the first book, and introduces some fun characters.

I might leave Last Train Home on hiatus until next month, as I need breathing room before I start drafting new chapters. I just want time to focus more on it, but having more freedom with scheduling makes this so much easier.

Oh, and I will be sure to post actual updates on my yearly word count this month. I think I may have forgotten last time. Like I mentioned before, I've had too much going on lately.

My goals at the moment are to finish both of these WIPs, especially the one that's been a concept for almost twenty years now...I am so eager to show it off, but it will need to go through a series of revisions and edits before I am confident enough to do that.

Oh, and of course I've gotta shop around for covers! The concept I have in mind for this one is simple, at least. What I really want are illustrated covers of the Early Adopter and Last Train Home series, but that requires finding the right artist and having the funds to pay them. Thankfully, my current job pays enough for me to afford the latter, so we'll see.

I'll keep chugging along as always, but I feel pretty optimistic!