Around two years ago, I dug up a old series called “He Who Stands Still Dies” that I started writing for a company newsletter where I work. I decided to go shopping for a venue that supported serialized fiction so that I could complete the story and discovered Kindle Vella. Since I already have several eBooks on Kindle, I decided to publish the story there. I backed up the entry point to the story so that it started much like the text adventure game version of “A Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy” with a sudden shipwreck! In this case, a man is in a bar that starts to tumble like the inside of a drier.
The saga is called Anomaly. Never have I had such steady incoming revenue or spent so much on advertising for a project. The royalties were low, the bonuses were high, and in the end, Kindle Vella died under the weight of the flaws in its own business model. With no availability outside the U.S., no advertising on Amazon, and a strange user interface, Kindle Vella struggled to get its footing from the start. Amazon finally got tired of spending money on it.
My story spent a lot of time riding the top of the listings and sometimes even got a “Top Fav” crown for short periods (for example, currently, Anomaly: Tug of War is on its longest Top Fav run ever).
Today, I completed the final Episode of Tug of War, my final episode on Kindle Vella, one day before new episodes cease on Kindle Vella forever.
I will start writing Season 3 of Anomaly tomorrow. It hasn’t been given a name or cover image yet, but it will be available here on Substack.
I’m running an early bird paid subscription discount here: https://anomalyscifi.substack.com/EarlyBird