To Vella or Not To Vella: that is the question.

This is related to the problem that I have been contemplating all this week: to wit, that there are no markets for novellas, novelettes, or even longer short stories anymore. The cupboard is not just bare: people have gone in and removed the shelves and back wallpaper. We’re lucky they didn’t take the actual doors, too, but I guess the idea was to keep up appearances.

:pause:

That turned out to be a surprisingly apt metaphor.

Anyway. When it comes to longer form stuff I pretty much have to publish it myself. As I see it, I have four options:

Publish them as standalone novellas, either on Kindle or another platform. Pros: Effectively free, and I already know the mechanisms involved. Cons: ‘effectively free’ means ‘no cover art,’ and that will be an expectation. Also, people can get itchy-titchy when you sell them a short story for ninety nine cents, even when you tell them upfront that this is what they’re getting.Publish them on Kindle Vella. Pros: also effectively free, and the ‘no cover art’ problem is minimized. Cons: the ‘no cover art’ problem is not actually eliminated. Also… does anybody actually make money on Kindle Vella? I’m not sure the program is a success.Publish them on a paid Substack tier. Pros: It’s essentially like Patreon, for people who don’t like Patreon. Cons: I would have to charge more per month than I do on Patreon, and publishing on Substack is kind of ephemeral. I mean, even more so than the Internet is in general.Keep collecting them and making them into illustrated chapbooks. Pros: print option! Cons: …come, I will conceal nothing from you. My illustrated chapbooks won’t make their money back for a long, long while. The illustrations cost money. I mean, I’ll turn a profit on these at some point, but the idea is to generate more revenue now.

I don’t know what the answer is, yet. If somebody has an opinion, feel free to share it.

#commissionearned