While the novels I serialized on the Kindle Vella platform didn’t end up with millions of views per the nature of the platform, they still caught enough attention to gain a monthly bonus payment. As of last month, I made the executive decision to remove my writing from the platform. This choice was in response to Amazon’s new restrictions on how to qualify for the writer’s monthly bonus.
From what little information is available, they stopped providing the ability to gain a bonus because of a mass influx of AI generated content. Fair, I 100% agree that “writers” should not be eligible for a bonus when they’re using AI to pop out content no one is reading or engaging with. However, my writing is not AI generated. I may use tools with AI to help writers block or to provide feedback, but I never just code a prompt and publish raw output with no thought on my part.
So if I’m not one of the “AI writer” they excluded, why did their choice impact me? The nature of their platform means only writers with a large reading base benefit from serializing their work. I’m not a famous writer and only have three consistently loyal fans at this point. There is nothing to incentivize me to publish on the platform for $0 when I was making $30+ before AI manipulators ruined it. $30/m isn’t a lot but it’s better than $0 and paid the expense of the tools I use in my writing.
Writing was never a get rich quick scheme for me. Especially the novels where I function under a pen name. It was a creative outlet that I wanted to share with the world under fair exchange (market system). So while it’ll take longer to publish content now that it’ll have to be in full release, at least I’ll be fairly compensated for what I share with others!
See my prior 1099 income from the Kindle Vella platform.
