Vocal to Vella: Where Should We Publish?

Recent Departures

There's been a serious of sendoff-type top stories lately, and they've all had a similar theme; the writer has outgrown the platform and seeks opportunities elsewhere. Most of them have read the same: I think they provide more closure for the author than anything else.

Personally, I don't really understand the finalized goodbye; the platform and their account, unless deleted, isn't going anywhere. Why not keep utilizing the free publishing ability, and occasionally tap into the possibility of earning some top story earnings or monthly Challenge money?

No one is outgrowing income.

What We're Looking For

The departures are spurred by the same thing that brought us to Vocal in the first place: opportunity. We're on the hunt for the next big break, or reaching for the next rung of the ladder. By this logic, these writers view each experience as a stepping stone that must be discarded after lifting their feet.

Instead, why not collect those stones and build a foundation of your own? What I mean is snowball your hard work across as many publishers as possible and maximize your audience? The logic is that all boats lift in a rising tide, so why not have a whole fleet with your name on it? I see people weighing Medium and Vocal, creating ultimatums for themselves without reason.

I choose Vocal outright because this place keeps me on my toes--the Challenges alone force me to keep a writing schedule like I'm back in college. This was my entire goal one year ago when I made my account; I hoped to rekindle my focus as a writer.

But with all the output I've generated through the Challenges, I'm left with odds and ends that feel bigger and incomplete. My submission for the Under Purple Clouds Challenge, Symposia, turned into a wonderful first chapter of a novel or series of short stories.

Sushi - Off the Grid! earned Runner-Up in the New Worlds Challenge, which also called for an intro chapter. This story stuck in my head so much that I wrote a second chapter for the Reset Your Password Challenge that I liked even more.

These installments lead me to wonder: what should I do with them? Pursue each one into full novel form? Turn the more exciting ones into web comics? Let them rest as short story singlets?

Kindle Vella

I ask because of a new opportunity presented by Amazon: Kindle Vella. Like Vocal, this is a self-publishing venture wherein the writer does the work. The difference is this:

We know what KDP is--Kindle Direct Publishing allows authors to get their stories out there with minimal input. Now they're offering a service that is similar to Vocal: Vella, which is a play on novella, or short story.

Kindle Vella is an episodic style of publishing that allows readers to digest bite-sized capsules of fiction. Instead of publishing your novel on Amazon, Vella allows you to serialize each chapter into a tapered story you tell at your own pace.

Some of the authors taking advantage of this opportunity are generating hundreds of thousands of reads every month.

How Do We Tap In?

This is the simple breakdown: these Vella writers are doing exactly what you and I are doing. They generate one, perhaps two pieces of fiction every week, each one around ~5,000 words. They polish it up, find a picture that matches, and they publish it to a waiting audience at the same time every week.

So, since our habits match the template, how do Vocal writers mimic this kind of exchange? Many of us have solid stories that we'd love to further pursue; some of us do that exclusively.

Personally, I have four different projects that would be great serializations, and all of them were written for continuation. My cosmic horror entries comprise The Ghosts of Gravsmith series, followed by Sushi - Off the Grid!, Symposia, and then another scifi short called Valkyrie.

This suddenly creates a lot of work.

We could simply make the jump to KDP, but some of us have installments already rooted on Vocal--some of those entries are Challenge winners and we'd never unpublish those victories.

So what do we do?

My first question goes to Vocal. What can the platform do for writers who want to create something bigger? I'm not asking Vocal to become a book publisher, or start handing out even more money then they already do--they do an immense amount for online writers all over the world.

But. . . I believe it is worth talking about. Vella is a new platform design that is attracting a lot of members, both writers and readers. There is something appealing about episodic installments, and we see that across all forms of digital media. Vocal has the structure to support this kind of endeavor, I think we just need to figure out a method of execution.

Vocal just implemented a new brace of writing categories, so this is my first thought in regard to support. Perhaps the writers who are interested in generating serialized fiction should have their own place (category) to host them. Instead of combing the website looking for a creepy late night read, or something tragic and romantic after a breakup, readers could thumb through entire canons that feature familiar genres and characters.

This would also open the opportunity for readers to get even closer to their favorite writers: we'd be publishing our own stylization of a novel. Bits and pieces of a full story that showcases exactly what some of us can do. This could potentially lead to agents and publishing houses leafing through our author pages like a bin of portfolios.

And we know this is an avenue to success! Some of the biggest names in literature have been discovered through this exact method of publishing. The Martian started as a KDP project and went on to become an award winning film the next year--it even had Matt Damon in it!

Fifty Shades of Grey? That literally started as Twilight fanfiction on Wattpad--a free-to-post writing platform, just like this one! With just a few small tweaks, and some incredible storytelling, we could be just one story away from hitting the big time!

Overall, I think we should be writing and submitting in as many places as possible--not pigeonholing ourselves into limited outlets. Commit the research and find magazines and other platforms that fit your writing style. After you draft a list, find a manuscript template and reformat your best story (I prefer the Shunn method).

Now instead of writing a departure piece, write a monthly schedule instead. Draft an itinerary of goals to hit each week:

• Write 3,000 words
• Submit Story Y to Magazine X
• Read and comment on 3 Vocal Stories
• Submit to a contest/anthology
• Submit to podcast
• Create an Author Page or website

This is how I started motivating myself to network. The more stories I can get out there with my name on them, the less I have to do later. Publishing them to Vocal is productive, but it's also easy, and no one can tell me no. Using Vocal as a proving ground for my best work, and then moving that work on to another place is what being an author is all about.

No one knows your work better than you.

Reality

I haven't slowed down with my writing, but I haven't been posting as much on Vocal. After submitting to Cosmic Horror Monthly, and a handful of podcasts, I'm starting to be more careful with what I publish and where.

My own itinerary is as follows:

1. Finish this Vocal Essay (Literally right at the top lol, been sitting in my drafts for WEEKS)
2. Draft 2,000 words on Scifidea submission (puts me at 8k for the week)
3. Reformat A City in Grooves/Voyeur in the Bascal for submission
4. Prepare for podcast interview on Monday

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Vocal has become an incubator where I grow some of my best ideas. Between the Challenges and the ongoing discussion, my writer brain is constantly stimulated into one project or another.

Right now I'm actually pumping out a real novella for a scifi contest that ends August 31st. The contest is held by Scifidea, a tech brand out of Singapore. The grand prize is $20,000--mirroring Vocal's latest exciting Challenge prize pool!

Just one of many opportunities I've found waiting outside of Vocal, but it doesn't mean I have to stop posting here.

The opportunities presented through Vella are too tempting, so I will definitely pitch a project on their of some kind. I'll update my Vocal subscribers with Do's and Don'ts that I encounter along the way.

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[I'm a writer trying to break into the world of authorship; follow me for tips on writing, marketing, and publishing all across the web! If you'd like to support my work, consider making a pledge: this is another avenue to encourage serialization writing across Vocal! Thank you!]