I’ve Now Made More Money on Kindle Vella Than Medium. It Took Only 3 Months.

It’s not scalable for big-time Medium earners. But it’s a hopeful platform for 82% of Medium’s writers.

If you’re earning less than $10 a month on Medium, then you’re right up there with 82% of other writers, according to this guesstimate of Medium payscales written in 2021.

I’ve been a writer on Medium since early 2020, and only stepped up my game about a year ago. In the last year, I’ve been averaging less than $10 a month, with a couple of outlier blips. During that time, I’ve been experimenting with other platforms. I now write just enough on Medium to pay off my annual membership.

So, to be clear, we’re not talking about big potatoes on Medium. However, my earnings apparently represent the majority of Medium writers.

About a year ago, Amazon launched a new serialized writing platform called Kindle Vella. It allows you to release your writing over time, like a TV show, in “episodes” on a frequency of your choice. You earn bonus money based on your writing frequency, the audience you attract, and their engagement with your writing. I write a Medium story about this last month which you can read here:

Since fiction writing is my preference, I waited until the kinks were worked out on that platform, then started publishing in March of this year. After the first 3 months, I had earned more on Vella than my all-time earnings on Medium. This was all due to bonus money since Vella is still struggling to gain readers (you can read all about that in the above article).

I just got my bonus notification for June today. I’ve now earned almost double my lifetime Medium earnings on Kindle Vella. In 4 months.

I authored 18 total episodes of a single Vella story in that 4 months. That would be similar to 18 Medium posts. I release on a weekly frequency. I’ve only had a handful of reads on Vella. I’ve had thousands of reads on Medium.

As you can tell, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. I’m a personal essay/blogger here on Medium. I write fiction on Vella. And they have completely different revenue models. Vella also has a small pool of writers and readers. Medium is vast and ever-expanding in both respects.

However, it’s important for you struggling writers out there to know what’s possible.

The Kindle Vella bonuses will not last forever. Therefore, I highly recommend you try out that platform if you are at all interested in book writing.

It’s basically free money up for grabs for doing something you love. If you already have a story waiting in the wings, this is a no-brainer to try.

And it’s so easy to use.

And if you don’t like it, guess what? If you finish your Vella story, you now have a book you can get professionally edited (or not) and then release on Amazon Kindle (or wide, if that’s your preference).

Regardless, Kindle Vella will help you write a book. And if you attract an audience, through the built-in tools they will help you understand if what you wrote is worth a damn.

So what’s stopping you? Good luck!

*Note: I am in no way affiliated with Kindle Vella advertising and marketing. In fact, as a writer on that platform, it hurts me to attract more writers because it decreases my slice of the bonus pool.

Want to take a peek at one of my Kindle Vella stories? Here’s a link: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BW4WVM7Y

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