James Samuel Davis's Blog: That Tractor Guy

"When doon fa's a" is a phrase from a Scottish folk song, 'The Gallowa Hills.' Like many folk songs, the origins are sketchy but it was originally sung and recorded by an artist who made it famous. In this case, Jeannie Robertson. The phrase is Lowland Scots for "When down falls all," or more easily understood, "When all falls down." It refers to one's life falling apart.

Thankfully, my life hasn't fallen apart, but today many authors with material on Amazon Kindle Vella are reeling from a much-lower-than-expected bonus money announcement yesterday.

2023 was a spectacular year for me as an author. I kicked it off with a big splash using Kindle Vella as my primary platform. My earnings for the month of January were so high I couldn't believe it. February money was even higher. Considering I was writing and holding down a full-time job, this was incredibly wonderful.

Around March, things changed. Vella's bonus money system tanked. My bonus money income slipped down to 3 digits for the month. I was disappointed, but not thrown.

Throughout the year, the bonus amount kept getting smaller and smaller even though I continued writing, publishing, and promoting at a frenzied pace. Toward fall, it became apparent that the jig was up. Vella's bonus system had reduced to minimal amounts.

Am I angry at Amazon for this? Angry isn't the right word. I'm more disappointed without being surprised.

I knew from the get-go that the huge bonus amounts couldn't last forever. Amazon was paying out many times as much money in bonuses as they were taking in from Vella sales. To continue that in perpetuity would not be a sound business decision. Even though Amazon could bleed millions and never miss it, each portion of their company has to justify itself in the corporate structure.

The point is, if Amazon gave out more money than they took in for a long period of time, it's either charitable or a subsidy. Either way, it means they were propping up something in a non-business sort of way.

Companies often have programs and incentives where they lose money "for a while" until the concept catches on and becomes popular. But you can't expect them to run in the red for years on end.

As Vella matures, Amazon has to make it profitable or admit it's not a financial success.

So what does that mean to me? I plan to do the following things.

1. I will probably keep most of my current work up on Vella and eventually finish out most of the unfinished stories. I will still earn a little money there, even if it isn't much.
2. I will work on putting more of my work into print, e-book, audio, and other formats.
3. I may look for other similarly-structured platforms to spread my Vella stories onto.
4. I will keep writing and self-publishing, except:
5. I may look into getting some work traditionally published, too.
6. I will look for platforms that allow my work to be read worldwide. Currently, Vella is only for the USA.

Anyhow, those are my thoughts for today. I hope you enjoy my books. Be sure to look up the books written under my pen names, too.