Hi Indies!

After my last post about Amazon shutting down Vella, I went right to work trying to find new platforms to publish my serialized fiction on. So far, I’ve only joined Radish, but wanted to share that experience with you.

The Radish Process

Unlike Kindle Vella, where all you needed was a KDP account and great story idea, Radish makes new authors apply to their site like you’re querying for a Literary Agent or Traditional Publishing House.

As soon as you click on that ‘Become a Writer’ button, you start answering their long and thorough list of questions—so, if you’re planning to give them a try, here are the things you’ll need to complete those steps in one sitting:

Your full legal nameEmail addressA short bioA 30 page writing sampleA 250 words or less summary of the same workThe link to whichever already published work you plan on transferring to their siteAll your social media links including your websiteAnswer a few more of their probing questions and you’re done

I guess it’s a nice thing that you get that all taken care of in one go, rather than having continuous emails back and forth. But then you wait, and wait, and wait to hear back from them.

I applied on October 29th but didn’t get my ‘Congratulations’ email until November 21st!!! Then, I had to make a verified account on their Writer’s site and get approved for that before I could even start transferring works to their site.

I finally got the green light for that two days ago on November 24th, so here you have it—the brand new cover and title for Ghost:

Yes that’s a screenshot from my phone because a major con to using Radish is that it’s exclusively a Mobile App on the reader’s side. As a writer, you have full access to your Dashboard on a PC, but if you want to view your work as a reader, you have to download the app on your cell phone or tablet.

Pros & Cons of Radish

This is an early review. Of course, I won’t be able to give a full list until I’ve used the platform for a while, but just as a new author coming over to Radish from Vella, here are my lists of pros and cons:

ProsUp to 10 different story tags from a MASSIVE variety of already set options, so you don’t have to try and think of them on your own—yet they still give you the option to add your own if you wantDifferent Pricing Models—You can choose how or if to charge your readers rather than leaving it up to the Powers that Be, and some options even allow you to customize how many episodes are free and how many aren’t.Non-Exclusivity options for story transfers previously or already published on other platformsPre-schedule all your episode releases by choosing days and times of every week you want your new episodes to automatically publish. Write and add the episode to the Queue and you never have to worry about it not publishing on the day and time your readers expectCopy and pasting your already written stories is a breeze & you get to Preview how it looks on all different sized screensUser friendly-ish Writer Dashboard (the learning curve isn’t too steep)Easily accessible Help center for FAQs with easy to understand answersAdditional tagline & short summary to catch reader’s attention if your story gets featuredConsCompared to Vella, Radish can feel very overwhelming at first because it’s so much more in-depth with a million more options for every aspect of your storiesNo desktop access to the reader’s side, making it impossible to share the direct link to your story with anyone who doesn’t have the Radish appThe application process to even get started is almost a full monthConverting your time zone to GMT to figure out the best episode schedulingOddly shaped cover art (1080x1920px or 9:16) that’s not convertible from the Kindle Vella squares, so you have to remake all your story covers.No direct option to publish your episode immediately—you have to know the steps to doing it right the first time, and then figure out the steps to doing it if you change your mind after already adding the episode to the queueMultiple Story landing pages can feel like your going in circles just trying to find the right page to access a specific episodeThey use a third party site for your payment & tax details, which you’ll also need to set up first before you can start publishing. The steps are really easy and straightforward, but make sure you save all that log-in information in a secure place because it won’t be accessible on your Radish Dashboard!

Well, that’s my take on Radish so far. Since I’m Non-Exclusive, I’m going to check out other popular serialized fiction platforms so I can have my stories available in multiple places at once. I never did that with Vella, even though the option was there, and now I regret it in hindsight.

I will keep you all updated on what I discover!

• • • •

Have you already started moving your stories to different platforms from Vella?

Are you already a reader or writer on Radish? What are your thoughts on the platform?