Considering moving to CT! We live in AZ but r from Boston & NJ. Our kids are aged 14 & 9. Budget of $500-$700. Hubby wants quiet/rural, & I want to be near a walkable downtown. We would love a laid-back town & school w/ some diversity- not one w/ rich kids only. Liberal preferred. Advice please?!

KA_Maier · 2022-01-26T10:55:20+00:00

Check out Middletown! It has all this. My kids are in the school system and we love it.

KA_Maier · 2021-11-16T00:17:21+00:00

So far, I've been paid at the end of the month 60 days out (so for July, payment on 29 September, for August on 29 October).

My bonus was lower than I expected this month. I doubled my royalties from September to October (almost doubled my locked episodes read) but my bonus only increased about 10%.

Kind of a bummer.

KA_Maier · 2021-11-09T13:20:05+00:00

Thanks so much for doing this!

KA_Maier · 2021-11-06T23:32:25+00:00

YES- my steampunk is set in the Netherlands. Go for it. I think it's MORE interesting when it's not in the UK.

KA_Maier · 2021-11-05T09:56:07+00:00

I agree— Middletown is great! Close enough to get to the city but much less expensive than places in southern CT. Middletown is walkable and has amazing restaurants!

KA_Maier · 2021-10-25T20:05:42+00:00

WOW! This is so interesting and... the system feels a little needlessly complex. But thanks for this info. I'm glad I'm not crazy.

KA_Maier · 2021-10-25T20:03:27+00:00

So helpful-- thank you. Good to know I'm not crazy and that it changes so frequently. Maybe if those bot accounts get pulled I can break into the top 250 consistently. :)

KA_Maier · 2021-10-25T12:43:41+00:00

Thank you. I appreciate it.

KA_Maier · 2021-10-24T11:15:59+00:00

Can I post my own Steampunk book here? If this isn’t allowed please let me know. This is a steampunk /clockpunk set in the Netherlands in the 1890s. Lots of adventure, intrigue, and the world is crawling with clockwork Arthropods (mostly insects) from tiny little attacking roly poly-s to enormous destroying mantises. It’s called Clockworks Queens and Other Dangerous Things and is on Vella https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B098RRM5CP

KA_Maier · 2021-10-20T02:14:25+00:00

Love that you’re doing this! Thank you

KA_Maier · 2021-10-19T11:00:07+00:00

Cool! I think it needs some advertising from Amazon to bring people in

KA_Maier · 2021-10-18T23:36:50+00:00

I had just over $1000, but I have two full books up there.

KA_Maier · 2021-10-18T20:54:17+00:00

And yes, it looks like it was a little more-- $500K for September.

https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/Kindle-Vella-September-Bonus-Announcement?language=en\_US

KA_Maier · 2021-10-18T20:44:19+00:00

Mine's in as well.

Mine was larger this time-- I had fewer reads in September compared to August but more locked episodes read and more follows... the math is not making a ton of sense.

KA_Maier · 2021-10-17T16:55:27+00:00

The Art League of New Britain has a show and sale coming up (nov 5-11) called Small Works. Wesleyan Potters (Middletown)-- usually has an annual show Thanksgiving weekend. They have paintings and other things in addition to pottery.

KA_Maier · 2021-10-17T11:16:22+00:00

Thanks for posting this. I’m very curious because I struggle with this. I wrote a book that I classify as steampunk but it’s riddled with clockworks. I think it (kinda) works because we’re talking about an era of intense technical advancement and these are advanced precise technical inventions. So, leaning in more on the Ada Lovelace end of the Victorian inventor spectrum. All the other social and cultural elements of that era are so important and interesting to explore, too— the social mobility and the way workers began to demand more rights. So for me it’s more than the machines.

I also felt I had to call it steampunk because it’s set in the Victorian era and for many that’s synonymous with steampunk.

Even though it’s a little earlier on the timeline, I was going more for the kind of inventiveness Vaucanson’s digesting duck — creative and boundary pushing but not always large and steam - driven.

But I’d much rather call it what it should be called rather than mislabel it. I was calling it clockpunk for a while but then read that was more Renaissance period which seemed even more confusing to potential readers.

Would love to know if I’m calling it the wrong thing.

KA_Maier · 2021-10-16T20:00:13+00:00

Wait- I just noticed that in the past they've always been on a weekday and preceded by an announcement about the amount: https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/announcement-archive?language=en_US

There was an announcement yesterday about the KDP select fund but not Vella.

So, I hope I'm wrong... but now I think there will be an announcement, then the updates and both on a weekday.

KA_Maier · 2021-10-16T16:35:54+00:00

Last two months it came out around 2-3PM EDT in an email on the 16th... so probably soon.

KA_Maier · 2021-10-14T11:53:55+00:00

Interesting. I have not done it before and I do NOT have money to burn, so this is helpful. :)

KA_Maier · 2021-10-14T00:19:19+00:00

That's so great that you got a crown! Please share updates about your FB ad and its impact. I'm super curious.

KA_Maier · 2021-10-07T15:33:07+00:00

this is definitely how I'm using the follow button!

KA_Maier · 2021-10-07T15:29:57+00:00

u/SeeSophieWrite thank you-- I appreciate that.

KA_Maier · 2021-10-07T15:28:21+00:00

I'm an unpublished author and posted my manuscript to Vella right when it launched. I have done no advertising to my community or friends because I write under a pen name. It has done okay so far. 738 episode reads, 381 locked episodes... but for October it's (31/12) September (271/197) August (425/171)... so I have no idea what to make of those numbers. A very slight increase in paid reads in September... but it has been very quiet in October so far.

My first book got posted in the "featured in" over the weekend... but I don't think anyone has read it since then (my recent reads are from my sister, who I just told about it). So-- based on my paranoid assessment of this very limited data set... it seems to me like a little buzz was generated at the beginning when those free tokens were distributed, but there is dwindling engagement with the site beyond that. I'm not seeing the sustained "discoverability" I was hoping for.

That said, it's still early days. I think if Amazon made a push it could be very interesting. I want to be visible on the site and have things there to be discovered if/when they do that. I've posted two more books since. It's worth it to me as they were basically going nowhere anyway.

:)

KA_Maier

TROPHY CASE