R.I.P. Kindle Vella 2021-2025

Amazon’s Kindle Vella , a platform for serialized storytelling, is winding down its service this month, after only a few years of existence. Despite its promise to revolutionize the reading experience with bite-sized episodes unlocked via tokens, Vella has failed. Why?

Coverage by GeekWire and Engadget has focused largely on the practicalities of Vella’s shutdown–the date of the shutdown, how to publish or recieve any content before then, and what happens to already-downloaded content after that.

Yet, these reports leave a significant gap: a discussion on the actual reasons why Vella failed in the first place.

Engadget does hint at a reason why Amazon shut down Vella, from the authors’ point-of-view:

Responses to Vella have been pretty lukewarm since it became available. Some authors liked the fact that they could use it to earn money from unfinished stories, while some readers said they’d prefer getting a whole book instead of paying for installments. Personally, as someone who follows a lot of indie authors, I only know of one who publishes on Vella and very, very few readers who actually use it.

But there were authors who were happy to use it. They weren’t happy about their cut of the proceeds, though . Engadget also reported, back in 2201 at the launch of Vella that:

Since Amazon opened Vella to authors three months ago, “thousands of authors” have published “tens of thousands of Kindle Vella episodes across dozens of genres and microgenre,” Amazon said.

Perhaps it wasn’t a lack of authors, then. Maybe it was a lack of quality?

A look at Vella’s “Top Favorites” list does’t exactly reveal “dozens of genres and microgenre”, but rather a lot of romance with occasional entries in sci‑fi and horror. Nearly all cover images look to me like they were generated by AI. This reliance on AI for visual–and possibly even textual–content suggests a broader trend toward formulaic, mass-produced narratives. Discussions on community forums like Literature and Latte echo these observations, lamenting that “Vella sucked and didn’t get enough readership.”

Maybe, despire their popularity within the platform, there just isn’t enough broad appeal for titles like “Drag Racing Werewolf” or “Hot Vampire Next Door.”

There’s nothing inherently wrong with genres like romance or horror–both have dedicated audiences and a rich history–but the market is already saturated with high-quality works, created by established, actually-human authors. Kindle Vella’s output, by contrast, often felt like a diluted, low-effort alternative that struggled to match the depth and originality that discerning readers crave. The platform’s innovative episodic format couldn’t overcome the challenges posed by a content ecosystem that leaned too heavily on quantity over quality.

The lesson here is that innovation in digital publishing must go hand in hand with a commitment to quality storytelling. Kindle Vella’s downfall wasn’t a failure of its format or technology; rather, it was the product of an oversaturated market filled with low-quality, churned-out content. Without strong, engaging narratives to captivate readers, even the most forward-thinking platform can falter.

For future endeavors in digital publishing, the focus must shift toward fostering originality and depth, ensuring that innovative formats are matched with narratives that truly resonate with readers. Give the creators a fair share of the profits, while you’re at it.