There’s a contender for NanoWriMo, it’s called the “Vellys”. A writing contest in Kindle Vella. The challenge? Write a story between June 26 (I believe that’s when it started) and August 20. Must be a new story (meaning never published anywhere), at least 10k words posted in at least 10 episodes (chapters).
The prizes are significant. The entry is free. The competition is fierce though not necessarily because of great writing. The first criteria to even be reviewed for a prize is ‘reader engagement’ which currently means ‘number of followers’.

Followers can be gained by actual readers on Kindle Vella finding your story in the sea of hundreds of stories. That is the ideal follower. Most followers are gained by authors spending money on Facebook ads, by participating in ‘promo’ games which connect authors to other authors supporting each other’s work by reading their stories and of course some people have blogs, websites and a thousand friends on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.

That makes me feel defeated before I even start since I don’t have budget to support ads and I don’t have 1000 friends on social media but, I’m a realist. The contest is a marketing tactic in other words, it’s about making money.
Publishing is about making money. Writing can be done for free and given away at any time. So, if you’re an author who wants to be paid for your work, then the passionless energy of marketing must be part of your life.

So, here’s my plug to my 191 followers, please search in Amazon or Kindle app under “Clare Graith” and choose the story “Take My Hand” and cast a vote by pressing “+ Follow” button.

Following does not result in more emails. Individual names of followers are not visible to author (aka I will not know if you do not follow, or you do follow).

I appreciate you’re considering following this story and truly hope you read it one day.
Thank you!
Happy Reading,
Clare