How wonderful it would be if stories could be enjoyed by anyone who wanted or needed them. But, hey, a writer’s got to eat, right?
Increasingly, we’ve seen that it’s dangerous to put all of our eggs in one basket, however large and powerful and unbeatable that basket looks. Anyone who is a member of an online writer support group has read (or experienced) horror stories about one platform or another going down and leaving you without a way to talk to your readers—or share your stories.
The notion that we could be cut off from our readership and a stream of income at any time is a scary thought, but we can combat this! All it takes is diversifying our distribution. Below are six avenues you can take to sell your stories—plus an extra way you can spread the word.
Try a Serial Fiction Platform
You probably heard about the launch of Kindle Vella, but they are not the only game in town! For example, Radish is a serialized fiction app focusing on romance, while Dorian allows you to turn your fiction into a game-like visual novel not unlike popular apps Choices or Episodes.
What’s great about these apps is that you’re reaching a completely different—albeit smaller—audience than those who binge books. The most important piece of advice I can give you is to read your contract or read your terms and conditions, or whatever else they suggest you read before agreeing to sign on as a writer. Know what rights you retain and which you hand over to the platform when you publish.
If you’re wary of redistributing your previously published stories on a new-to-you platform, consider using these platforms to toy with genres you might not otherwise want to commit an entire pen name to. Or recycle previously-published anthology pieces once your rights have reverted back to you.
Publish on Your Blog
Do you write short stories or poetry? Did you know that Medium has a fiction tag?
Medium is an online blogging platform, like a much more sleek, mature Tumblr. You have probably stumbled upon a Medium article or two while looking for writing advice. Medium offers two ways for writers to earn money: reading time and membership referrals.
Beyond shorter pieces, you could also publish the first chapter of your book and include a link for where to buy the full story at the bottom.
Obviously, you could also publish on your own blog, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
Distribute on Patreon or Ko-Fi
This is probably the closest you can get to being paid to write fiction—not getting paid to write after you’ve produced, but getting paid while you write.
Here’s one way it works: you set up your profile, and you can create tiers of patronage for your readers to join. In exchange for their monthly contributions, you can set up rewards and offer incentives, like unedited snippets, early cover reveals, and polls for character names. The Six Figure Authors podcast has a great episode on how to use particularly Patreon this way—Ko-Fi’s membership tier functionality is newer.
Ko-Fi’s primary functionality—which Patreon has now adopted, imagine that!—is a donation/tipping platform. Readers can purchase “coffees” in increments of however-many dollars to support the creators they love. If you’ve ever scrolled all the way to the bottom of one of my blog posts, you’ve probably seen that I have a Ko-Fi page. I also have a Ko-Fi shop where I offer a few author services, but I could just as easily add my books, or open up commissions for stories.
Sell Through an Etsy or Other Online Shop
Etsy: it’s not just for jewelry, phone cases, and vintage goods!
While Etsy certainly isn’t the only game in town for online selling—I mentioned Ko-Fi above, but you will no doubt find many others if you go looking—it’s one of the bigger online marketplaces. I have my own shop where I sell printables and signed paperbacks. I recently hit 50 sales!
You could also have an online shop on your website. More on that below.
Submit to Magazines and Anthologies
I know what you’re thinking. “This isn’t new!”
True, but literary magazines and anthologies are not always the first places people think of to publish. And that’s a shame because, as I’ve written about before, writing short stories and flash fiction can be a great way to sharpen the tools of your craft. As a younger writer, I frequently went hunting for anthologies with themes, wrote for them, and submitted.
And hey, here’s an idea: if you have a short story that takes place in the world of your novel bouncing around in your head—but, crucially, it can stand on its own—you could submit it and see what happens! If you’re accepted, you might mention in your bio that readers who love your story would also love your novel. If nothing else, it would be a fun thing to announce on social media and in your newsletter.
While not all opportunities to publish pay, and it is not guaranteed that you will be published if you submit, you can use The (Submission) Grinder to search for markets that are looking for your piece’s genre and length.
Utilize Your Website
How can you monetize your writing on your website? Oh, let me count the ways…
As I hinted to above, you can set up a store with a plug-in like Shopify or PayHip to sell signed or limited edition paperbacks or ebooks. You have complete control over pricing, and you can keep all your profits.
Did the monetize-your-blogging idea appeal to you more? Would you like to publish your book a chapter at a time? You can do exactly that by adding a paywall. You could also set up a page for a different email list people pay to subscribe for an episode or chapter a week/month, then store older entries on a password-protected page on your website. For added protection, you can change the password with every updated entry!
Bonus: Little Free Libraries
Do you have a few spare paperbacks lying around, or could you have some printed? Consider signing them, slipping in a little note about how you’re a local author, and leaving a copy in one of your local Little Free Libraries. It will be a nice surprise for someone looking for their next read to discover that an author lives nearby!
It goes without saying that you should probably only leave one copy of one, maybe two or three books (particularly if they’re in a series) in a Little Free Library. They are supposed to be a resource for the community, after all, not your advertising platform.
If you want to find a Little Free Library near you, you can do so via their website. They also have an app you can use to check in.
