How to Make Money From Your Fiction Writing
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Article by: Stephen Patmore, freelance writer at Globe Soup.
How easy is it to make money from writing fiction?
Honestly, it’s tough. But there really is nothing more powerful than a person fuelled by a dream, and us writers are natural dreamers, right? Even though money can be hard to come by on a regular basis, it will be our dreams that end up paying dividends in this journey, because without them, we are destined to make nothing at all.
For years, I have written fiction and done nothing with my work, the whole time, saying those same two words spoken by the afraid; one day. Until last year, when I finally did the one thing I believed I could never do, and left my job to concentrate solely on trying to make a career from writing fiction. Bold move, I’ve had some people tell me, knowing what they really mean is stupid, irresponsible move. And yes, they may be right, but I’ve spent my entire life wanting something I’ve never even given a chance; to make a living by doing the one thing I love to do. To turn down the opportunity to not even try, in my opinion, is more irresponsible than allowing a dream enough breathing room to become a reality.
I can’t profess to being an expert about making money through writing fiction. I have only been doing this for a year now, but every day brings new lessons, not only about the business of writing, but about myself, too. And it is through these lessons I have found that, yes, making money from fiction is possible. Maybe you won’t become Stephen King rich, but enough can be made to keep you in a grasping distance of that dream. It just takes time, research, and work to do so. But, if you give a little of each, you’ll soon reap the benefits, and big or small, the size of the rewards won’t matter, because, you’ll quickly realise, like I have done, that even a little is a lot if it keeps you doing the thing you love.
Through my journey, I have discovered several ways that my writing can bring in enough money to keep me dream-drifting along the path to that elusive Stephen King richdom, and I want to share the list of those I have, up to this point, had first-hand experience with. I just hope that, through my own learnings during the short time I’ve spent scrabbling around, I can help you, the writer, the dreamer, to keep on doing both.
Self publication:
With the likes of Amazon building platforms for people to get their work out into the world nowadays, finding readers and making money through self-publishing couldn’t be easier than doing it through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). It costs nothing to publish an e-book on their platform, and you won’t have to lay out for things like printing, storing or distribution.
Amazon takes 30% of books sold between £2.99 and £9.99, so the author keeps 70% of what they sell. Which, if you’re organised enough, and you work hard on both, promotion and marketing that enables you to gain a loyal readership, can accumulate a fair amount. However, due to such a wide marketplace Amazon has now become, you will need to research how best to price your book to help boost those sales and keep them ticking over. And even though self-publishing on KDP cuts out the need for an agent or publisher, it’s good to remember that by choosing this as a route to publication, means that you will lack the professional touches traditional publishing methods offer, and will have to wear multiple hats if you want to make it work as a business.
Getting signed up only takes a few minutes, and once you have an account, your work could be made available worldwide within just 72 hours.
If you’ve got a bunch of short stories that are sat doing nothing, it’s worth publishing one or two to test out the process and help build that readership. Remember, it won’t matter how good your writing is if no one’s reading it.
I published a short Christmas story on KDP this year, and even though it didn’t earn me millions, it did rack up more followers on Amazon and my social media pages that have not only reviewed my work but will probably be willing to pay to read more of my stories in the future. Plus, not having to pay for publishing means that the little I have earned is 100% profit.
Self Publishing | Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
Literary Magazines
If you’ve got short stories looking for a home, then literary magazines, or lit mags, are a great place to try. A lot pay for stories, but unfortunately, getting an acceptance letter doesn’t happen all that often, (In October alone, I sent out over fifty submissions and had only two acceptances) so you have to be organised with your submissions, and get used to those rejections pretty quickly.
Even though quite a few lit mags offer publication without payment, don’t let this dissuade you from submitting. Again, like securing a decent readership, building a portfolio of publications has benefits that will serve you well in the future of your career. With all that said, with thick skin and determination, lit mags can earn you money.
Make sure to check the guidelines for each magazine you choose to submit to. They all have their preferred method and format for submissions that need to be paid close attention to. Get this wrong and a lot of editors will reject the submission without reviewing it.
The guidelines will also stipulate the amount and which payment method they prefer to use - either a single payment per story, or a specific amount per word.
There are thousands of magazines out there in that, so it can take a fair bit of time researching which ones are best suited to your material. But it pays to be vigilant, and putting in that extra time will tighten up your chances of publication and payment for your work.
Here’s a list of some sites I use that hold extensive catalogues of lit mags currently open to submissions.
Globe Soup:
Along with heaps of regular competitions, you’ll find an array of resources on their site, including an up-to-date list of literary magazines currently open for submissions, and that are all free to submit to. The website is clear and easy to use, and links to the publication websites are provided. Here you can view the magazines previously published works and submission guidelines. Remember that it’s always good practice to familiarise yourself with each magazine you choose to submit to, and try to read some of what they have previously published before, to make sure you’re not sending your splutter-punk-gore-fest masterpiece to The Lady.
The Submission Grinder:
This is a huge market database of lit mags open to submissions from all over the world. The search engine is simple to use, allowing you to narrow down your searches to specific genre and word count, as well as the minimum payment you wish to receive along with a lot more options. The dashboard gives brief descriptions of each magazine with links to their website, where you can find the things they typically publish, along with the full submission guidelines. For registered users, the dashboard can be utilised as a submissions tracker that helps to organise submissions, and keeping tabs on things like submission dates, accepted and rejected pieces, and money earned. It’s free to sign up and if you do, you’ll also get weekly emails with updates on how the market is moving, and the publications with the most rejections and acceptances that week.
Authors Publish Magazine:
This is a free e-zine that sends you regular updates with lists of lit mags seeking submissions for flash fiction, short stories, poetry, essays, and occasionally, full book manuscripts. Their emails are always extensive and informative, and give tons of information about each magazine, including aesthetics and quality of their websites and the work they usually publish. They also give their subscribers access to free downloadable books based on the business of writing and becoming a published author, as well as access to free webinars and paid writing courses.
Competitions
As with lit mags, there are a lot of writing comps to sink your quills into. And like with lit mags, they are a great way to validate your ‘writer’ skills, hone your ‘author’ skills, and increase your chances of being read But, even though the prizes can often be big, unfortunately, so can the competition, and trust me, there’s a lot of that out there making it difficult to earn money through competitions. It’s not entirely impossible, though. Again, thick skin and determination play a massive role here. Really work on getting your submission in the best possible condition you can get it and submit, submit, submit. And then, when you’re tired of submitting, submit again.
There are far too many competitions for me to list on here, so I’ve added just a few that I have had the most fun taking part in over the last year. (nice!)
Globe Soup are prolific with their competitions, from drabbles and flash fiction, to poetry and short stories.
NYC Midnight holds a bunch of exciting challenges across the year that really test you as a writer.
Sign up to Reedsy Prompts, and each week you’ll receive an email with 5 story prompts. Send them a short story that includes one or more of the suggested prompts within a week, and you can win $250, plus publication on the Reedsy Prompts site.
If you’re looking for more writing competitions, Globe Soup have a pretty extensive list.
As I mentioned, I am still very new to this business, and these few tips are just the ways writing fiction has earned me money since I started following my dream. I hope they can work for you too. But just remember, whatever avenue you choose to take to make your passion work for you, have faith in what you do, be brave and get your work out there, the more people who see it, the better your chances become that someone will pay you for the privilege. Writing is a constant learning process, and the moment that want to learn fades, so does the passion. So…write every day, even if it’s just one sentence. Never stop learning. Stretch yourself. Go join a writing group. Get up on stage at poetry nights. Busk your prose by grabbing a typewriter, sitting on the corner of your street and offering on-the-spot poems or flash fiction to your neighbours and friends for a small fee. Enter comps. Submit to lit mags. Self-publish your work. Push yourself every day. Believe in yourself as much as you believe in your dream, and who knows what might happen? You just might become Stephen King rich.
Here’s hoping, eh?
Stephen’s poetry has received accolades and awards from the likes of Bang Said the Gun at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and has been published in the Big Bardaid Book, a Desert Hearts publication and initiative to bring contemporary poetry into schools. With his band, DodoBones, Stephen and his wife have written and produced five albums that can all be found on both digital and physical audio formats.
Stephen is new to fiction writing but since starting his journey in 2022, his short stories have been featured on many websites and have gained a number of honourable mentions in varying major literary competitions. His historical fiction piece, The Medan, is due for release with War Monkey Publications this coming June. Follow Stephen on Instagram!