Many talented writers have much good to say, but can’t earn an income doing it. If you are a creative writer, you likely don’t want to earn money comparing car models. But unless you get a book contract (very rare in this day and age), what can you do?
Well, you could do some other job, and just write for love. Another idea is to make use of digital platforms online, then let readers subscribe. There are no ads or bias, you just write what you love, and people who want to read your work pay you for it. Small subscriptions pooled can sometimes earn you a full-time income.
Substack: Turn Newsletters into Profitable Ventures
Substack runs on free and paid newsletters. You write some content for free, then gradually if the work is good, people sign up for ‘extra’ paid content. Typical prices are a few pounds a month.
Some people earn earn nothing, others earn a nice little part-time moolah, and a few writers make thousands of pounds each month. The key is a clear niche and regular delivery.
Good nature writers to inspire on Substack are:
Patreon: Reward Fans with Tiered Memberships
Patreon lets writers offer tiered memberships. You share exclusive posts (this site is also used for artists and musicians), and members pay a monthly membership. Members then get rewards for support. Say links to written articles, preview chapters of a new book or song etc.
This does have platform fees. But when writers, artists and musicians often are controlled by big business, this kind of lets you ‘run your own self-publishing or record label’, and keep most profits yourself.
Medium: Earn from Reads Through Partners
Medium pays based on member reading time and engagement. So you sign up and start writing good articles. If one becomes popular, many people can show their support by rating it. And then the top-rated articles pay the authors, through membership fees paid for by members.
You have to write well to appear in popular articles here. But if you write a post that goes viral, it could pay handsomely. And that popularity is designed by readers of quality content, not anyone else.
Ghost: Create Your Own Paid Blog
Ghost is an open-source CMS that lets you run a custom site with memberships and paid posts. You can self-host or use the hosted version for a monthly fee. To set up, install Ghost or sign up for hosting, pick a theme, connect Stripe for payments, and set your pricing.
There is no revenue share, so you own your content, domain and data. It does cost (not much) to set up a hosted plan, but you can quickly make this back (for instance, many writers charge £10 a month for premium written or audio posts, so one member would cover the monthly hosting fee). A modest goal of 200 annual subscribers at £20 a year, could yield £4000 a year. Reach 1000 subscribers, and you’ve got yourself a nice full-time income.
Wordsworth: Monetise Poetry and Prose
Poetry is always nice. But we know that writing poetry usually won’t earn you a penny. Wordsworth has set out to change that, offering an online home for talented bards, to charge per piece or by subscription. Just create a profile, upload your work and choose a price (fees are lower compared to most platforms, these are poets, who are not normally materialistic!)
But it’s a good idea, as it allows creative souls to happily write poems for a living, if they get enough subscribers. Most of the more successful poets don’t earn more than a few hundred pounds, but it pays for recycled notepads to scribble your verse! You can also share free poems, then offer paid poems (a bit like how Substack works).
