I’ve written this post about a half dozen times over the past month. Then I scrap it. It meanders. The question is simple so I’m going to state it plainly: would you pay to read my fiction writing?
I’ve always provided everything I write here for free. But I’ve been considering a move toward a paywall for my fiction work. The regular blog will remain free. This will be for fictional short stories only. My tentative plan is 2-3 stories per month with a monthly subscriber payment of $5/month. You can cancel anytime.
It’ll be processed securely using Stripe. Stripe is a trusted payment processing platform used by everyone from Google to Target to Amazon to Meta to Medium to Substack and beyond.
Why not provide it free?
Well, it takes time to write. I have to pay for hosting and all that jazz, so it may be free to you but it’s not free to me. Even though I could earn income advertising on my blog I choose not to advertise this way because it makes for a terrible user-experience and cluttered interface. I respect your time and attention.
I am experimenting with other paid models (Medium), and to be honest with you, I like getting paid for the time I put into my work. You can check out my Medium profile here. I started on Medium a couple of weeks ago.
Why not a book?
It’s 2023. Everyone has a phone. A story is a story no matter how you read it. I like books. I read books. E-books and printed books. Pumping out a new short story and adding it to Amazon every two weeks means a few things:
- They keep an unnecessarily high chunk of profit
- I’m linking you out to a third party site instead of you staying on my site
- Wasted time creating book covers and formatting for e-publication
I may eventually compile these stories into a book but not anytime soon. I think what I’m considering is the way of the future, personally. You heard it here first. I’m probably wrong.
If you’d consider paying to access my fictional short stories, drop a comment below or send me a message via my contact form.
SHARING IS CARING
6 replies on “Would you pay to read my fiction writing?”
ABSOLUTELY! If I’m paying Audible and Kindle $XX/month, I would definitely pay for yours! 🙂 (Especially since I can visualize pretty much every location that you write about and actually see it (in my head) for real! haha
You, my friend, are AWESOME. Definitely hard to hide some of the locations back home. More to come on this feature. I’m weighing my options on how I want to do it but I think I’ve narrowed it down to one platform which seems the most user-friendly.
I’d support you buddy. I’ve wanted to for some time now just didn’t know how. I did buy your book but I know that was a one time thing. It was a few years ago too
Appreciate you dm. More to come on this feature. I’m crossing my fingers I roll it out right.
I am not sure I could afford it at 5 USD month in my country. I am from Bangladesh. That is lot of money in my country.
I understand Hasan. Your comment actually reminded me how quite a bit of my traffic comes from outside the U.S. I think the option I’m working through will be good for folks like yourself but also for others who are able to pay. So cool you’re reading from Bangladesh. Take care.