You may be surprised to know how easy it is to earn money by writing short stories. Some of the best content writing platforms like Milyin, Medium, Patreon, and more. Milyin is an ideal website for the majority of use cases, thanks to its wide variety of content and earning tools.
However, you should look into self-publishing for long-term short story writing for high-earning potential. At the same time, Durotrope is the best choice if you want to write short stories and earn money by selling them to journals and publications.
I’ll be discussing all of these in-depth here. You will see 7 of the best methods for how to earn money by writing short stories. My evaluations were based on earning potential, ease of writing, requirements, and joining fees.
Make Money By Writing Short Stories
| Get Paid To Write Short Stories | Earning Potential | Ease of Writing | Joining Fees | Link |
| Milyin | Very High | Very Good | Free | Milyin |
| Self Publishing | Excellent | Good | Starts at $30 per year. | WordPress |
| Reader’s Digest Magazine | Very High | Good | Free | Reader’s Digest |
| Duotrope | High | Very Good | Starts at $5 per month. | Duotrope |
| Medium | Moderate | Very Good | Free | Medium |
1) Milyin
Milyin is the best website to write short stories and earn money with minimum efforts. You can start earning from Day 1 and can withdraw whenever you want.
Milyin is a really versatile platform that allows you to create a wide range of content, including poems, short stories, blogs, quotes, and a lot more. You can use it to publish your short stories and make money. It works on an advertising model. So, your short stories will have ads at locations of your choice.
You will earn when your audience naturally clicks on one of the ads. There are no limitations on ads, so you can have as many ads as you like. All creators are monetized by default, so you don’t need to do anything additional to start earning.
Features:
- Control: Unlike other platforms, it gives you complete control. You can choose your advertising partner, increase/decrease the frequency of ads, place them in specific locations, or let AI do the trick.
- Socialize: At Milyin, you can talk with your readers, interact in the comment section, or have one-to-one conversations with other Creators and readers.
- Content: It has a variety of tools to add images and videos, make lists, and tables, embed tweets, and Instagram posts, to help you create in the way you like.
| Pros | Cons |
| Allows you to withdraw at just $1 in earnings. | Poorly built mobile app. |
| Ensures your content can’t be easily copied, stolen, or misused | |
| Robust guidance and knowledge base to help you become a proficient writer. |
Link: https://milyin.com/
2) Self Publishing Short Stories
Self Publishing is best for those who have many short stories to publish and can create a lot of short stories consistently. Self Publishing offers widest range of monetization options.
There are many firms, websites, magazines, and platforms that accept short stories, but they probably have their limitations and issues. That’s why it is best to not worry about all that and set up your own self-publishing of short stories by starting your own website, or magazine.
Now, there are many ways to set up short story writing services; you can publish by starting your magazine, social page, or website. If you want a low-cost option, creating a website is best for self-publishing short stories.
Features:
- Variety: Self-publishing gives you a greater variety of monetization options. This includes sponsorships, merchandise, advertisements, affiliate markets, and more.
- Content: You are free to produce content on any topic or genre. Since you own the full site, it is very easy to dedicate to a very niche audience.
| Pros | Cons |
| With WordPress themes, you can design a site to your needs without needing to code. | Requires initial investment |
| Helps you negotiate one-on-one deals for sponsorships on your site. | |
| Builds high and consistent income for the long run. |
Link: https://wordpress.org
3) Reader’s Digest Magazine
Reader’s Digest is best to earn money by writing short stories of less than 100 words. It is one of the best magazines for short story writers.
Reader’s Digest magazine accepts short stories from anyone and everyone. If you have a quality short story of up to 100 words that you think is really good, you should submit it to Reader’s Digest. The best short stories get approved and published in their content.
You can earn up to $100 for each published short story in this magazine, making it a really great option for almost all experienced writers. Reader’s Digest magazine has been in existence for more than 100 years and has a high reputation.
Features:
- Reputation: Due to the reputation of Reader’s Digest, if you get published in such a reputable magazine, you will have a lot of fame and social proof that can help you land jobs in writing as well.
- Contests: It often organizes competitions with lucrative prices, which are great for discovering quality short stories from writers like you.
| Pros | Cons |
| You need not worry about formatting, styling, and publishing. Your focus is on writing only. | The short story review process often takes longer than six months. |
| Works in many genres, including comedy, news, knowledge, lifestyle, and games. | |
| Allows you to submit as many short stories as you may like. |
Link: https://www.rd.com/100-word-stories-submissions/
4) Duotrope
Duotrope is best for artists dealing in poetry, creative writing, and photography. You can earn money by writing short stories and selling them here.
It is a paid platform that you can join to easily find publishers looking for short stories. You can quickly negotiate deals with them and become successful at your work. It provides a wide variety of filters to find publishers that are the most relevant to you.
You can filter out publishers based on genre, style, payments, genres, subtopics, and various other parameters. This helps you find relevant publishers to make offers and negotiate relevant deals.
Features:
- Complete Tracking: It doesn’t just track the publishers and journals. It also tracks writing contests, agent listings, and more to be a round solution for short story writers.
- Applications: You can apply for opportunities across various journals through Duotrope and manage them easily through a compact user interface.
| Pros | Cons |
| Filters and showcases only genuine journals and removes any spammers/fake publishers. | No free plan. |
| The news tracker keeps you updated with the latest happenings in the world of publishers. | |
| Saves your time and helps you stay organized overall. |
Link: https://duotrope.com/
5) Medium
Medium is best platform to write short stories and earn money while interacting with some of the top writers across the world..
Medium is one of the oldest and most popular websites for becoming a digital content creator. It has a vast user base of active readers who enjoy articles, short stories, and personal experiences. At Medium, you earn when one of their paid subscribers spends time on your content.
With brilliant newsletters and effortless content creation tools, you can easily embed images, add videos, create containers, and stylize content according to your preferences.
Features:
- SEO: Due to the high domain authority of Medium, any short story you publish ranks high on Google and starts getting a lot of views.
- Experience: It is one of the very few platforms that doesn’t use any kind of advertisements, providing creators with a great experience.
| Pros | Cons |
| Straightforward and easy-to-understand content creation process. | Requires a minimum of 100 followers before you get monetized. |
| Stats provide insights into your views and earnings in almost real-time. | |
| Huge network of top creators that you can interact with. |
Link: https://medium.com
6) Quora
Quora is best for earning money by writing short stories about your life and experiences. It makes sharing personal short stories very easy.
Quora is a popular social media platform great place to share personal experiences. You can use Quora to answer questions from other people on various topics. While questions and answers dominate it, it has a vast audience that also enjoys posts.
You can create your own space based on your niche and start writing short stories in your areas of interest. Some posts can be monetized so that you earn money when a Quora+ user opens and reads it. This approach is very practical for writers who can write many short stories.
Features:
- Writing: Quora is simple; it doesn’t offer any styling or formatting tools, but this simplicity makes it very to the point and ideal for beginner short story writers.
- Following: As Quora is a social media platform, you can quickly build a following and socialize with users through various tools provided.
| Pros | Cons |
| By design, Quora is straightforward to use. | It takes time to build a consistent income. |
| Even with a large audience, the written posts have very less competition giving you colossal growth potential. | |
| A low earning withdrawal threshold is ideal for beginners. |
Link: https://quora.com
7) Marketing
Short story writers are a really value asset in marketing and content production. You can earn money by writing short stories as freelancer for business advertisments, creating scripts, and more.
As a short story writer, you are naturally very creative and can write at scale. If you write fiction, then your imagination skills are of immense value to businesses that want to create attractive short stories about their companies to connect with their audience.
Besides, as a writer, you can also easily create scripts for business pitches. Thus, you can use your skills and get paid to write short stories for business marketing copies and scripts.
Features:
- Referrals: Once you successfully work with a successful business, you will always be in demand. No one can ever get enough attractive stories for marketing purposes. So you get unlimited work.
- Experience: Working with multiple clients, businesses, and agencies, you gain a lot of knowledge that can help you venture into many other industries and be a valuable asset, thanks to your multiple skills.
| Pros | Cons |
| One of the highest payout rates for each short story. | Finding the first client is always very tough. |
| Requires no qualifications and gets consistent work throughout the year. | |
| Build a reputation as a credible writer by promoting your own short stories. |
FAQs – Get Paid to Write Short Stories
Conclusion – How To Earn Money By Writing Short Stories
So, there you have it. These were the best ways to get paid to write short stories. You can’t be wrong with any of them. To ease your decision-making, we’ve created this conclusion.
| Best for | Website to Write Short stories and earn money |
| Best for earning potential and starting to make from Day 1 | Milyin |
| Best for the highest earning potential and complete writing freedom. | WordPress |
| Best for selling your short stories to journals and publications. | Duotrope |
#makemoneywriting #WritingStory #freelancewriting #writingjobs #workfromhome #sidehustle #writingincome #story #shortstory #storywriting
Warm Regards,
Aditya,
@adityamilyin
Blame, resentment, whining, and complaining are excuses we make when were not living the life we came here to live. ?? Live Optimistic...
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