What's a Hungry Fiction Substacker to Do?

Let’s call it like it is: the paid-sub model here on Substack is not geared toward fiction writers.

Monthly subscription charges work well for non-fiction newsletters, offering a steady stream of new, unconnected content. It’s great for those writing about investment, politics, and several other topics.

For the fiction writer, it’s a lose-lose proposition.

The Fiction Writer’s Double Bind

If you keep your fiction free, you get exposure, but no monetization, and if you park it behind a paywall, you lose the exposure and likely still don’t generate any revenue because, let’s face it, why would a reader pay the equivalent cost for a digital book every month, just for a few chapters?

So, how does a fiction writer leverage the platform’s exposure capabilities and hope to see a fair return for their art?

This is the question I‘ve been wrestling with for several weeks, and I think I’ve found a solution that doesn’t compromise my desire for my novels to remain free for everyone as I build an audience.

The lightbulb went on for me when I started to think differently about what I was actually selling.

The Substack paid-sub model is geared to sell the content as the product. If you don’t pay, you don’t get it—simple.

My revelation, as a long fiction writer, was that I could actually sell something else instead, two somethings in fact—Time and Convenience—without limiting the exposure of my work and compromising my ability to attract new readers. The method came via a tool most will be familiar with—BuyMeACoffee, but not in the way you’re thinking.

Like many other authors here, I have a BMAC page where readers can choose to donate to my tip jar, or in my case, “Buy Bryn a Horn of Ale”, and it’s fine. But it suffers from the age-old problem of all non-profit ventures: the buyer isn’t getting anything in return other than the warm feeling of having supported an artist they appreciate. No magic bullet there.

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Selling Time and Convenience (Not Content)

Instead, I would point you to the ‘Shop’ feature on BMAC, which allows you to offer digital ‘products’ for sale. I can already hear your objections:

Great, Bryn, but what can I offer my readers that’s unique or different from the content I’m already posting on my Substack? That just sounds like more creation effort!

This is where all your serialized novel writers should pay attention, and it comes back to those two other sources of value I mentioned above—Time and Convenience.

What I’ve done is set up a digital shop for the complete, ad-free novel files of both books, professionally formatted and typeset in EPUB and PDF formats, ready for any e-reader. No monthly subscriptions, just a competitive, one-time price.

Step inside the Digital Shop

Here is how my digital ‘Shop’ on BMAC looks today:

• The Glimmerstone Enigma (Book 1): $4.99 (Discounted for new readers to dive in)

• The Siremirian Conundrum (Book 2): $5.99 (For immediate, complete early access)

• The Vanguard Bundle (Books 1 & 2): $9.99 (The ultimate value play for binge-readers)

The value proposition is simple: a reader saves the time of waiting 39 weeks for the complete serialization and gains the convenience of taking the whole story with them anywhere with zero “click friction.“

The best part is the pricing. At those levels, the price feels competitive to other platforms’ digital book sales, and my efforts with Reedsy deliver similar quality as well.

I’ve never felt right about asking Substackers to pay a monthly fee to access my work, and I’m not ready for the Bezos machine just yet (for several reasons!). But, as artists, we shouldn’t shy away from seeking appropriate financial compensation for our work, and this solution fits the bill for me.

So, whether you’re gasping to get the whole of The Siremirian Conundrum immediately, or you’re a fellow author looking for a monetization solution of your own, check out what I’ve built!

Bryn's BMAC

Until next time,

Bryn

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