Earning A Living As An Indie Writer

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on”— Louis L’Amour.

For any aspiring writer, venturing into freelance writing would be the best foot forward. We all know it's very hard if not impossible for a beginner in the publishing business to land a mega-deal with any publishing house. So, the only option you(we) have is starting small.

I surely know and am well convinced that most of us are writers by passion. But, passion doesn’t pay any bills. By all means, you’ve got to figure out ways of earning out of your writing passions.

In this particular one, I am going to discuss two ways in which you can earn a living as a beginning indie writer.

WAYS OF EARNING A LIVING AS AN INDIE WRITER

1. Publishing articles on Medium.com

2. Publishing articles on Vocal.media

THE ART OF PUBLISHING ARTICLES

Gone are the days when you had to first win a writing contest or pay for magazine space to have your article published. These days, you can publish your article anytime, anywhere you want. All you need is a comfy chair, your laptop, and a stable internet connection. Platforms like Medium, Substacks, Vocal. media, Patreon, Newsbreak, Wattpad, etc, give you the freedom to say what you want, anytime you want, anywhere. But in this case, am going to particularly discuss Medium and Vocal. media.

Medium:

Being founded in 2012 by the former Twitter CEO: Mr. Ev. Williams, Medium is a platform for writers of any kind. If you want to begin publishing articles on Medium.com, you have to first create an account. Creating an account is completely free and all you need is a google account or an email. After creating an account, you can publish your first article. Additionally, you are not charged any penny for publishing articles on Medium.

Readers on Medium pay $5 each month or $50 a year to read an unlimited number of stories on the platform. Meanwhile, you can read a maximum of only three stories if you are on the free Medium experience.

As a writer, you are paid according to the time paying members spend reading your stories.

Vocal. Media:

Vocal. media is another site where you can publish your articles. Just like Medium, publishing articles on Vocal is completely free. If you want to publish your articles on Vocal, you have to first create an account on the platform. Creating an account on Vocal. media is free and all you need is an email account and a password. As a writer, you have two options to choose from. You can choose to use a free version of vocal, or a paid version which is called Vocal+

With the free version, you are paid $3.80 for every 1000 views you generate. If you choose to publish with the Vocal+ version, Vocal pays you $6.00 for every 1000 views you get. You can withdraw your earnings if you reach the payout threshold of $20. That’s only if you are a Vocal+ member. If you are not a paying member, you can only withdraw your earnings if you reach the payout threshold of $35.

All stories on Vocal are first reviewed by the Vocal team before being published. Additionally, you earn when you receive tips from your audience. Supposing someone likes your story, they can give you a token of appreciation by offering a $1, $5, $20 tip.

Recently, Vocal introduced “Pledges” you can receive recurring monthly earnings from your audience through pledges.

Hope this helps.

* * *

BONUS

Over 26,000 people die of cancer each day. Find out how you can live a cancer-free life.

How to live a cancer-free life.