Publish short stories.Get read. Get paid.
StorySloth is a home for independent short fiction. Write in our editor, get human feedback, reach a global audience, and earn a share of subscriber revenue every time someone reads your work.
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Why authors choose StorySloth
Built by writers, for writers. Every feature exists to put your stories in front of readers who'll actually read them.
Earn from every read
Our subscribers' fees flow back to the authors they read most. The more your work gets read, the more you earn — no ad-tech, no algorithm games.
A real, paying audience
Readers come to StorySloth because they want short fiction. No doomscrolling, no clickbait — just people looking for their next great read.
Human review, not a slush pile
Every submission gets read by a real editor. We give you feedback when it helps, and a clear yes/no when it counts.
You keep your rights
Non-exclusive licence only. You can publish anywhere else, anthologise, adapt, or pull the story down whenever you want.
Tools that respect the craft
Distraction-free editor with autosave, word counts, audio narration, and analytics that show what readers do with your stories.
A community that reads
Comments, reviews, awards, reading groups — the people on StorySloth turn up to engage, not to scroll past.
How it works
From first draft to your first reader in four steps.
01
Join StorySloth
Create a free account. You can start as a reader and switch to an author whenever you're ready.
02
Write your story
Use our distraction-free editor — autosaving, word-count, formatting, the works.
03
Submit for review
Our human editors read every submission. We respond within a few days with a clear yes, no, or notes.
04
Get published & paid
Once approved, your story goes live across every locale. Earnings start the moment a subscriber starts reading.
How earnings work
We don't sell ads. We don't surveil readers. The business model is simple: subscribers pay a small monthly fee, and that money flows back to the authors whose work they actually read.
Direct revenue share
Each subscriber's monthly fee is split across the authors they read in that period. No middlemen, no opaque royalty pools.
Awards from your readers
Subscribers can give awards to stories they love. Awards turn into real cash payouts at the end of each month.
Verified payouts
Before we send money to a new author we ask you to verify your identity and add your bank details. Standard payment-platform stuff — takes a few minutes once your first story is accepted.
Transparent dashboard
See exactly how much each story has earned, who's reading you, and when your next payout lands.
The earnings model, in plain English
We've kept things deliberately simple so you can plan around them. Here's exactly how a month plays out for an author once your work is live.
1. Reader subscriptions feed the author pool
Readers subscribe to StorySloth through our Adopt-a-Sloth plans. At the end of every month we take the total subscription revenue, deduct the payment processor's fee, and the remaining net revenue is what gets distributed to authors. There is no advertising mixed in and no separate pot we hold back.
2. Earnings follow engagement, not vanity metrics
Every subscriber generates a slice of the pool. That slice is split across the stories they actually engaged with that month, weighted by signals that show they cared: how much of the story they read, whether they finished it, and whether they liked, favourited, commented, or sent an award. An award counts the most because it costs the reader real money. A casual one-minute scroll counts the least.
3. A share of revenue funds the platform
StorySloth keeps 40% of each author's share to fund the work that makes the platform possible: the editorial team who reads every submission, hosting, translation into fifteen languages, support, and payment processing. Authors who also subscribe to StorySloth keep more of their share — only 20% comes off — because they're already supporting independent fiction in two ways. The model exists to keep short fiction alive as a craft, not to extract value from the writers who power it.
4. Payouts run monthly through Stripe
Each month we calculate the totals for the period that just ended and send the money via Stripe Connect Express. The first time you're paid we'll walk you through Stripe's onboarding so it can verify your identity and bank details. After that it runs in the background and you just see the deposit. There's a £1 minimum so we're not posting one-penny transfers, and your unpaid balance rolls over until you cross it.
What this looks like in practice
Take a single subscriber paying £4.99 a month. Suppose that month they finished one of your stories, liked it, favourited it, and gave it an award. After processor fees, their net contribution might be roughly £4.65. If they also engaged with three other authors' stories that month, the engagement model splits their net contribution across all four of you — but because the award you received counts heavily, you might receive a larger share than the other three. After the platform's share comes off, the amount paid out to you would be your portion of that subscriber, minus 20% if you're a subscriber yourself, or 40% if not.
Multiply that across hundreds of subscribers each month and you can see why being someone's most-read author or favourite-of-the-month matters more than just appearing in a feed.
The dashboard shows the same breakdown for every story in real time, with a daily total and a clear ledger so you can always check the maths.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. There's no fee to become an author, no fee to submit a story, and no fee taken out of your earnings beyond standard payment-processor charges. We make money when readers subscribe, not when writers publish.
A real editor reads your submission and either accepts it, sends it back with notes, or declines with a short explanation. We aim to respond within 3–5 working days. We're looking for stories that respect the reader's time and the craft — we're not gatekeeping on style or subject.
Yes. You grant StorySloth a non-exclusive licence to host, display, and translate your story while it's published with us. You're free to publish it elsewhere, sell adaptation rights, anthologise it, or take it down at any time.
We accept stories written by humans. AI is a useful research and editing tool, but generated prose is not what readers are paying for and we'll decline it. The author terms cover this in detail.
Once your first story is accepted, we'll walk you through verifying your identity and adding your bank details — the same setup any payment platform requires. After that, earnings accrue daily and pay out monthly once you're above a small minimum threshold.
40% of your earnings goes back into running the platform: the editorial team who reviews every submission, hosting, translation into fifteen languages, support, and payment processing. If you also subscribe to StorySloth, only 20% comes off your share because you're already supporting independent fiction another way. There are no other deductions beyond Stripe's standard processing charges.
Once per month. At the start of each month we calculate everything that happened in the period just ended, then send the payouts through Stripe Connect Express. There's a small £1 minimum so we're not making one-penny transfers; balances below that roll over to the next month. The dashboard shows the date of your next payout and your running balance at all times.
It depends on how many subscribers read your work and how deeply they engage with it. Authors who finish a strong story that subscribers read end-to-end and award typically earn meaningfully more than authors whose stories get a glance and a scroll-away. We're a growing platform, not a get-rich scheme: most authors here are building a readership and stacking up monthly payouts, with the best-performing stories earning the most. The dashboard's per-story breakdown is the honest answer for any individual writer.
Write in any of our 15 supported languages — your story stays in the language you wrote it. If you want to reach more readers, you can publish your own translated versions later from your dashboard. StorySloth's interface is available in those 15 languages too, so readers around the world can browse the platform in theirs.
No credit card. No upfront fees. Cancel anytime.