Storyfall

Monetization

Earn money from your interactive stories on Storyfall through one-time story or content purchases and reader subscriptions. Set up pricing on individual stories or create subscription tiers on your writer page.

Overview

Storyfall’s monetization system is powered by Stripe. You can sell individual stories as one-time purchases and offer subscription tiers for ongoing access to premium content. Readers can purchase one-time products with or without an account. Guest checkout collects just an email address and lets them buy instantly.

How It Works

Stripe Connect

Monetization is powered by Stripe Connect. To start earning, you need to set up a Stripe Connect account through Storyfall:

  1. Go to your Profile Settings.
  2. Navigate to the Monetization section.
  3. Choose your Payout country.
  4. Click Connect with Stripe.
  5. Complete the Stripe onboarding process.

Stripe handles payment processing and payouts. Storyfall handles writer tax form review for payout compliance. You’ll need a bank account for receiving payments.

If Stripe setup gets stuck or you connected the wrong account, use Disconnect and Start Over on the Monetization page. This removes Storyfall’s saved Stripe account connection so you can start onboarding again. You cannot disconnect while you have active paid subscriptions, because those subscriptions still send funds to the saved Stripe account until they are canceled or migrated.

Geographic Availability

Reader purchases are currently available in the United States only. Readers must use a US billing address at checkout.

Writers can set up Stripe Connect from Storyfall-supported payout countries. This currently includes the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and the European Economic Area. If your country is not listed in Payout country, international payouts are not available for your region yet.

Tax Forms

After your Stripe account is active, the Tax Forms section appears on your Monetization page.

You must submit a completed tax form before paid products and payouts can continue. Pick one of two ways to submit:

Fill out online

The default option. Click Start tax form to open the wizard. The wizard walks you through:

  1. Choose form. Pick your Tax residence country and the matching form. US writers use W-9. Writers outside the US use W-8BEN (individuals) or W-8BEN-E (companies and other entities).
  2. Enter details. Fill in your name, address, taxpayer ID (SSN or EIN for W-9, foreign TIN for W-8), and any treaty claim if you qualify for a reduced withholding rate.
  3. Sign. Sign with your mouse, finger, or stylus. If you cannot draw a signature, switch to Type my name and adopt your typed name as your electronic signature.
  4. Preview and submit. Storyfall generates the official IRS PDF from your entries and shows it watermarked as a preview. Click Submit to send it for review.

Upload PDF

If you already have a completed PDF from your accountant, switch to Upload PDF. Choose your Tax residence country, confirm the Form type, pick the PDF in Completed PDF, then click Upload.

After submission

Your Tax residence country should match the tax form you submit. It is separate from your Stripe Payout country, which controls where Stripe can send payouts.

The Tax Forms section shows every form you have submitted, including older forms, rejected forms, and the current review status for each submission. Forms submitted through the online wizard show a Web form badge next to the status.

If a form is rejected, the rejection reason appears in Tax Forms. Submit a corrected form to continue review.

When your tax profile is verified, the section shows your current withholding rate. Any required withholding is deducted before your net payout and retained by Storyfall for tax remittance.

One-Time Story Purchases

Set a price on your story and readers can buy it with a single payment. After purchasing, the reader has permanent access to that story.

Guest Checkout

Readers don’t need an account to buy your content. When a guest clicks “Buy” on a story, chapter, or character, they enter their email and complete payment through Stripe. After purchase, they continue reading on the same guest session. They can create an account later to secure access across devices, and the purchase remains linked to their guest session until then.

Guest checkout is for one-time purchases. Readers need a Storyfall account before they can start a paid recurring subscription.

My Purchases

Readers can view all their purchases in the My Purchases tab on the Stories page. Purchases are grouped by story, showing individual items (full stories, chapters, and characters) as visual cards within each group. Each card shows the item type, price paid, and purchase date. The purchase confirmation email also links directly to this page.

Subscription Tiers

Set up subscription plans on your writer page that readers can subscribe to:

Readers must sign in or create an account before subscribing to a paid tier.

Monthly Subscriptions

Readers pay a recurring monthly fee for access to your premium content.

Yearly Subscriptions

Offer a discounted annual plan as an alternative to monthly billing. Yearly subscriptions give readers a better price and give you more predictable revenue.

Setting Prices

Choose your own subscription prices. Paid stories, chapters, characters, and subscription tiers must be at least $1.20 so the sale can cover Stripe’s fixed processing and tax fees.

Maximum prices are $100.00 for full-story purchases, $20.00 for individual chapters, $20.00 for individual characters, and $100.00 for subscription tiers.

Free vs. Paid Stories

For each story you publish, you decide the access level:

Free Stories

  • Anyone can read, no account or payment required.
  • Great for building your audience.
  • Readers must purchase the story or subscribe to your writer page.
  • You can offer free chapters so readers can sample the story before buying.
  • Existing subscribers get immediate access to new paid stories.

Free Chapters

When a story requires a purchase, you can designate certain chapters as free. Potential buyers can read the beginning of your story before deciding to purchase.

Chapter-Level Pricing

You can also set prices on individual chapters instead of (or in addition to) the whole story. This lets you offer a “freemium” model where the first chapter is free and subsequent chapters are purchased individually.

To set chapter prices, open your story’s Monetization settings in the Workshop and scroll to the Chapter Pricing section. Enter a price for each chapter you want to sell, or leave it blank to keep the chapter free.

When a reader reaches a paid chapter during play, they see a purchase prompt with the chapter title, price, and a buy button. After purchasing, the story continues seamlessly into the new chapter.

In multiplayer vote-based sessions, all participants must purchase a paid chapter before the story can proceed. Players who haven’t purchased yet see a buy button, while those who already have access see a waiting indicator until everyone is ready.

Character Pricing

If your story uses Characters, you can set individual prices on each character. This lets you offer some characters for free while charging for premium ones. For example, a story might have a free “Warrior” character and a paid “Shadow Assassin” character with unique abilities and story paths.

To set character prices, open your story’s Monetization settings in the Workshop and scroll to the Character Pricing section. Enter a price for each character you want to sell, or leave it blank to keep the character free.

Readers see all characters on the selection screen. Free characters can be selected immediately, while paid characters display their price and a purchase button. After buying a character, the reader can select it and start playing.

Discount Codes

Create promotional discount codes to offer readers a reduced price on your stories:

Creating Discount Codes

In your Workshop Monetization dashboard, you can create discount codes with:

  • Code: A unique text string readers enter at checkout (e.g., “LAUNCH50”).
  • Discount Type: Percentage off (e.g., 25%) or fixed amount off (e.g., $2.00).
  • Usage Limits: Optionally set a maximum number of times the code can be used.
  • Validity Period: Set start and end dates for when the code is active.
  • Product Scope: Codes can apply to one paid product or all of your paid products. They never discount another writer’s work.

Using Discount Codes

Readers enter a discount code during checkout on the payment screen. The price updates in real time to show the discounted amount before they complete the purchase.

Fee Structure

When you earn money through Storyfall:

  • Platform fee: 30% of each transaction goes to Storyfall.
  • Stripe fees: Standard Stripe processing fees (approximately 2.9% + $0.30) are deducted from the sale.
  • Tax withholding: Non-US writers may have income tax withholding deducted based on the reviewed tax form and treaty rate.
  • Your earnings: The remainder goes to your Stripe account. On a $10 sale you keep over $6.40; on a $5 sale you keep over $3.00.

Price Grandfathering

If you raise your subscription price, existing subscribers keep their original lower price. This rewards early supporters and encourages readers to subscribe sooner rather than later.

When a reader switches between paid tiers, Storyfall updates the existing Stripe subscription instead of starting a second subscription. Stripe handles the prorated billing adjustment.

Earnings Dashboard

Track your revenue and subscriber metrics:

  • Total earnings over time.
  • Active subscriber count.
  • Revenue breakdown by subscription tier.
  • Payout history from Stripe.

Earnings, sales counts, and recent purchase rows update after checkout succeeds. Opening a payment screen or seeing a declined payment does not count as a sale.

Next Steps