Writing books is not really a good idea
&gt; But could fiction do the same? That is a yet unanswered question. There are a few serial fiction writers on Substack—but none are paid. There are thousands of paid fiction authors on Patreon but only 25 earn more than $1,000&#x2F;month, only six earn more than $2,000&#x2F;month, and only one earns more than the $5,000&#x2F;month (and she’s already a bestselling author).<p>I think those statistics are extremely suspect.  I subscribe to a few fiction authors on Patreon, and there&#x27;s a few I did subscibe to but don&#x27;t any more.  I know of at least 4-5 fiction authors making a lot of money, like $10k+&#x2F;mo ($15k+&#x2F;mo in some cases) writing fairly niche content (litrpg and&#x2F;or xianxia type work).<p>Then, when they get enough chapters for the current long-running fiction together, they bunfle it into a book and release on Kindle Unlimited, as an <i>additional</i> source of income.<p>Here&#x27;s some examples:<p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;senescentsoul" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;senescentsoul</a> - 2163 patrons as of now, minimum tier is $2.50&#x2F;mo, but I suspect most people are paying $5 since that gives access to all advance chapters and not just some, and you can read delayed chapters on royalroad.com.  So, probably somewhere between $4k and $8k a month, and this is their side hustle while in college I think.<p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;DefianceNovels" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;DefianceNovels</a> - 1393 Patrons.  There is a $1&#x2F;mo option, but various tiers from $3&#x2F;mo to $10&#x2F;mo give you up to 50 advance chapters from where it&#x27;s publishes for free on royalroad.com.<p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;jdfister" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;jdfister</a> - Page says they are making $4,116&#x2F;mo from 517 patrons, similar situation as above with royalroad.com and advance chapters, as a point towards how much to expect the above people are making.<p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;Zogarth" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;Zogarth</a> - $12,753&#x2F;mo from 1,886 subsribers.  Same situation as above with free publishing on royalroad.com and advance chapters.<p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;RhaegarRRL" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;RhaegarRRL</a> - 3,317 patrons, my guess is they are making well above $5k&#x2F;mo.<p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;Shirtaloon" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patreon.com&#x2F;Shirtaloon</a> - $17,297 from 2,403
patrons.  Similar as above.  Books showing up on Kindle Unlimited.<p>These are just some people I actually read or read at some point in the past for a while, not a bunch I searched out that includes the top people.  This is an answered question, IMO.  If random web serials I&#x27;m reading are making this much money, I suspect there&#x27;s a large amount of people making money this way.