How Authors Get Paid
One flat royalty across everything. Every dollar a reader spends because of your story pays you.
80%
You earn 80% of every follow subscription, book purchase, rewarded ad view, and Lair Point spent to bypass an ad on your books. The remaining 20% covers payment processing, hosting, and running Lyon’s Lair.
What you earn from
Four revenue streams, one royalty rate.
Author subscriptions
When a reader subscribes to you, you earn 80% of that subscription for as long as they stay subscribed — credited the moment it clears.
Books bought
Each book is priced by its length (about $0.0066 per page). Every one-time purchase pays you 80% of the sale, credited the moment the payment clears.
Ads in the reader
A closable ad fires as a reader pages through your book. Each one earns you a share of that month's ad pool — you keep 80% of what the ad network actually pays.
Ad skips
When a reader skips an ad with a Lair Point or an ad-skip token, you earn a share of the same pool — exactly as if the ad had played.
Ad-free readers still pay you
Ad-Free and Patron readers carry a monthly bag of ad-skip tokens. When an ad would fire in your book, a token is quietly spent instead — the reader is never interrupted, and you still earn a full share of that month’s ad pool. Same for readers who own your book or subscribe to you.
In practice: an ad-free reader who finishes your book earns you the same as a free reader who saw every ad along the way.
Real money only, paid monthly
Subscriptions, book sales and reader notes are your money the moment they clear, so they show up on your dashboard right away. Ad money works differently: ad networks report what they paid after the month closes. Until then your reading activity is banked as shares — once the real revenue lands, the pool is divided across those shares and 80% is written to your balance.
- We never show you an estimate. Your dashboard only ever displays royalties that are finalized and yours.
- Ad royalties for a month are confirmed once that month’s ad revenue is received, which is typically the following month.
- Payouts run monthly, within 60 days of the monthly calculation, to your connected payout account.
- Stripe charges a small fee on each payout (typically $0.25 plus 0.25% for US accounts, more cross-border). Your dashboard shows the fee and the net amount on every withdrawal. Tax documents are handled by Stripe.
- Refunds and chargebacks are reconciled against the next payout.
Ready to publish?
Bring your story to Lyon’s Lair and start earning from day one.