Most marketplaces take a cut of everything you sell, forever, and that cut tends to go up rather than down as the platform grows. Story to Die For is new, and the creators who take a chance on it early are the reason it will work at all — so the first ten of them get a permanently better deal.
What a Founding Creator Is
The first ten creators to have a story approved and published on Story to Die For are designated Founding Creators. On their sales the platform takes a 10% commission instead of the standard 20%, which means they receive 90% of every sale rather than 80%.
Slots are limited to ten and are awarded in the order stories are approved. Once they are gone, new creators publish on the standard 20% rate. Accounts operated by Story to Die For itself are not eligible and do not use up a slot.
What the Difference Actually Adds Up To
The commission only ever applies to a sale, so nothing about this costs you anything up front. On a $20 story the standard rate leaves you $16 a sale; as a Founding Creator you keep $18. Sell that one story fifty times and it's $100 more in your pocket for exactly the same work.
The gap then keeps widening, because the rate follows the creator rather than the story. A Founding Creator who publishes four more mysteries over the next two years earns the better rate on all of them.
How to Claim a Slot
Signing up does not claim anything. A slot is claimed the moment your first story is approved and goes live, which means the ten slots go to the ten creators who actually finish and publish something — not the first ten people to register an account.
- Create an account and write up your story for submission
- Submit it for review through your creator dashboard
- Once a reviewer approves it and it goes live, the Founding Creator rate is applied to your account automatically
Our creator guidelines cover exactly what reviewers look for, and what most commonly gets a submission sent back for revision.
What “Permanent” Means Here
It means what it says, and it is written into the terms and conditions rather than just promised in marketing copy. Story to Die For reserves the right to change its commission structure in future, but that right explicitly does not extend to the Founding Creator rate — once a creator has been designated a Founding Creator, the commission retained on their sales will not go above 10%.
It applies to the story that earned it and to every story that creator publishes afterwards, with no expiry date and no minimum sales to keep it.
How and When You Get Paid
Payouts run through Stripe Connect, so you will need a Stripe account linked before a paid story can sell. Buyers have 7 days to raise a complaint about a story, and payments are held for 14 days from the date of purchase to cover that review window. If no valid complaint is raised, your payment is released after that period, and you can track every sale from your seller dashboard in the meantime.
Is Your Story Ready to Submit?
- A complete script with character sheets, secrets, and an unambiguous solution
- An accurate player count and a realistic running time
- Instructions a first-time host can follow without you in the room
- An honest description that helps hosts judge whether it suits their group
Every creator can also publish one story for free. It earns nothing directly, but it is the fastest way to collect reviews before you price your next one — and a free story counts for claiming a Founding Creator slot just as a paid one does.
Start Writing
Read the full creator guidelines to see what it takes to publish, or look at how much you can actually earn selling murder mystery games online. If you already have a finished script, our guide to selling your own murder mystery story walks through the whole process from first draft to first sale.