The two lanes, at real price points
Every sale deducts card processing at cost, the 10% platform fee, and the 10% ecosystem fund; curator-attributed sales also carry the curator's commission — any discovery boost above its 25% base is paid from the fund, never from you:
| Sale price | Organic sale — you keep | Curator-attributed — you keep |
|---|---|---|
| $4.99 | $3.55 (71%) | $2.30 (46%) |
| $9.99 | $7.40 (74%) | $4.90 (49%) |
| $14.99 | $11.26 (75%) | $7.51 (50%) |
Plus your pro-rata share of the ecosystem fund's annual return. Live-tuned beta settings, 30 days' notice on any change — see the full fee schedule.
How that compares, medium by medium
| Where | Creator keeps | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| IndieStarlight — organic | 71–75% | — |
| The largest online book reseller | ~70% | Only inside their price window; 35% outside it, minus delivery fees |
| The dominant audiobook platform | 30–50% | The top rate requires exclusivity |
| The biggest video-on-demand marketplace | ~50% | Of rental revenue, before promotion costs |
| The dominant music streaming service | fractions of a cent per stream | A thousand streams to equal one modest purchase |
| IndieStarlight — curator-attributed | 46–50% | The difference bought you a sale you didn't have |
Published rates as of mid-2026, approximate; terms vary by format and program.
Read the last row again: our "worst case" beats their standard rates — and theirs is every sale, ours only when someone else's audience paid you. You keep both lanes at once: 71–75% on the audience you bring, plus a commissioned network of curators hunting for you in the audience you don't have yet.
Why curators go looking for creators like you
A curator's commission on your work isn't fixed — it depends on how new you are to the network. The newer you are, the more a curator earns for finding you, on purpose: the network pays curators more to go hunting for the next you, not to keep re-promoting whoever's already popular.
Maya lists her first novel. A curator features it and drives a $9.99 sale. Because Maya has under $1,000 in lifetime network sales — a brand-new creator — that curator earns 40% ($4.00) on that sale, the maximum rate. If Maya were already an established creator with over $10,000 in lifetime sales, that same curator, doing the exact same work, would earn only 30% ($3.00) on an identical featured sale.
That $1.00 difference is the incentive working as designed: curators earn more, specifically, for placing their bets on creators nobody's found yet — which is exactly why you want them looking at you right now.
For a curator finding you for the very first time, the boost steps down as your own lifetime network sales grow: under $1,000 in lifetime sales, curators earn +10 points; $1,000–$10,000, +5 points; above $10,000, no discovery boost (a featured placement still adds +5 on top, regardless of your tier). See the full fee schedule for exact tiers.
But once a curator earns that boost promoting you, it's theirs on your work forever — even after you grow past the threshold that would lower it for anyone finding you fresh. The curator who took a chance on you when you were unknown keeps earning at that same elevated rate on everything you publish afterward, for as long as they keep selling your work. It's a real, permanent reason for a curator to go looking for the next breakout creator instead of just re-promoting who's already popular — and a real reason for you to want a curator's attention now, while you're still new.
More ways money comes to you
Win a discovery contest and the prize lands straight in your IndieStarlight wallet — real dollars from the ecosystem fund, not points. And a give-$5-get-$5 referral program means every fan or fellow creator you bring to the network puts $5 in your wallet, and $5 in theirs, the moment they make their first purchase.
We're bringing on a founding group now
Founding creators launch while the discovery boost above is at its strongest — the earlier you join, the longer curators have real money on the table for finding you before anyone else does.