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After quitting his job, Premchand left Gorakhpur for Benares on 18 March 1921, and decided to focus on his literary career. Till his death in 1936, he faced severe financial difficulties and chronic ill health.In 1923, he established a printing press and publishing house in Benares, christened Saraswati Press. The year 1924 saw the publication of Premchands Rangabhumi, which has a blind beggar called Surdas as its tragic hero. Schulz mentions that in Rangabhumi, Premchand comes across as a superb social chronicler, and although the novel contains some structural flaws and too many authorial explanations, it shows a marked progress in Premchands writing style. According to Schulz, it was in Nirmala (1925) and Pratigya (1927) that Premchand found his way to a balanced, realistic level that surpasses his earlier works and manages to hold his readers in tutelage.

Nirmala, a novel dealing with the dowry system in India, was first serialised in the magazine Chand between November 1925 and November 1926, before being published as a novel. Pratigya (The Vow) dealt with the subject of widow remarriage. In 1928, Premchands novel Gaban (Embezzlement), focusing on the middle class greed, was published. In March 1930, Premchand launched a literary political weekly magazine titled Hans, aimed at inspiring the Indians to mobilise against the British rule. The magazine, noted for its politically provocative views, failed to make a profit. Premchand then took over and edited another magazine called Jagaran, which too ran at a loss.In 1931, Premchand moved to Kanpur as a teacher in the Marwari College, but had to leave because of difference with the college administration. He then returned to Benares, and became the editor of the Maryada magazine. In 1932, he published another novel titled Karmabhumi. He briefly served as the headmaster of the Kashi Vidyapeeth, a local school. After the schools closure, he became the editor of the Madhuri magazine in Lucknow.