You've given me something to ponder on. I don't have a lot of awareness of how fiction is doing on Medium, but I'm kind of curious. Roman has written some fiction, but it reads so real that I'm often not sure it's fiction until I see the tags. We have a couple of fiction writers in The Interstitial that I've nominated and got boosted. But outside of that tiny circle, I'm quite oblivious. I'll have to poke around, see what I can learn. :)
There isn’t any one thing I want to keep writing about over and over again.
I do have a process niche though. I’m naturally curious and I love learning new things or discovering new points of view. I’m also naturally creative it’s what gets me enthused and gives me staying power to fully research and write a polished story.
People have gotten used to me following my curiosity but delivering a good narrative about doing just that.
I am a teacher, but retired. I don’t have a string of letters after my name that would make anyone believe me to be an expert opinion on anything. However, if I lived it and I drew some lesson from it or have an original idea that could help others I share it in my writing.
Scroll by, click and move on, or be curious and read on - it’s always the reader’s choice.
Jocelyn, I don't think we need a string of letters after my name to be believable or perceived as having an expert opinion. I think when we write from our own experience that has a validity that letters don't always give.
I agree, but I have had other people tell me that if you don’t have the letters you shouldn’t write about certain topics and expect others to read your work.
That’s not how I work,but I have been told it is one of the Boost criterion.
I just write about what I find I have something meaningful to share.
Thanks, Denise. I am only slowly tiptoeing back into history and not often. It pushed me off a pretty high cliff. I hope you find a couple of new corners that work for you, too. Middle Pause and The Narrative Arc were two of the first I tried when I branched out.
I have no idea, but this sounds like good advice to me. I joined the medium partner program in July and had a really juicy payout for the month. I’ve only posted twice on Substack.
But… I’d trust just about anything you say because for my money, you, Roman, Ani, and a handful of others are the best writers on that platform. And I mean best in the sense that I want to gobble every word of what you write because you make me feel. Deeply. I do not mean in the sense that y’all are the top paid writers on Medium. Though that might be true, I’ve never been very curious about the money. I’ve noticed most people that are primarily concerned about that just churn out unreadable droll, to put it mildly.
See, this is why I love you to bits. Can't speak for the others but I do pretty well financially there. You nailed what I strive for, though. To make people feel. Roman always says to make people feel, we need to take our feelings off the page to make room for theirs. He has a piece about that on his substack. Also -- Maria Nazos. I'm sure she must be one of the other handful, but if not, do check her out. Look for the one called The Boy I Didn't Kiss At 3am. Christ, she can write. I'm glad July was a juicy payout for you. You've got some wicked chops yourself. :)
Thanks Linda. I keep Medium more for my autobiographical pieces although on Substack, "Trauma Drama" is primarily about things psychological. I find my problem, at the moment, is motivation. I'm too old to want to "build" a career, coming to writing late in life. So I am reluctant to do all the marketing things that are recommended to expand my readership, get "boosted" which, even though I was boosted something like 7 or 8 times is a mystery to me (and the opportunities for being boosted seem to have dried up for me). Since the addition of so many new countries by Medium, while wonderful, has me wondering about who's minding the gate because I've read several "stories" which are all-but-unintelligible and lack basic grammar and spelling not to mention syntax.The value of both platforms, for me, is that I've been privy to some wonderful writing (like yours), have made good friends (in person, even, like Helen Cassidy Page and Melinda Blau), and have, on occasion, touched another human being.
It's been a dicey couple of months for a lot of people Patricia, so don't think your opportunities to be boosted have dried up. I think it's just when big changes happen, it takes time for the dust to settle. :)
Excellent thoughts Linda, but they're always excellent. For broad generalizations (because you have to do that sometimes) you're spot on. A niche is smart on Substack but can (but not always) hurt you on Medium. Then there's niches like mine that enter a fuzzy gray zone. My 'niche' is humor which means I can write about fact, fiction, experiences and everything inbetween and my fuzzy arse gets away with it.
I think the key, on Medium anyway, is to have a vertical but not a too tightly-defined niche(s). Exactly 5.7 people want to read about both your cat and your crypto. But memoir opens up a lot of possibilities, as does humor, culture, etc. So write about fashion instead of just sneakers; art instead of late 17th century baroque. AKA, Medium's high-level topics.
I love that, Robin. Yes - humor is a great niche because it doesn't hogtie you to one topic. And your fuzzy arse gets away with it because you're good at it. I figure the bigger we grow on medium, the less our following matters. Because what does it matter to have 43K followers if they all follow 500 writers and I never show up in their feeds because there's so many people in the feed? Pfft. You know? lmao. So I aim for topic feeds and cross my toes while my fingers keep typing.
Yup, spot on. Following counts don't matter because so few people get shown your shiznit. But there's the boost, which is a cool tool that Substack doesn't have (although their algorithm shows you to more people but for unpaid views).
I'm really surprised how different the two platforms are, each having their strong suits. I'm glad we have so many options these days as writers, since I still remember the days of carrier-pigeoning in stories or sending them morse code via smoke signals.
You had a carrier pigeon? Oh man. I had to use brown envelopes and Canada Post. And you know that's dog-sleds, right? Trotting across the border to American magazines. And then the bank would hold the check for thirty days because it's foreign. lmao I confess I didn't think of trying morse code via smoke signals.
I am dying laughing. No, silly. Canada Post had the dog-sleds. I had to walk everywhere. And here on the prairies it's uphill both ways. And I'm not joking on the bank holds. lmao
I think it never hurts to experiment a little Paul. I used to write 99% history and when I started branching out to other topics, I started growing faster.
I tried very hard to find a niche on Medium but I'm interested in everything and write about everything! I figured out very quickly that on Substack, I needed to pick a lane. I picked income inequality, which functions as an umbrella that includes topics like personal budgeting, the working class, thrift and a smattering of politics/economics. There are a lot of people on Substack writing about money from the perspective of earning and investing and economics, but I don't have a lot of competition for income inequality. I'm still happy with my choice of switching my branding to Untrickled, and it seemed natural to collect some of my essays into a book called Strapped, which is a reference both to "being strapped," as in not having a lot of money, and to "bootstrapping," which is, of course, absolutely impossible. I could keep writing about income inequality for the next 50 years and never run out of things to say about it, but can also stretch the niche out just a tad to keep it from all getting too stale, hopefully.
I noticed you did that, too. Go wide on Medium, pick a lane on Substack. That's smart. And I think getting stale is more a thing that happens to people than topics. I don't think you'd know how to get stale if you tried. And I should know because I'd never adopt someone who gets stale and call them my kin. So there's that. lol.
I really enjoyed reading this article it’s packed with a lot of good thoughts. The writers that I have followed on Medium have been hard at work for years before they got noticed. Some of their best work went unnoticed. Yet they didn’t slow down. I’ve seen great writers come and go because they couldn’t handle the pressure of replies once they hit the big numbers they found it extremely hard to answer back to replies there are only so many hours in a day and I think everyone finds their way Medium or SubStack will never be around forever to me it’s been a experience to find some of the greatest articles I have ever read I would had never found in a magazine or newspaper and to top that reading a article and being able to reply to the author is magic in its self. To me “ replies” are the engines for both Medium and SubStack
Linda, you noticed this observation by Julia Cameron. What a great point. Not a niche, although it may be defined as such. I like to think of it as a grassy meadow where I can play and let the sun heat my skin. Narrow me to writing just one thing and I would feel jailed. I say we should all go to the place where we shine. And, if you grow dull, find another place.
I loved that idea too, Robin. I read The Artist's Way first and then stumbled across Vein Of Gold. I liked that one too, though it's less famous than the former.
Linda, I agree with your general advice but I do not think top writers got pushed out of Medium due to niching.
I applied to be a nominator three times in different topics. Each time I listed my qualifications: 13 award-winning books with the big five trade publishers, 136k Medium followers, ran my own Medium pub - The Grim Historian, editor at 4 other Medium pubs, I have run free writing mentor programs for disadvantaged students, in countless critique groups (some with famous authors), etc. Over the last four years, I have been a top Medium writer in history, feminism, equality, science, humor, relationships, sexuality, psychology, parenting, and occasionally pets. I have never written on one topic.
I knew the nomination pay was piddly but I wanted to help grow the Medium community and give back. I really enjoyed working for Medium over the last four years.
I was rejected from the nomination program three times. And yes, I was shocked and very much hurt.
I don’t think top writers like myself were soft canceled because of writing topic. I think we were pushed out because Medium is moving toward a hobbyist/Reddit brand with fewer professional writers - i.e. writers who make a living in trade or journalism. The reason is simple - Medium can no longer afford to pay us. Substack has cornered the professional writer's market now.
I still keep writing on Medium despite my low boost rate and dwindling payout. I write there because it is the only place where a writer does not have to niche. And yes, part of me is hoping the wizards behind the curtain will realize that credibility matters. You can pay the hobby writer a lot less but eventually readers will want higher quality.
I agree it doesn't apply to you because you've never been a one-trick pony. You write in so many topic areas it doesn't even apply to you. Once again, there's you standing aside from the crowd. There's a few writers I do think too narrow a niche has hurt but I won't say names because that feels ick, you know?
I totally don't get why you were rejected from boost either. I even tried to get you added via History of Women, but I suspect that pub was too small to warrant adding a second editor. Boggles my mind because you bring great experience to the table.
And I totally agree with the last para. I hope the wizards behind the curtain realize if they want to keep growing, the quality of writers is going to need to go up. As an editor, I'd rather work with 10 writers who can write their butts off than 100 who can hit it out of the park once in a blue moon. Maybe I'd coach the 100 if I was getting paid to. But I'm not. They're going to need to think about that at some point.
I appreciate you trying to add me. You were not the only one. Maybe I pissed someone off at Medium. Who knows. But with Reddit going paid and Substack taking a big chunk of eyeballs, Medium should plan accordingly.
The most important thing writers on Medium can do is cover topics from their own experience. Hyperlink references and books. Being a citizen scientist is a calling. Foraging is fascinating. How people are coping with the childcare crisis is an untapped topic. Who cares if it gets boosted, people want ideas on what works. I've been top busy to write on it but I will. People read my poems about grief and are comforted. I'm glad I helped. Boosting is going through a rough patch right now, so I put my pen down and turned to my fiction--which is endlessly rewarding.
Medium has dried up for me, Linda. I've tried branching out and writing about very different things there, even politics. Interestingly, I've found my personal essays do TONS better here on Substack. If I post the same piece on Medium, I'm lucky to get 5 or 6 reads.
Honestly? Medium makes me feel dirty now, like I'm writing for a tabloid, using sensational headlines to try and get clicks. And it still doesn't work. <Shrug.>
I am still experimenting with both Medium and Substack and I don't have masses of data yet. On both I write about change management, travel and culture. On Medium also parenting. I think the publications and editors there make a big difference in how many people see and read my articles.
You've given me something to ponder on. I don't have a lot of awareness of how fiction is doing on Medium, but I'm kind of curious. Roman has written some fiction, but it reads so real that I'm often not sure it's fiction until I see the tags. We have a couple of fiction writers in The Interstitial that I've nominated and got boosted. But outside of that tiny circle, I'm quite oblivious. I'll have to poke around, see what I can learn. :)
There isn’t any one thing I want to keep writing about over and over again.
I do have a process niche though. I’m naturally curious and I love learning new things or discovering new points of view. I’m also naturally creative it’s what gets me enthused and gives me staying power to fully research and write a polished story.
People have gotten used to me following my curiosity but delivering a good narrative about doing just that.
I am a teacher, but retired. I don’t have a string of letters after my name that would make anyone believe me to be an expert opinion on anything. However, if I lived it and I drew some lesson from it or have an original idea that could help others I share it in my writing.
Scroll by, click and move on, or be curious and read on - it’s always the reader’s choice.
Jocelyn, I don't think we need a string of letters after my name to be believable or perceived as having an expert opinion. I think when we write from our own experience that has a validity that letters don't always give.
I agree, but I have had other people tell me that if you don’t have the letters you shouldn’t write about certain topics and expect others to read your work.
That’s not how I work,but I have been told it is one of the Boost criterion.
I just write about what I find I have something meaningful to share.
I think your point makes sense, Linda. I’m going to regroup and see if it works for me. Thanks!
Thanks, Denise. I am only slowly tiptoeing back into history and not often. It pushed me off a pretty high cliff. I hope you find a couple of new corners that work for you, too. Middle Pause and The Narrative Arc were two of the first I tried when I branched out.
Thanks.
I have no idea, but this sounds like good advice to me. I joined the medium partner program in July and had a really juicy payout for the month. I’ve only posted twice on Substack.
But… I’d trust just about anything you say because for my money, you, Roman, Ani, and a handful of others are the best writers on that platform. And I mean best in the sense that I want to gobble every word of what you write because you make me feel. Deeply. I do not mean in the sense that y’all are the top paid writers on Medium. Though that might be true, I’ve never been very curious about the money. I’ve noticed most people that are primarily concerned about that just churn out unreadable droll, to put it mildly.
See, this is why I love you to bits. Can't speak for the others but I do pretty well financially there. You nailed what I strive for, though. To make people feel. Roman always says to make people feel, we need to take our feelings off the page to make room for theirs. He has a piece about that on his substack. Also -- Maria Nazos. I'm sure she must be one of the other handful, but if not, do check her out. Look for the one called The Boy I Didn't Kiss At 3am. Christ, she can write. I'm glad July was a juicy payout for you. You've got some wicked chops yourself. :)
Also… I freakin love you to bits, too!!
Well, shucks… I very much appreciate that. Especially coming from you!
I am definitely going to look Maria up. Thank you for the recommendation!
Thanks Linda. I keep Medium more for my autobiographical pieces although on Substack, "Trauma Drama" is primarily about things psychological. I find my problem, at the moment, is motivation. I'm too old to want to "build" a career, coming to writing late in life. So I am reluctant to do all the marketing things that are recommended to expand my readership, get "boosted" which, even though I was boosted something like 7 or 8 times is a mystery to me (and the opportunities for being boosted seem to have dried up for me). Since the addition of so many new countries by Medium, while wonderful, has me wondering about who's minding the gate because I've read several "stories" which are all-but-unintelligible and lack basic grammar and spelling not to mention syntax.The value of both platforms, for me, is that I've been privy to some wonderful writing (like yours), have made good friends (in person, even, like Helen Cassidy Page and Melinda Blau), and have, on occasion, touched another human being.
It's been a dicey couple of months for a lot of people Patricia, so don't think your opportunities to be boosted have dried up. I think it's just when big changes happen, it takes time for the dust to settle. :)
Excellent thoughts Linda, but they're always excellent. For broad generalizations (because you have to do that sometimes) you're spot on. A niche is smart on Substack but can (but not always) hurt you on Medium. Then there's niches like mine that enter a fuzzy gray zone. My 'niche' is humor which means I can write about fact, fiction, experiences and everything inbetween and my fuzzy arse gets away with it.
I think the key, on Medium anyway, is to have a vertical but not a too tightly-defined niche(s). Exactly 5.7 people want to read about both your cat and your crypto. But memoir opens up a lot of possibilities, as does humor, culture, etc. So write about fashion instead of just sneakers; art instead of late 17th century baroque. AKA, Medium's high-level topics.
I love that, Robin. Yes - humor is a great niche because it doesn't hogtie you to one topic. And your fuzzy arse gets away with it because you're good at it. I figure the bigger we grow on medium, the less our following matters. Because what does it matter to have 43K followers if they all follow 500 writers and I never show up in their feeds because there's so many people in the feed? Pfft. You know? lmao. So I aim for topic feeds and cross my toes while my fingers keep typing.
Yup, spot on. Following counts don't matter because so few people get shown your shiznit. But there's the boost, which is a cool tool that Substack doesn't have (although their algorithm shows you to more people but for unpaid views).
I'm really surprised how different the two platforms are, each having their strong suits. I'm glad we have so many options these days as writers, since I still remember the days of carrier-pigeoning in stories or sending them morse code via smoke signals.
You had a carrier pigeon? Oh man. I had to use brown envelopes and Canada Post. And you know that's dog-sleds, right? Trotting across the border to American magazines. And then the bank would hold the check for thirty days because it's foreign. lmao I confess I didn't think of trying morse code via smoke signals.
Well played Linda. Omg the bank holds 😆
But you had a dog sled? Pfft, ok money bags rich Mcgee over there. I had to burn my journalism degree to start the fire for the smoke signal.
I am dying laughing. No, silly. Canada Post had the dog-sleds. I had to walk everywhere. And here on the prairies it's uphill both ways. And I'm not joking on the bank holds. lmao
I enjoyed reading your article on Niche writing. When I write I wonder should I stay narrow or widen to other topics.
I think it never hurts to experiment a little Paul. I used to write 99% history and when I started branching out to other topics, I started growing faster.
I tried very hard to find a niche on Medium but I'm interested in everything and write about everything! I figured out very quickly that on Substack, I needed to pick a lane. I picked income inequality, which functions as an umbrella that includes topics like personal budgeting, the working class, thrift and a smattering of politics/economics. There are a lot of people on Substack writing about money from the perspective of earning and investing and economics, but I don't have a lot of competition for income inequality. I'm still happy with my choice of switching my branding to Untrickled, and it seemed natural to collect some of my essays into a book called Strapped, which is a reference both to "being strapped," as in not having a lot of money, and to "bootstrapping," which is, of course, absolutely impossible. I could keep writing about income inequality for the next 50 years and never run out of things to say about it, but can also stretch the niche out just a tad to keep it from all getting too stale, hopefully.
I noticed you did that, too. Go wide on Medium, pick a lane on Substack. That's smart. And I think getting stale is more a thing that happens to people than topics. I don't think you'd know how to get stale if you tried. And I should know because I'd never adopt someone who gets stale and call them my kin. So there's that. lol.
I really enjoyed reading this article it’s packed with a lot of good thoughts. The writers that I have followed on Medium have been hard at work for years before they got noticed. Some of their best work went unnoticed. Yet they didn’t slow down. I’ve seen great writers come and go because they couldn’t handle the pressure of replies once they hit the big numbers they found it extremely hard to answer back to replies there are only so many hours in a day and I think everyone finds their way Medium or SubStack will never be around forever to me it’s been a experience to find some of the greatest articles I have ever read I would had never found in a magazine or newspaper and to top that reading a article and being able to reply to the author is magic in its self. To me “ replies” are the engines for both Medium and SubStack
'we all have a space we shine'
Linda, you noticed this observation by Julia Cameron. What a great point. Not a niche, although it may be defined as such. I like to think of it as a grassy meadow where I can play and let the sun heat my skin. Narrow me to writing just one thing and I would feel jailed. I say we should all go to the place where we shine. And, if you grow dull, find another place.
I loved that idea too, Robin. I read The Artist's Way first and then stumbled across Vein Of Gold. I liked that one too, though it's less famous than the former.
Linda, I agree with your general advice but I do not think top writers got pushed out of Medium due to niching.
I applied to be a nominator three times in different topics. Each time I listed my qualifications: 13 award-winning books with the big five trade publishers, 136k Medium followers, ran my own Medium pub - The Grim Historian, editor at 4 other Medium pubs, I have run free writing mentor programs for disadvantaged students, in countless critique groups (some with famous authors), etc. Over the last four years, I have been a top Medium writer in history, feminism, equality, science, humor, relationships, sexuality, psychology, parenting, and occasionally pets. I have never written on one topic.
I knew the nomination pay was piddly but I wanted to help grow the Medium community and give back. I really enjoyed working for Medium over the last four years.
I was rejected from the nomination program three times. And yes, I was shocked and very much hurt.
I don’t think top writers like myself were soft canceled because of writing topic. I think we were pushed out because Medium is moving toward a hobbyist/Reddit brand with fewer professional writers - i.e. writers who make a living in trade or journalism. The reason is simple - Medium can no longer afford to pay us. Substack has cornered the professional writer's market now.
I still keep writing on Medium despite my low boost rate and dwindling payout. I write there because it is the only place where a writer does not have to niche. And yes, part of me is hoping the wizards behind the curtain will realize that credibility matters. You can pay the hobby writer a lot less but eventually readers will want higher quality.
I agree it doesn't apply to you because you've never been a one-trick pony. You write in so many topic areas it doesn't even apply to you. Once again, there's you standing aside from the crowd. There's a few writers I do think too narrow a niche has hurt but I won't say names because that feels ick, you know?
I totally don't get why you were rejected from boost either. I even tried to get you added via History of Women, but I suspect that pub was too small to warrant adding a second editor. Boggles my mind because you bring great experience to the table.
And I totally agree with the last para. I hope the wizards behind the curtain realize if they want to keep growing, the quality of writers is going to need to go up. As an editor, I'd rather work with 10 writers who can write their butts off than 100 who can hit it out of the park once in a blue moon. Maybe I'd coach the 100 if I was getting paid to. But I'm not. They're going to need to think about that at some point.
I appreciate you trying to add me. You were not the only one. Maybe I pissed someone off at Medium. Who knows. But with Reddit going paid and Substack taking a big chunk of eyeballs, Medium should plan accordingly.
Interesting. Sounds like the advice is to go broad on Medium and to go specific on Substack.
To me that makes a lot of sense. :)
The most important thing writers on Medium can do is cover topics from their own experience. Hyperlink references and books. Being a citizen scientist is a calling. Foraging is fascinating. How people are coping with the childcare crisis is an untapped topic. Who cares if it gets boosted, people want ideas on what works. I've been top busy to write on it but I will. People read my poems about grief and are comforted. I'm glad I helped. Boosting is going through a rough patch right now, so I put my pen down and turned to my fiction--which is endlessly rewarding.
I so agree on the experience part. Adding personal experience gives our writing something we can't without it.
Linda, As always, thanks for these spot-on insights for Medium and Substack writers.
Thanks, Sandra. And thank you for restacking and leaving notes. I notice and appreciate! ❤️
Medium has dried up for me, Linda. I've tried branching out and writing about very different things there, even politics. Interestingly, I've found my personal essays do TONS better here on Substack. If I post the same piece on Medium, I'm lucky to get 5 or 6 reads.
Honestly? Medium makes me feel dirty now, like I'm writing for a tabloid, using sensational headlines to try and get clicks. And it still doesn't work. <Shrug.>
I am still experimenting with both Medium and Substack and I don't have masses of data yet. On both I write about change management, travel and culture. On Medium also parenting. I think the publications and editors there make a big difference in how many people see and read my articles.