I'm Looking For Great Writers On Medium Who Aren't Getting Seen. Can You Help?
We writers have to stick together because each other is all we have.
Happy Friday,
Little story. In May I stumbled across a story by a brand new writer on Medium. She didn’t even have 100 followers yet, but it was so compelling I nominated it for a boost. Within 2 days, she had 300 followers and over 3K claps. I felt like a fairy godmother.
That’s the power of the Boost program. It lets writers help writers get seen.
Right now the program is small and in Beta. There are only 65 Boost Nominators trying to work out the kinks and trouble shoot inevitable problems. By September, there will be 100, and it will continue to grow from there.
Good writing is the heart of the program.
And if you don’t mind me saying so, that’s a hard thing to find on Medium. It’s not that there isn’t a lot of it. There is. But often, it’s the needle in the haystack.
There’s a lot of teachy-preachy guru posts on Medium. Along with a crap-ton of make money and hustle culture posts, meta posts and belly button gazing. And that’s fine. Medium has never really told people what they can and can’t write about, except for prohibited content like hate posts and personal attacks. Otherwise? Wide open.
Some people write in hope you’ll click their affiliate links. Some hope you’ll sign up for their list and get in their funnel so they can sell whatever it is they sell. Some people use ChatGPT to churn out a ton of “content” hoping to game the algorithm.
And some small number?
They write stuff that makes you feel.
It’s not about topic. Poetry is getting boosted. Fiction is getting boosted. History is getting boosted. Topics that never used to get much traction on Medium.
It’s not about the topic.
It’s about being able to make people feel.
But there’s a lot of writers. Back in 2020, there were 47,000 new posts going up on Medium every day. 1,958 new posts every hour. It’s probably even more today. How do you stand out when 2000 posts are published the same hour as yours?
Boost. That’s how.
Some boost nominator like me finds a piece and says, this is really good. Sends it to the curators who read it and agree. And voila. Visibility. Like the writer who went from brand spanking new to thousands of views in literally two sleeps.
But finding the pieces that shine — it’s hard. Because, volume.
It’s really easy for a Boost Nominator to lean into the people they know write well and keep nominating their stories. I don’t want to do that. I want to find faces that are new or just new to me and spread the love a little. You know?
So if you know a great writer who isn’t getting the visibility he or she should, can you share a link below? And yes, that writer can be yourself. If you’ve written a story you are insanely proud of but it didn’t get boosted, feel welcome to share a link.
It’s a tough world out there. We writers need to stick together and help each other when we can. Because really? Each other is all we’ve ever had in this world.
Looking forward to your suggestions.
Questions are welcome, too. :)
On Medium…
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend. If you enjoyed, scroll down just a little and click the heart. It’s how we thank writers here on Substack. 🥰
xo,
Linda
Just to piggyback on what Linda has said: One of the stated goals of this program is to surface great work readers might be missing. The meta posts, and "I made X dollars in Y days" stuff we all love to hate gets a lot of attention- this program is aimed at bringing the platform more into balance.
Joe Luca doesn't write for History of Women but he's marvelous - deserves much more attention than he receives.