She's A Writer. Her Pronouns Are Pay Me
Trouble is, she wrote it on Medium. Boy, is she going to be disappointed.
Happy Friday
I read a story on Medium this week by a writer lamenting how hard it is to earn a decent living writing.
The title got my interest. She said she’s a writer and her pronouns are PAY ME.
It made me laugh, which is something, because the topic is decidedly not funny. For the most part, writers get paid crap.
She’s not just someone who can type. She’s a professional, with a degree and all she wants is to be able to make a decent living writing from home. That’s harder than you’d think.
Turned out, she was lamenting other writers who take jobs that pay crap. All those people who write $5 and $10 articles are ruining it for every other writer, she said. Ruining it. They’re “telling” organizations that it’s a feasible price.
I think that’s blaming the wrong people.
Most of the time, it’s about the audience…
I read about one guy who made $6,000 on Amazon this year. With 1 book.
Most writers would be stunned and over the moon to earn $6K with one book because most books never sell more than 200 copies. But think about it. That is not a living wage. $6K in half a year isn’t a living wage.
You know that guy is working a day job. Or a side hustle. Or something.
Crazy part is, he has a list of 10K readers. But we know how lists work too, right? They mostly don’t click and don’t buy and joined for whatever freebie he is giving away and then grumble and hit delete when they get his emails.
I guess enough click and buy that it keeps him him going.
On Amazon, the only books that get visibility are the ones that are selling. So as long as he can keep his email subscribers clicking and buying, Amazon will like him.
Amazon doesn’t favor quality, it favors popularity. They want writers to build their own following and send them all to Amazon. If you know how to do that, they’ll throw some extra visibility your way. Not because your book is good, necessarily. Even if it is. It’s because you make them money.
We see the same popularity factor in publishing. Publishers pay giant advances to celebrities for books they didn’t even write and offer peanuts to new authors no matter how good their book is.
I read about another guy who moved to Kickstarter
He said screw it. It’s too hard to make it on Amazon. He sells a science fiction series and each successive book has sold less than the one before.
Are they any good? I have no clue. Anyway, he started a Kickstarter campaign and sent it to his list. The clicks and response helped him get visibility on Kickstarter and he picked up a bunch of new readers.
Said he made more on his Kickstarter launch than he did on the last two books combined selling on Amazon.
He said what made the difference wasn’t audience, because his list size didn’t change. It was being able to offer different price points. Standard book, kindle book, autographed book. He even offered one book with signed artwork of the cover.
Medium doesn’t work the same way…
I found it slightly amusing that the writer talking about getting paid crap posted that on Medium. They’re not the king of crap pay, but they’re working real hard to get there. lol.
It’s going to get worse.
Because the referral program is eating into the funds writers get paid from.
In the past, members paid their 5 bucks, and it was divvied up among writers based on read share. Now they need to scoop 50% of those fees to pay affiliates first.
As the number of referred members grow, that’s going to get worse.
This is what that looks like for me…
My views have stayed pretty stable, followers have increased from 13K to 17K in 6 months, but earning less than half of what I used to.
It’s not sustainable.
Which explains why a lot of writers are writing less or straight up leaving Medium and coming over here to Substack. Starting paid newsletters. I have no idea how many succeed. Statistically, about 10% of subscribers are willing to pay.
I don’t know the answer to the problem she was trying to suss through.
Writers do get paid crap almost everywhere.
I don’t think it’s their fault. It’s what happens when we look at people as a commodity. Hell, even the new CEO of Medium said readers are the focus, not writers. I guess he doesn’t realize all those writers are/were readers, too
Writers who need the money will work for crap until they can’t anymore. Doesn’t matter if it’s a content mill or Medium. Some of them will use AI to churn out content and dream about doing “real” writing and getting “real” pay.
Most never will.
After reading the piece, I wanted to ask her if the story made $5. Because I saw how many claps and comments there were, and I bet it didn’t.
I wish I knew a solution but I don’t.
If you write on Medium, has your pay nosedived too?
New posts…
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My new publication…
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this, click the heart to say thanks. :)
xo,
Linda
This article makes me wonder how anyone makes it as a writer. When i was going the query route, I saw more than one agency ask if we had fifty-thousand Facebook followers. Now I get it. They want almost a guarantee of sales before they look at you.
Maybe I'll go back to carrying a tote bag of my book and selling them at bus stops.
When I hear about pay for writers - I'm always surprised about the people who have never heard about a couple of "institutions" that could help them. First of all, there is the Editorial Freelancers Association of New York City. It has been around since 1970, when Grove Press editors' went on strike! That's right! So they started freelancing again, and soon organized themselves into this current "institution" for ALL editorial type freelancers - all types! Yes, you pay an annual fee (I think I paid under $200 for the year for the years I was a member) but you get listings and details 5 days a week (based on your skills and special qualifications) that you create in your profile. PLUS EFA has determined what are reasonable fees for editorial work of all types. My fee was $35/hour as an editor. So one job, could pay for your entire annual fee. SERIOUSLY, Linda, check it out. One job I got was from one of the largest German companies - a music publisher. Because I also had a music degree and could understand music language (words) and musical reading itself!
Also, Jon Morrow trains writers to do content marketing, and, since he is well-recognized within the entire industry, his certificate once they pass his intense classes - speaks for itself. People make REAL money once they've done the work and earn that certificate. Thousands of dollars annually. Not like Fiverr or the other "agencies" that pay a writer $5-10 for a post. Morrow even teaches you how to find and attract clients yourself. Anyway, Passing this along. There is a LOT MORE than Medium to make money. Sure, you get to pick your own topic and all that. But that doesn't necessarily pay the bills, put food on the table. Anyway, my two cents worth.
Also, I had my own clients that I sought out. One I didn't even look for - but lasted for six years. Started at $300/month and increased to $600/month - for writing and editing, managing a large group of marketing people who sent us information placed in the publications we put out monthly. That job lasted until about a week before I flew to Cleveland for a liver transplant! How lucky is that? At that time I was also writing my own fiction - two novels and a "memoir" for my rescue kitty! When you're laid up in bed a lot - well, writing is still possible and ON THE DOCKET!!!