So mad at Medium
Color me stupid. I knew better...
Happy Friday…
I’m not cutting holes in a perfectly good sheet so you can be a ghost for one night.
That’s what Mom said when kid me wanted to be a ghost for Halloween. It wasn’t really the sheet. She didn’t like face masks, or face coverings of any kind.
What if you can’t see a car when you run across the street?
It’s not that she was a bad sport. She loved Halloween. She’d sit for hours making princess dresses and crowns for the sister who loved such things. She’d make candied apples, hang bats in the windows, and drape spiderwebs across the front door.
We were a destination house, if you know what I mean.
Me—I just wanted to go incognito.
I’ve never blended into a crowd. Tiny girl with big hair. The shorter Mom cut it, the bigger it got. All my sisters had silky straight hair. Me? Mop of curls.
I wanted to know what it’s like not to be instantly recognized.
Medium finally granted my wish.
And I hate it.
Medium just removed writer’s names from their stories...
If you go to the homepage, you’ll see a whole bunch of titles, with no idea who wrote any of them. The author names have been removed. I hate it.
It’s like a grab bag at the carnival.
Strangely, I don’t hate that I’m incognito. I hate everyone else being invisible. I feel like I’m wandering among ghosts. Voices in the dark. No idea who they are.
Like being in a big crowd, but someone turned out the lights.
I was never just a writer there. I’m a reader, too. Almost embarrassing, the amount of time I spend reading. A guilty pleasure. A break from work. You know?
Funny thing is, readers tend to like the writers they like.
People who like Stephen King don’t want to be handed just any horror book by just any author. They like his writing. Sometimes, they find new authors they like to read. And that’s exciting. But it’s not only about the topic. You know?
It’s also about the writer.
We like who we like.
“Voice” is a real thing.
But no. Not at Medium. It’s all about the titles now. Can you imagine if the entire publishing industry took author names off their books? Omg, what a disaster.
I’m so mad at them.
Color me stupid. I knew better…
Over 20 years I’ve been telling my clients the same thing.
Don’t build your house on someone else’s property. You control what you own.
I didn’t take my own advice.
Right now, I’m 800 people away from 10K readers. Most of my readers have no idea what I do outside of Medium. I don’t have a website in my profile.
I do have my substack page — but I don’t own that, either.
Know what I mean?
And I only started my own publication last month. I was late to that party.
Publications are the new hot, over at Medium.
That’s all they show, now. Title and publication.
And when someone clicks to read, they’re going to get a “frictionless feed” of content. Not from the writer. From the publication.
If you haven’t started your own publication, maybe do?
So your readers can find you.
It won’t have any readers at first. You’ll need to grow it. Slowly. Alternating between writing for other publications (for reach) and your own.
And put a website in your profile for gosh sakes.
I’m working on a new one. For writers.
Hope to share it soon.
“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”
— Rita Mae Brown
My own publication…
I’ve created my own publication. Slowly weaning from external publications to my own. If you’re on Medium, I hope you’ll follow.
Here’s what I wrote this week:
Fearless Girl Wears Ruth Bader Ginsburg Collar. Oh, The Irony
Dear Medium, Why Can We Mute Writers Whose Names Are Hidden?
Thanks for reading. If you liked this, click the heart to let me know. If you’re reading via email, click the title to leave a comment.
Have a great weekend!
:)
Linda
Working on muting in house Medium publications until this changes.
Yeah...I can see we should be mad. How difficult was it to do your own publication on Medium? Also, I just shared you with the rest of the world. I hope you don't mind.