Some Thoughts If You're Struggling On Both Medium and Substack

We have to stop thinking good writing floats to the top. It doesn't.

Here’s a thing we say. The cream always rises to the top. And if you’re a dairy farmer, it’s true. Leave cow’s milk in a pail, the cream will float to the top. That’s chemistry, not philosophy. Cream contains more fat and has lower density, so it floats to the top.

But as a philosophy of life, it’s dead wrong.

Lot of people think that and don’t even realize they do. One of those ways that cultural thinking gets in our head, we don’t even know we’ve bought into it. Leads to all kinds of wrong headed thinking. Like thinking people at the top of a corporation or organization are there because they’re best at what they do.

The theory of cream floating to the top is also why new authors upload their book to Amazon and think it’s going to magically find readers and when it flops, they feel sad and think wrong headed things like “well, I guess it wasn’t any good” and “no one likes my writing” when the truth is you played a game without knowing the rules of engagement before you started. Set yourself up to fail, is what that is.

Couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post called “Writing For A Living Is Harder Than Anyone Will Tell You.” It shot to my top posts so fast, made my head spin. And it’s dead on true. It was hard when I wrote for print magazines and in some ways it’s even harder now. And I’m going to tell you why in a minute.

But first, something I saw in a comment in a writer’s group. A lot of people think this way and it’s dead wrong. Someone said a lot of writers complain about Medium, but they go to Substack and struggle there, too. What’s that tell you? the person asked.

I get the inference. It’s that if you’re “so good” why aren’t you killing it on Substack? You know, now that Medium isn’t there to hold you down. Truth is, it’s just more “cream rises to the top” thinking. And it’s not true. Not even a little bit.

Here’s another one I read. Good riddance to print media. Don’t need no gatekeepers. Let the reader decide what’s good.

I’m going to sound like an elitist snob here, but the reader isn’t deciding if you’re any good. Here is a promise I can make you. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s good writing. But only sometimes.

Here’s another promise I can make you.

How I got boosted 12 times, How I doubled my income, Why I screamed at a man in the grocery store, Why you’re a moron if you vote Trump, The “real” secret to making money writing, How to have better sex, Why Medium Sucks — every one of those will get more reads than a thought piece about Kurt Vonnegut or Sylvia Plath.

You know why, right?

People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s good writing. But only sometimes.

Back when newspapers were in their heyday, everyone knew what a rag magazine was. Papers filled with lies and they could get away with the lies because they knew the headline was going to sell more papers than they’d pay out in a lawsuit. You know who the highest paid copywriters used to be? The people writing headlines for rag magazines. People good at sensationalism. But yeah, let the reader decide. But yeah, if you’re not kicking ass on Substack you prolly just suck, pal. Sorry. Wrong.

Here’s another factor that affects writers.

63% of employed workers in America can’t afford a $500 emergency. Almost one third of Americans have less than $1000 in savings. You want me to think people who live every single day worried about making ends meet have literary discretion? That they’re only reading “good” writing? Some, maybe. But not all. Not nearly.

You want me to think people read based on quality? Sorry if that sounds rude. Truth doesn’t care what you think of it. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s good writing. I will keep saying that until it sinks in.

That’s the world we are writing in and there is no editor verifying facts and declining a post because it’s inflammatory, exclusionary and biased. That used to be the job of an editor in the print world. That was the job of gatekeepers that don’t exist anymore.

As a writer, once you know that, you’re at a crossroads. You going to write something that elevates humanity? Or you going to push buttons and cash out? That’s not a judgement, so you know. Not my job to tell anyone how to pay their bills.

But don’t tell me people judge on quality.

Don’t tell me cream rises to the top. That’s crap.

That’s not to say there’s no merit in writing quality. Quality doesn’t put anyone at the top. Lots of good writers that never make it. But if you manage to get there, quality can keep you there. Lots of dead writers whose books are still on the bestseller lists.

Quality doesn’t put anyone at the top. But it can keep you there.

Button pushers tend to be more like a Baskin Robbins flavor of the week. For a while they’re running hot. And then fall out of favor. Move to another platform. Start over.

But it’s not only the battle between whether to push buttons or not. It’s also knowing a platform. Because the biggest reason people fail at everything and anything is not knowing the rules of play. My roots are in marketing and I see it there, too. People always think they need more traffic. No. 69% of your viewers leave in 29 seconds or less. Why you want more of that? Fix your site first. Then get more traffic.

Rules of play are a bigger factor than anyone ever realizes. And the easier a thing is to do, the more it happens. Super easy to write online. Hit the write button, start typing. People don’t tend to learn more than they need to. I see it with websites, I see it with SEO and I see it with email marketing.

Same applies to writing. You might be one of the best writers I’ve ever read, but if you don’t know how to build an audience on Substack, you’re going to struggle. And no, that doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. Cream only rises to the top on a dairy farm.

Same applies on Medium. Do you know how the platform works? Do you know how to increase your chance of getting boosted? Same applies on Vocal. Do you know how to get eyes on your work? Because unlike Medium, Vocal does pay for external views but people still struggle because they don’t know the nuance of the platform.

Stack those together — that’s why writers struggle. That’s why it’s so hard to make it as a writer. Because you’re up against button pushers and people selling the dream of a better something. Because we live in an attention economy. And because on top of the attention issue, there is nuance to every platform that you might not even know exists. The cream does not rise to the top anywhere—except on a dairy farm.

Love to know what you think, and where you’re at. Tell me where you’re struggling, where you’re kicking some butt and what you’d really like some answers to.

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, I also write on Medium.

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