Happy Friday, Usually when there’s drama on Medium, I’m oblivious. And trust me, there’s always drama on Medium. There’s drama on every writing site that exists and ever existed. Because writers are people and people have emotions. This time I wasn’t oblivious.
I stopped following Jessica Wildfire on Medium when ALL of her posts were doom & gloom and were not contributing to my life or happiness. There was no learning about anything new, no perspective on how to handle things, no...hope, really.
Medium for me has become a time suck and a time waster. Even when I knocked myself out to post 3 times a week I BARELY made back my membership fee. This past month, I made .43 cents.
I should just cut the cord and pivot completely to Substack.
I completely agree with you, we need to find our own audience and stop relying on Medium's. Although I recognize the irony in having said that, I am trying to clone my writerly-self into fiction as well, so finding my audience to make connections with over epic fantasy has proven to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated.
I am still working on the manuscript. But I'm zooming in on where to find the audience as well. The fandom for LITRPG is easier to find than for Epic. I've learned some interesting differences in the audience expectations, though!
You're absolutely right. I'm one of those who stayed on Medium for a very small number of writers, including you. Some of them have moved to Substack and/or Patreon, and I have followed. It's a tough slog to rebuild an audience, but it's the ultimate solution. One of the most valuable lessons I ever got from Seth Godin was the concept of finding the "minimum viable audience". As an author of a few apps for iPhone and iPad, I am not even a drop in the ocean of app makers, but I am one of few that make a small, but meaningful, amount of money from my small audience. I write for those looking for the new thing, and they tell the others. It takes a while, but it works.
Thanks Jim, I appreciate you saying that. I do okay on Medium but a year ago I was making double what I do now. High time I moved my history posts over here. I tried importing the posts and the import failed so I likely need to paste them in one at a time.
The last I heard of Jessica Wildfire was a spam post about cryptocurrency. That’s the downside of being popular. The more people want to read you the more spammers want to rip you off.
The last I heard of Jessica Wildfire was a spam post telling me to get vaccinated. It was part of a wave of 'popular' writers following a script. It was not what I paid [past tense] Medium to read.
I had thought it was a copy and paste paid script under the names of multiple writers, just as we have seen on Twitter, for example. We have seen the same keywords, used in multiple media locations, simultaneously.
Some time around Nixon's 3rd press conference about Watergate and there being nothing, "and I mean nothing" happening over there, I stopped believing what people said in public, until I could get a feel for the subject myself. Until I knew enough to sense if someone was bullshitting me. Unfortunately Medium and its own have been BSing for some time now, don't believe them.
They're making changes because they have to. They're shaving reading times - until you need to park on that page, have lunch, floss and take a nap - before they count it as a read. Is it possible that readers are fleeing through the borders onto other sites? Sure. But I don't "think" that's the sole reason for the drop in stats. But you're RIGHT, find your own audience. I'm waiting for you to say it for the FIFTH time and then, boy will I jump on it then!! 😜😂🤣
I discovered the same, Joe. They say what they want us to believe instead of what's actually true. I guess it never occurred to them that most writers are literate and decently intelligent. The FIFTH time? Wow, you're fast. lol. I take at least a dozen.
I had to read your article about beauty hints in 1967. Still shaking my head...
I was a senior in high school in 1967. I read Seventeen religiously. At 98 pounds, 5'5", with long, thick hair and a boyfriend who is still my boyfriend, and my husband for almost 52 years, Seventeen emphasized how lucky I was. The comments also contributed to my giving up my dream of being a marine biologist and becoming an elementary teacher, which my father insisted.
Having taught at our local high school, watching girls applying more eye makeup around false eyelashes, and heard one girl bragging to several boys about who she'd been ******* (several in the past year), I agree that things haven't changed all that much.
Linda, that made me smile. My oldest sister was also a senior around that time. Pretty as it gets and still married to her then boyfriend. There's 8 of us kids with more than 20 years between first and last. My eldest sister had her first child before Mom had her last one. lol. Do you ever wish you'd gone into marine biology?
Oh Linda...you speak words of truth. And I do agree that Medium is a Time sucking leach. The harder I try to put out quality writing the further I get away from finishing my novel. Also, the built in accessory of read many others in hope of them reciprocating is getting old. Back to the time pit issue. I'm back to spending more time on my novel.....as of last week. Yay! But I will continue writing in Medium without the expectations.
Yes, that's me as well, Henya. I will continue to write there but I am spending more time working on other projects. Like moving my publication here. And setting up a gumroad store.
Sigh. Medium did change their distribution system. Also there was something about seo and how it was limiting what was searchable to increase the quality of the platform. Some such nonsense.
Hey Linda! Yeah I know a friend who used to make enough each month on Medium for a full-time income, but lately, most months he makes less than minimum wage...The difference is dramatic. I think the main factor is of people going outside more and reading less, since the lockdown is mostly over. That's a great observation you made that, when more writers complain about low views and leave, that means even lower views for everyone, lol.
I wonder if the "see less of this" button might have some drastic effects on some writers. I did not know that the button might suppress the posts from that particular writer... I clicked "see less like this" for a post where the title triggered my gender dysphoria...I actually love this writer and there was nothing wrong with her title. It was just personally triggering to me, and I didn't know how to take the article off of my feed short of reading it, which I didn't want to do. Yikes. I will have to deliberately go to the author's profile again and read her stories, and signal to the algo that I''m actually still interested in her stories.
But yeah that's unsettling that even Jessica Wildfire is concerned about her views tanking...I only have 800ish followers, lol. But I don't expect myself to make a lot anytime soon. (I only publish 2-3 times a week, and make just $20+ a month.) So I just focus on slowly building my audience, and making friends along the way! I'm uncertain how the distribution changes will help or hinder us...Some folks said that distribution made no difference to their views or even worsened them...Will making distribution harder improve things or make things worse? I guess only time will tell!
Thanks, Linda, for your insights on Medium and alternatives. I only began writing on Med in September. As I right nonfiction, history, my work involves some research. I found myself spending up to 3-4 hours per day just to publish 2-3 articles a day, including building a following, ie read, clap, comment. Not at all a profitable system for any writer! other projects of mine suffered too.
So back to Substack I’ve gone, certainly with a better understanding of Sub's way of things. I note that many of the people I know from Medium have moved too.
My Substack is "Social Justice Matters." Not completely set up, but very soon.
While I subscribe to a few people on Substack, I pay a subscription fee only to one. Honestly, I couldn't afford to pay a subscription fee to everyone I want to read. That's where Medium's subscription program works better for a reader, but not a writer.
Interestingly, in the last couple of months, I received my highest Medium payouts ever, in the tens of dollars instead of the ones of dollars I usually made. And mainly just from two articles. I think it's a fluke, though. I no longer bother to try and figure out Medium's algorithm because life is just too short.
I stopped following Jessica Wildfire on Medium when ALL of her posts were doom & gloom and were not contributing to my life or happiness. There was no learning about anything new, no perspective on how to handle things, no...hope, really.
Medium for me has become a time suck and a time waster. Even when I knocked myself out to post 3 times a week I BARELY made back my membership fee. This past month, I made .43 cents.
I should just cut the cord and pivot completely to Substack.
I completely agree with you, we need to find our own audience and stop relying on Medium's. Although I recognize the irony in having said that, I am trying to clone my writerly-self into fiction as well, so finding my audience to make connections with over epic fantasy has proven to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated.
Carolyn, I'm really interested what you said about finding an audience in the epic fantasy space. Do you have a book out yet or are you working in it?
I am still working on the manuscript. But I'm zooming in on where to find the audience as well. The fandom for LITRPG is easier to find than for Epic. I've learned some interesting differences in the audience expectations, though!
I stopped reading Jessica Wildfire’s work for the same reasons. For me, she became a ‘drama diva.’
You're absolutely right. I'm one of those who stayed on Medium for a very small number of writers, including you. Some of them have moved to Substack and/or Patreon, and I have followed. It's a tough slog to rebuild an audience, but it's the ultimate solution. One of the most valuable lessons I ever got from Seth Godin was the concept of finding the "minimum viable audience". As an author of a few apps for iPhone and iPad, I am not even a drop in the ocean of app makers, but I am one of few that make a small, but meaningful, amount of money from my small audience. I write for those looking for the new thing, and they tell the others. It takes a while, but it works.
Thanks Jim, I appreciate you saying that. I do okay on Medium but a year ago I was making double what I do now. High time I moved my history posts over here. I tried importing the posts and the import failed so I likely need to paste them in one at a time.
The last I heard of Jessica Wildfire was a spam post about cryptocurrency. That’s the downside of being popular. The more people want to read you the more spammers want to rip you off.
The last I heard of Jessica Wildfire was a spam post telling me to get vaccinated. It was part of a wave of 'popular' writers following a script. It was not what I paid [past tense] Medium to read.
I do wonder how spammers manage to clone popular accounts and the system allows it. Bizarre
I had thought it was a copy and paste paid script under the names of multiple writers, just as we have seen on Twitter, for example. We have seen the same keywords, used in multiple media locations, simultaneously.
lol. I got that one, too.
Some time around Nixon's 3rd press conference about Watergate and there being nothing, "and I mean nothing" happening over there, I stopped believing what people said in public, until I could get a feel for the subject myself. Until I knew enough to sense if someone was bullshitting me. Unfortunately Medium and its own have been BSing for some time now, don't believe them.
They're making changes because they have to. They're shaving reading times - until you need to park on that page, have lunch, floss and take a nap - before they count it as a read. Is it possible that readers are fleeing through the borders onto other sites? Sure. But I don't "think" that's the sole reason for the drop in stats. But you're RIGHT, find your own audience. I'm waiting for you to say it for the FIFTH time and then, boy will I jump on it then!! 😜😂🤣
I discovered the same, Joe. They say what they want us to believe instead of what's actually true. I guess it never occurred to them that most writers are literate and decently intelligent. The FIFTH time? Wow, you're fast. lol. I take at least a dozen.
I had to read your article about beauty hints in 1967. Still shaking my head...
I was a senior in high school in 1967. I read Seventeen religiously. At 98 pounds, 5'5", with long, thick hair and a boyfriend who is still my boyfriend, and my husband for almost 52 years, Seventeen emphasized how lucky I was. The comments also contributed to my giving up my dream of being a marine biologist and becoming an elementary teacher, which my father insisted.
Having taught at our local high school, watching girls applying more eye makeup around false eyelashes, and heard one girl bragging to several boys about who she'd been ******* (several in the past year), I agree that things haven't changed all that much.
Hugs
Linda
Linda, that made me smile. My oldest sister was also a senior around that time. Pretty as it gets and still married to her then boyfriend. There's 8 of us kids with more than 20 years between first and last. My eldest sister had her first child before Mom had her last one. lol. Do you ever wish you'd gone into marine biology?
Yes. But my life would've been drastically different. I've wondered about that alternate life 1000 times.
Oh Linda...you speak words of truth. And I do agree that Medium is a Time sucking leach. The harder I try to put out quality writing the further I get away from finishing my novel. Also, the built in accessory of read many others in hope of them reciprocating is getting old. Back to the time pit issue. I'm back to spending more time on my novel.....as of last week. Yay! But I will continue writing in Medium without the expectations.
Yes, that's me as well, Henya. I will continue to write there but I am spending more time working on other projects. Like moving my publication here. And setting up a gumroad store.
:)
Sigh. Medium did change their distribution system. Also there was something about seo and how it was limiting what was searchable to increase the quality of the platform. Some such nonsense.
I agree, Tree. It's not even lack of transparency anymore. It's say one thing, do another. lol
Lol , kinda like politics. That's why it leaves such a bitter taste in one's mouth.
If I make more than my membership fee, I don't feel ripped off XP. I don't really expect much from Medium anymore. :S bleh
Hey Linda! Yeah I know a friend who used to make enough each month on Medium for a full-time income, but lately, most months he makes less than minimum wage...The difference is dramatic. I think the main factor is of people going outside more and reading less, since the lockdown is mostly over. That's a great observation you made that, when more writers complain about low views and leave, that means even lower views for everyone, lol.
I wonder if the "see less of this" button might have some drastic effects on some writers. I did not know that the button might suppress the posts from that particular writer... I clicked "see less like this" for a post where the title triggered my gender dysphoria...I actually love this writer and there was nothing wrong with her title. It was just personally triggering to me, and I didn't know how to take the article off of my feed short of reading it, which I didn't want to do. Yikes. I will have to deliberately go to the author's profile again and read her stories, and signal to the algo that I''m actually still interested in her stories.
But yeah that's unsettling that even Jessica Wildfire is concerned about her views tanking...I only have 800ish followers, lol. But I don't expect myself to make a lot anytime soon. (I only publish 2-3 times a week, and make just $20+ a month.) So I just focus on slowly building my audience, and making friends along the way! I'm uncertain how the distribution changes will help or hinder us...Some folks said that distribution made no difference to their views or even worsened them...Will making distribution harder improve things or make things worse? I guess only time will tell!
Thanks, Linda, for your insights on Medium and alternatives. I only began writing on Med in September. As I right nonfiction, history, my work involves some research. I found myself spending up to 3-4 hours per day just to publish 2-3 articles a day, including building a following, ie read, clap, comment. Not at all a profitable system for any writer! other projects of mine suffered too.
So back to Substack I’ve gone, certainly with a better understanding of Sub's way of things. I note that many of the people I know from Medium have moved too.
My Substack is "Social Justice Matters." Not completely set up, but very soon.
Just letting you know I am around and reading. Keep up the good work.
While I subscribe to a few people on Substack, I pay a subscription fee only to one. Honestly, I couldn't afford to pay a subscription fee to everyone I want to read. That's where Medium's subscription program works better for a reader, but not a writer.
Interestingly, in the last couple of months, I received my highest Medium payouts ever, in the tens of dollars instead of the ones of dollars I usually made. And mainly just from two articles. I think it's a fluke, though. I no longer bother to try and figure out Medium's algorithm because life is just too short.