Three Questions For Writers Who Aren't Getting Boosted On Medium
This is one of those hard topics, so we need to talk about it.
I want to tell you a little perk of the Boost program you might not know about. When the program started, every nominator had twenty nominations. That’s it, you got to nominate twenty stories. If they got boosted, great. If not, oh well. Try again.
Over time, it became evident that some nominators were really good at identifying a “cover” story. Their acceptance rate was consistently high. Imagine being a curator at Medium, reading nominations flooding in from 100+ nominators. Who do you want more suggestions from, the nominator with a 50% acceptance rate? Or the nominator with 80% acceptance ? I promise you, no one takes joy in sending rejection letters.
So the program was adjusted so nominators with a high acceptance rate don’t have to stop at twenty. Last month I nominated double my quota. I’m on track to do the same again this month. I know one nominator who nominated over eighty in one month with over 80% acceptance rate. The caveat is that we have to keep acceptance rate high or we lose the perk and go back down to twenty nominations.
What you need to understand very clearly is this isn’t a perk for a nominator. It’s a perk for writers. Boost nominators have a pay quota. Once I have twenty accepted posts, I’m not getting paid to find, edit and pitch stories. Which means I’m reading posts, offering editing suggestions and writing nomination pitches because I want the writers in my publications to enjoy the benefits of being boosted.
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Let me step sideways and tell you why I love the Boost program. It’s not because I’m a nominator in the program. It’s because if I have to choose who judges the quality of any creative work whether it’s art or writing, I’ll choose a human over a robot every day of the week. That’s what boost is. Humans choosing. Instead of robots.
In a world where corporations use robots to answer their paying customers’ questions, I’m grateful that Medium went the other way. Said no to robots, no to algorithms that reward clickbait and put humans in charge of deciding what good writing is.
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But. All that said, a lot of writers are disgruntled because they don’t get boosted. And I get it. We all have feelings and *not* getting boosted feels like being told you aren’t good enough. But it’s not about that. It’s simply about which pieces stand out.
Last month 1.4 million posts went up on Medium. That’s almost forty seven thousand posts per day. Good part is, you don’t need to compete with that volume. What you do need to do is stand out in the publication you’re writing for.
The analogy Medium uses is to compare publications to a magazine. A magazine might have 200 pages of content, but only four or five stories get showcased on the cover. The cover stories. The ones that stand out. That’s what boost is. Publication owners and editors choosing the cover stories for their publication. Forwarding those to the curators, saying this is the best I’ve got for today. And every time you submit, your piece either IS one of the cover stories in the publication — or it’s not.
If you aren’t getting boosted, or you aren’t getting boosted as often as you think you should, I want you to ask yourself these three questions…
Are you writing for boost publications?
Ariel Meadow Stallings is product manager at Medium and runs the boost beta program. She’s made a list of over 100 publications in the program. Yes, there are nominators who look for boostable posts outside of publications, published in the wild. But it’s a lot easier to get “seen” when you submit your story directly to a publication owner or editor who has the ability to nominate it. If you are writing for publications in the boost beta program, the next two are for you...Are you one of the strongest writers in the publication?
This is hardball. Go to the publication you write for and add /latest to the url. Scroll down. Look for the posts with a thousand claps, two thousand claps. Those are the pieces that were probably chosen as the “cover” stories for the pub. Not always. Sometimes a post takes off on it’s own and wasn’t boosted. But it’s the best indicator you’ve got without having access to publication stats.
If you want the editor to nominate your writing, you need to know what they’re already nominating. Need to ask yourself how your submissions compare to the pieces getting boosted. You need to critique your own writing through the eyes of an editor. Because every publication editor has a “feel” they’re trying to achieve with their pub. They’re going to nominate strong writing that’s most closely aligned with what they’re trying to build. You need to know what that is.Is there a publication that’s a better fit for your style?
As a publication owner and editor and a nominator in the boost program, let me tell you what I love. I love when a strong writer “gets” my publication and turns in what I’m looking for every time they submit. Those writers are rare. You be that writer for any publication, the game will change for you very quickly. But there’s also a chance you’re writing for the wrong publication. An almost fit.
No editor is going to tell you that. They will look at your post, and accept it because it’s a “good enough” post, but not a cover story. Because every editor in the boost program will pick the strongest writing that aligns with their publication to nominate. It’s on you to figure out where you are that writer. And again. There are over 100 publications in the program to choose from.
If you can’t find one publication where you shine, much less three or four, then maybe you need to work on your writing skills. Level up your skillset.
Next week, I’m going to share five ways to hone your writing chops in a very real and actionable way. I won’t mince words, but if you try the steps I outline, you will become a better writer and that’s a promise. If you want to get that post in your inbox, make sure you’re subscribed.
As always, love to know what you think... editors, please weigh in too!
Nobody likes rejection and waiting makes it even harder. I stopped trying to get accepted into publications because I’d sometimes wait weeks just to be told no. Of course, self-publishing severely limits my ability to reach a wider audience, so attempting to avoid pain ends up causing more.
I’m currently going through an ego battering due to my acceptance of an understudy role in a play where, during the nine-show run, I get to play the principal role once. In the other performances, I have a bit part. Once that’s over, I’ll feel stronger about putting myself out there with my writing. In the meantime, there are a couple of pubs where I’m welcome whatever I submit. I’ll stick to them for now. Call it self-care.
I find that whether a story gets Boosted or not, if you write with the hope of getting a Boost, the work ends up being better. If I submit something with the thought, "Gosh... that feels Boostworthy" then the story tends to perform well even without a Boost. It's also very fun to write for specific editors, even if I don't always hit exactly what they're looking for. I enjoy trying to figure out ways to come at their preferred themes from a different angle. It's all part of the gentle direction that helps the creative process... a "necessity is the mother of invention" type of thing. Writing is often a weird juxtaposition of playing it safe and taking risks. Many writers I talk to just aren't listening to the advice about submitting to the right publication, but a few more seem to understand every day. Thanks for writing!