Truth, Lies and Medium.

Picking up where we left off with the sour grapes last week. Because sometimes enough is enough. If you have questions about Medium, bring them.

Last week I wrote about people who have sour grapes about Medium. Comments got pretty active on that post, and one thing that stood out to me is that rumor, mistruth and conjecture never die. They’ve always been alive and well, and they still are.

I’m going to show you something. Then we’re going to talk dead serious. I made a chart of my following on Medium every May since 2016. Have a look…

I struggled for a long time. In the early days, I used to read “tips” hoping someone could help me grow. They never helped. If anything, they set me back. Only reason I kept growing is I kept writing. In hindsight, I’d have grown faster if I’d worked on my craft more than working on trying to get views.

Three years ago I wrote a post proving that most “tips” about Medium aren’t true and aren’t helpful. Hours of work on that post. Took a bunch of tips and found proof they were wrong, right in my own stats. That was a real wakeup call to me.

Writing that post was something else for me because I truly dislike meta posts. You won’t find “how to succeed on Forbes” articles on Forbes. Or Business Insider, or Time Magazine. Frankly, the fact that Medium allows meta posts speaks volumes for their determination not to censor what people write inasmuch as they can.

In the last year, I’ve gained over 20K followers. I credit that to what I’ve learned from being part of the Boost Beta program.

Every time I hear someone kvetching about Medium or the boost program, I wish I could make them a boost nominator for 30 days. Go ahead, go boost all your friends. Let me know how that works for you. lmao.

Most new nominators are in for the shock of their lives. I know of nominators who got half their nominations declined the first month. It rattles you. Because you “think” you know what good writing is. Most nominators run publications. Think about that.

Every time I hear someone whine that nominators get paid, or calling it a scam, I want to ask them to go find twenty stories that get accepted by the curators. Tell me how long that takes. Paying people for time and labor isn’t a scam.

Here’s a trap new nominators fall into. Blaming curators. Wah, wah they said no and this was a great piece. But it slowly dawns on you. There are dozens of curators. If they’re all declining what you’re submitting, maybe you need to learn what good writing looks like? Maybe it doesn’t look like what you think it does.

Little story that seems irrelevant at first. It’s not.

Last week a guy submitted to one of my pubs. Longest title I’ve ever seen. And *I* write some long titles. His was over 3 lines in Title case. I asked him to shorten it. He said he “has to” use long titles because Medium has no seo tools and he wants to rank in Google. I sighed. Showed him the seo tools. He laughed. Said oops, thanks.

And I get it. Who reads instruction manuals? Most of us don’t. And it’s real easy to write on a site like Medium or Substack. Open the window, type. But there are guidelines for a reason. Medium has a blog for a reason. Read them.

Thing is, there are three levels of writers on Medium, and I don’t mean quality.

1. There are writers who just write.

2. There are writers who are owners or editors at a publication.

3. And there are writer/editors who are part of the Boost Beta program.

Every level gives you knowledge you didn’t have at the level below.

Ask any editor what the “same old, same old” they see every day is. They’ll tell you… people submitting stuff that doesn’t fit the pub. Not citing sources, not crediting images, not using tags or making them up on the fly. One woman argued with me that Pinterest is public domain and she “can so” use images from there. Those things are all in the guidelines, in the help files, in the official blog.

But here’s the hardest part.

It’s hard to accept that maybe what worked in the “good old” days of 2018 doesn’t work anymore now that there are over a million paid members.

Hard to accept that what your followers will read because they know and like you and what 500 random strangers will click and read might not be the same.

Those are things I learned from the boost beta program. It didn’t just make me a better editor and publisher. I like to think it made me a stronger writer, too.

So. I can’t say long story short because it’s not. But I’m doing something I never thought I’d do. I’m writing a series of tutorials about writing on Medium.

It’s not going to be a course or a masterclass. Not going to be $29 or $197 on Gumroad. I’m not suddenly turning into a make money on Medium person. I don’t write money posts. I write about feminism, women’s history and personal essays. I don’t care how much money you make. That’s not my business nor my focus.

What I care about is that editors light up when they see you submit. I care that editors reach out and say hey, can you throw more my way? I care that you’re publishing in the best places to build your own end game as a writer, whatever that looks like to you. I care that you don’t fall through the cracks if you truly love writing.

But most of all, I care that you don’t drink the whine made with sour grapes because there’s an endless supply and it’s easy to get drunk on it. But it doesn’t help you grow as a writer. I want you to get better, not bitter.

I’ll let you know what I’m doing with it. Something on Substack, most likely. In the meantime, if you have questions about Medium, drop them in the comments. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find out and we’ll both know.

As always, I’d love to know what you think...

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