Riding The Big Publication Rollercoaster Again
Will this be an “up”, a “down” or a “sorry this ride is shut” (to you) moment?
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I love writing. I love writing on Medium. But I have a love/hate relationship with publications.
I love the small and medium ones!
(I’ll let you fill in the rest)
Call It As You See It
I think for most of us writers on here (dangerous assumption to make, I know) we write for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, because we love writing and have something to say.
Second to this is, if we’re writing anyway, we may as well do it in a way that is going to bring the most added benefits. And, let’s be honest, what we’re talking about here is earnings.
I’ve been writing on Medium for well over a year now. I’ve published a LOT of articles. The feedback I get is pretty positive. I’ve had some good earnings months. And some ropey ones too.
But average it all out and I’m waaaaay under minimum wage for the time I spend on here. And that’s OK. It’s my choice.
Trust me, if I wasn’t happy, I would walk.
If I want my earnings to grow, which I would like to see happen slowly, then I — just like every other writer on Medium out there — need to grow my members read time. And big publications are still an important way to do this, there’s no way around it.
What I’d love to be able to do is keep building organically (I’m in for the long haul) by just self-publishing forever, no need for publications.
But I don’t think that’s possible.
I suspect, to carry on growing, I need to keep publishing in the big publications as well as self-publish. And that’s where things get sticky.
What’s worked for me on Medium is consistency. But submitting to big publications takes that out of your hands. 5 days. 10 days. “If you hear nothing presume we’re not publishing.”
I feel like there has to be a better way. What that is, I don’t know.
All I know is that I find the process of submitting to big publications frustrating. A lot of hoops to jump through. A lot…
