Hello in there
Medium Is Easy, But It’s Hard
On the trials of publishing on Medium
Late August 2023
I’m trying to figure out how to get published in a Medium publication. The rules are strict, and easy to break. It’s really easy to publish to your own profile, but that appears to be wrong thing to do, unless you happen to be a great promoter.
It seems like it is preferred to have a connection through a publication on Medium, but each publication has its own rules. Nonetheless, there is one rule they all seem to have in common: The material must not be previously published (on Medium), because they don’t want a bunch of duplicates flying around? If you published it to your profile, you will need to go and delete that, and then offer the draft version to the publications, one at a time, until one of them accepts it.
There’s usually not much guidance, as far as my experience has been. The feedback I’ve been getting often cycles back to “Read the Submission Rules”, examine some samples on the publication, and try to comply after that.
I’ll keep trying. Maybe something will take flight. Meanwhile, I’ll put new material on my profile for the amusement of my wife and family.
An update after August 2023
I’m finding better success, because I didn’t give up and go away. I have found some Medium publications that accept what I write, and I have connected with other writers. Connecting with other writers, and trading comments and claps, and finding some additional insight and inspiration in their work is helping me find my way here. It also gives me something to do with my time on those cold winter nights. Excuse me for a minute while I throw another log on the fire.
Another update: 12/05/2023
I still do NOT understand why any of my articles make money, and why others get no love. Is it the catchy title? Is it the short read time? Why doesn’t this make sense? What is that darned algorithm doing? Maybe some things are not for me to understand.
I found a publication that will publish things that are already published. Someone has explained to me that duplicates flying around are not the issue, but I don’t remember exactly why, and I can’t find that response today. Some places actually don’t want your original submission, while others require it.
If you’re actually reading this, then maybe it makes sense to read the stories I published as the Craig Series. I’ll explore to see if I can find the link to put here so you can find them. I’ll continue writing more of them if I find that people are reading the ones already there.
I’m still learning how Medium works.
Year-end update 12/22/2023
Getting near the end of December, here. I’ve actually made more than $5.00 on Medium this year. The trick is to just keep writing and submitting and updating. I’ve been having fun conversing with other writers, reading very interesting articles, and generally having a good time. Thanks, everyone for the encouragement and advice. Thanks for all the interesting things to read. They inspire me to share more.
A sort-of quarterly update 02/23/2024
I’m learning that articles on Medium get old, turn grey and lose their, um, readers. Serialized publication would require some active linking in order for people to even see that previous chapters exist. Publishing in magazines gets more attention, if the magazine is widely read to begin with. Hmmm … how to choose????
Another update 02/28/2024
Articles that don’t garner interest annoy me. I have started re-doing them, by copying the content to a new article, fixing what I have learned are glaring issues, and re-submitting them somewhere with a different name, usually to a different publication on Medium. This instantly increased my followers and readers, plus it started earning income on some that were being ignored. I still have the Craig Series in a group.
Another update 03/27/2024
I think I’m earning enough money to pay for my Medium membership. I’ve actually gotten some good advice from an editor or three on how to really write funnier stuff. My sense of humor is still pretty dry, however.
Another update 04/24/2024
I’ve started a series of “Emails from the nursing home” which reflect the communications between the real me and my real sister in the last few years of her life in a nursing home in the USA. It’s epistolary fiction based on real events. It is presented as one side of the conversation (hers) between “brother” and “her” as she moves out of her home of 30 years and into a nursing facility “somewhere”. Names have been changed or deleted to protect the innocent or guilty parties behind the events. It’s possible that it could morph into a path to publish her novel serially.
Another update as of 06/19/2024
I’m publishing the final installment of the “Emails from the nursing home”. They had to wind down because my sister’s life ended. I’m negotiating with her son as to which novel we should try to serialize on Medium. The novel will be published in front of the paywall as an experiment to test the waters for her style of Sci-fi. Everyone can read and comment for free. Based on feedback from this test drive, we’ll see about publishing her other books.
Another update as of 07/17/2024
Getting the novel published on Medium is much more difficult than expected. Publications that publish fiction tell me they don’t have the editorial bandwidth to handle 3000-word pieces of a 150k-word work at a rate of 1 installment a week. I realize, of course, that I’m talking about spending a YEAR pushing out Volume 1. What are the alternatives?
Another update as of 08/10/2024
Rather than banging my head on the publishers’ walls, I decided to publish one of my sister’s volumes here, in front of the paywall, just to see what kind of readers we find. Parsing through the chapters in the book showed me that there are 60 chapters, each about 3k to 5k words, except for Chapter 1, which was about 20k (which I have fully published). I have established a method for extracting and publishing the remaining chapters. Now, we’ll see what sort of feedback we get on her highly imaginary science fiction romance fantasy. Check out her book on the list “This Mortal Coil“ on Medium: https://medium.com/@gjsittler/list/081bdde292a6
Another update as of 08/24/2024
I must be doing something right (or “write”, as the case may be), since I’m almost up to 500 followers now. Publishing my sister’s work, post mortem, reminds me again how amazing her mind was. Each installment eats up about an hour to publish. I have to read each one, looking for the occasional error.
We used to talk on a weekly basis. She was quite the night owl — something I have come to understand better in retirement. I miss having someone to talk with, as more of my friends “disappear” in the ether.
