3 Things You Didn’t Know About Boost
That are really important!
I’ve been learning more about the boost programme recently and discovered some eye-opening things that I feel it’s important to share.
It’s well known that stories can be boosted even if they are not in a publication. However, based on what I’ve been told, the chances of a boost under these circumstances are dramatically reduced. Even choosing the wrong publication can be a serious error. Here’s why…
Select your publication carefully
Some boost nominators are reluctant to consider boosting stories outside of their own publications. Medium has instructed them to focus on nominating from within their own publications. So, if they can fill their quota from their own publications, they will.
This obviously means your self-published story isn’t going to be on their priority list. Neither is any story that’s published in a different publication.
So contrary to the popular belief that boost nommers are all reading widely all across Medium trying to find our most boostable stories, they probably aren’t.
Instead, they’re working hard trying to make sure the stories within their own publications meet the standards for the boost, so they can boost what’s right in front of them.
I didn’t realise this. I’ve made some mistakes.
My errors
When I realised I had two boost nominators in my network, I decided to start publishing some of my best stories, hoping for a boost.
I published them in general interest publications, hoping that either the boost nominating editors within those publications would nominate them, or failing that, the nommers in my network would.
Plan A failed. The boost nominators within the publications didn’t publish my pieces. They didn’t read them. They didn’t notice them. Their team published. The nommers were oblivious to my brilliant work.
No worries — bring on Plan B. Hopefully the guys in my network will consider them. But nope, they didn’t read them either.
I tried this a few times. Each time, the stories were ignored by the boost nommers in the publishing publications, and were unread by boosters in my network. So frustrating. This is my best work.
Plan C!
Another writer on Medium told me that some boost nominators struggle to fill their quota. They ask people to volunteer their best stories for boosting. Great! I thought. Who shall I ask? Who wants to know? But I still have no idea who wants my list of boostable stories.
I felt frustrated and overlooked, so I created a story highlighting my top 10 most boostable stories on Medium (all less than 6 months old — one of the criteria). Then, anyone with boosting powers who was struggling to fulfil their quota could take a look. One nommer finally responded to that story — and his response burst my bubble.
He told me this approach is unlikely to work because Medium wants the nominators to nominate from within their own publications. My stories had been sent to larger boost publications, who had all overlooked them. Shit.
I’d previously thought that all stories seen by nommers had equal chances of being selected! That’s clearly not so. Choose the wrong publication, and if the nommer doesn’t read it, bad luck. You don’t get nominated. Simple as that.
Why didn’t I submit to the guys in my network to start with? I didn’t think the pieces were suitable for their specialist publications — in photography, careers advice, or philosophy. So, I’d sent them to general interest publications instead.
I had no idea that by doing this, I’d quashed my chances of them being boosted by people who know me and read my work. I’d clearly submitted to the wrong publications.
I wrote a piece on job interviews for the careers publication. That one was nominated but rejected by Medium, so I don’t expect that editor to nominate my work again so soon.
However, I did offer to move any one of three possible stories to a history publication. It didn’t work. I’m not getting a sense that anyone is interested. Pity.
In light of this information, I will change my approach, but right now, I feel exhausted and defeated. It’s allegedly too late for those stories. Here’s why…
Previously published stories can’t be boosted!
Yes, it gets worse. A different nommer — yes there are a lot of them — told me that they won’t nominate stories that have already been published on Medium. I don’t know if that’s an official rule from Medium, but it sucks.
If your story was published and no one read it, tough shit. It cannot be boosted, so says the rule.
Except that’s not true, because two of my Christmas stories were boosted on their third appearance last year (by a Medium staffer I assume). This was crazy and unexpected! I hadn’t even submitted those to boost publications! But sadly, December was an anomaly, not a change of fortunes, it seems.
So, in terms of previously published work that had boost potential, the key is perhaps not to volunteer the information that it was previously published to a publication editor.
They can boost them and they are boosting them — even if they don’t realise it. 🙄
No sexual content, except for exceptions
A different nommer from another publication told me that Medium will not boost any story with sexual content. He told me that’s why my piece on Benjamin Franklin would not be considered.
However, technically, this is not true. The Medium Blog says it will not boost things with *explicit* sexual content. My piece says the Hellfire Club’s members engaged with prostitutes — it doesn’t explicitly go into detail about what the members did with the prostitutes, although the word ‘orgies’ is mentioned.
I would argue that it is not explicit. However, the sex thing might mean some nommers would see it as a risk, and would prefer to nominate something else. I can understand that.
Even an invitation from an editor doesn’t help
Furthermore, I had one editor invite me to revise a piece on UK tax law and send it to his pub for boosting. He wanted a story on global taxation laws for side hustles, but I didn’t feel qualified to write it.
I thought it would be a lot of work researching different laws in different countries, I could get things wrong, and I felt it would flop anyway. Americans are taxed on side hustles at source, so who cares? I passed.
But he also told me that if he doesn’t publish the stories that come through the publication himself, he likely won’t see them. To be clear — the boost nominator will only see the stories that he publishes. The rest, even in his own publication, are likely never noticed. This confirms my suspicions.
He told me to leave a private note on the taxation story marking it for him to publish, so he got to see it. That just goes to show that submitting to a boost publication doesn’t mean the boost nominator will see your story. They probably won’t.
It also puts a new light on all the ‘hard work’ of the boost nominators, forced to spend their time hunting down gems across the whole platform. It doesn’t work like that — some aren’t even doing a thorough job within their own publications and are quite open about that.
I did think in light of that discussion, this nommer might look out for other stories I submitted, but he didn’t. I’ve now given up on that publication. I won’t waste my best work on them. The stories in there always flop.
Frustrated
Am I bitter? LOL. ‘Frustrated’ is a better word, I think. I’m grateful for the few boosts I’ve had, but I only regarded one of them as among my best stories and remain frustrated that my best stories consistently flop.
I need just one story a month to do well to make it more worth my while spending the 35 hours a week I’m spending here. Yes, 5 hours a day, every day, for £1.97 an hour, is making me question what the heck am I doing with my time!
For context, the minimum wage in the UK is £10.42 per hour. I’m not greedy, and I enjoy Medium, but I need to manage my time better and focus on magazines again.
Earnings are down
My Medium earnings this month are down. I’m hoping perhaps this story will achieve something good organically, without the boost, because most people love a good Medium story.
I feel like chasing boosts is doomed because the system is completely flawed. So, I have opened a new publication and applied to become a boost nominator, myself. The publication has been surprisingly popular!
If I’m selected, which is a big ‘if’, I’ll need some boost worthy stories in my publication, Our Photo Stories, so give that some thought, if you like. A few might help my application be approved too. But don’t hold your breath, because this could take months, or not happen at all.
Recap
So, to recap, the key messages are:
- Select your publication with great care. A small publication with not many submissions might be better than a large publication that is overwhelmed. Especially if the boost nominator doesn’t read all the stories in the larger publication.
- Beware of issues around previously published work. Rewriting might be an option. Allowing it to ‘disappear’ from the internet before you submit could be another. 🙄
- Don’t send explicit sexual content for boosting. Manage your expectations if sex is mentioned because some nommers seem to think any mention of sex in articles is completely off the table. Apparently Medium doesn’t want to shove it down anyone’s throat.
I hope that’s helpful. I wish I’d known this from the outset. Why is communication not better?
I’ve been wasting time and energy submitting great stories to boost publications who frankly, couldn’t care less and won’t even look at them. I’ve been doing this for months. And yes, sometimes I feel like giving up. But I’m not a quitter and I love it here. So you’ll have to put up with me for a while yet.
Getting boosted over Christmas gave me hope that 2024 might be the year that Medium started to recognise my best work. It seems it was a blip. But I’m not beaten. I still want to turn this around. Bring on my boost nommer application. Let’s make this work.
My boostable list
Here’s my most boostable list. Six were sent to boost publications. Of those, five weren’t even seen by the boost nominators. One was declined by a nommer, possibly because I said it had previously been published.
I appreciate it’s my own silly fault if four weren’t submitted to boost pubs, but I’d hoped for more organic views. I’d also been under the impression that boosters were looking for good stories outside of their own publications. Now think that mostly applies just to Medium staff. And I didn’t even know I had boosters in my network until quite recently!
Here’s Medium’s take on sexual content…
© Susie Kearley 2024. All Rights Reserved.
More from me…
