A September Thank You Note to Readers
It Was a Doggone Tough Month
As most of you who’ve been following me know, I slacked off in September. I wrote only 6 pieces the entire month — a poem and 5 stories, but I mixed it up. I wrote a couple of political pieces — my first foray into that genre — a couple on writing, one nostalgia piece and one spiritual story. As the month progressed and no story topics came to me, I decided to do an experiment. Since I wasn’t writing much anyway, I might as well learn something from this fallow time, right?
For the first time since I started writing on Medium back in mid-April, I didn’t write a monthly Thank-You note to you, my readers. I apologize for that. I tried to acknowledge everyone as they responded. But the highlighters and clappers remained unacknowledged until now. As you might expect, my earnings dropped. In fact, without residual earnings from stories written in previous months, I wouldn’t have made book.
So, what did I learn?1) Write, Dodo, write!
2) Be grateful, but express that gratitude.
As we both know: Gratitude Pays. That’s even the title of an article I wrote in mid-July. So, I can’t count that as new knowledge. It only confirms what we already knew.
3) What I didn’t expect to find, though this will vary all over the map, was that two-thirds of my income for the month came from residuals. I hadn’t paid any attention to this before, but it is nice to know that readers are going back and reading older stories. I find great encouragement in thinking that new readers found something they liked and went looking for more.
4) In terms of earnings, my piece on Biden/Harris won top honors. That may be because, at 7 minutes, it is the longest story I wrote all month. Given what is going on in the US these days, I’ve felt a strong urge to write about political issues, the election being chief among them. Perhaps that title resonated with you, too.
5) If I go by responses (something I like to do because I like to engage with readers), “Writer’s Block” and “BBQ” gained top honors with seven responses each. I was happy to find that all 6 pieces had at least 2 responses. For me, that’s a sign of success. When my writing touches someone deeply enough for them to take the time to respond, I feel I’ve done my job well.
6) Another measure I like to use, even though it has fallen out of favor with Medium are claps. I figure that’s like audience appreciation at the theater. My six stories garnered 2865 claps. The highest being for “An Answered Prayer” which earned 795 claps. “Wordsmithing” ran a close second at 689. I enjoyed writing both articles. The Biden/Harris piece, though a top earner, elicited only two responses and had one of the lowest clap totals. I’m still processing what that means. Obviously, the Medium pay algorithm doesn’t match up well with the type of writing I like to do. That doesn’t bode well for earning on Medium, which is OK as I’m not here to make a ton of money (though a few pounds would be nice. 😊)
To sum it up, I learned that I should stick to the types of stories I like to write as they seem to be what you like to read. Even if they aren’t the ones with the highest earnings potential.
Here are links to the 6 stories I wrote during September in case you missed one and want to see what the story was about. According to Medium you can read the whole lot in 24 minutes.
According to a survey published by Casey Botticello, a Medium guru, that had 150 respondents when I entered my data, I’m part of the 42.7% segment that earned less that $25 for the month of September. You can view the survey here:
That’s OK by me. As I said, I’m not in it for the money. If I were, I’d be off studying ways to make my stories better earners rather than writing to thank you for reading what I’ve written.
However, as I think about it, in studying who read and responded to my stories, I am getting a better handle on what appeals to you in my writing. Hopefully, that will make me a better writer in the future.
I think one of the best ways to show gratitude is to “pay it forward.” It’s the idea of doing for others what you’d have them do for you. Reciprocity, if you will, but instead of trying to repay the person who did the good deed that you received, extend that same help to someone else.
In September, 52 of you read and responded to my stories by clapping, highlighting, or writing a response or some combination of those three actions. Thank you for your time and effort to do that. I know your time is valuable and I appreciate it. I try to respond in some way to everyone who writes a response even if it is only with a few claps.
Responding to those who clap and highlight is, as you know, not so easy. This story is one of my ways of doing that. I also try to visit your profiles and read some of your articles. If I do that, you’ll know as I always clap, highlight and/or write a response. It is my way of honoring you and the time you spent with me. My friend Terry Mansfield wrote and excellent article about this:
The following is my list of those who read and responded to my September stories in some way during September. The number indicates the total number of story-interactions (number of stories highlighted plus stories clapped for plus stories for which you wrote responses). Thus if you read a story, highlighted it, clapped for it and wrote a response, the number would be 3. Likewise, if you read and clapped for 3 stories or wrote 3 responses, the number would be 3. Please accept my thanks. I know you are all excellent writers and I appreciate your taking the time to read and interact with my work. As always, as I compiled the list I said a prayer of thanks for each of you. If you haven’t read some of the other authors in this list, why not use this as a springboard to do that now?
a grain of infinity (1), Agnes Louis (6), Amy Marley (10), Ana Ryan (1), Ana-Maria Schweitzer (2), Beth Ann Burkey Lombardi (1), Beth Stormont (2), Caroline de Braganza (2), Carolyn Riker (2), Catherine Caruso (1), Charlene Fate (4), Chowa Sekai (3), Chris Hedges (1), Cooking at Home (2), Daniel Barry (1), Darshak Rana (2), Desiree Driesenaar (1), Dr Jeff Livingston (2), Dr John Rose (1), Dr Mehmet Yildiz (1), Eli Snow (1), Elikplim Zanthia (1), FILZA CHAUDHRY (1), Gurpreet Dhariwal (2), Holly Jahangiri (7), James G Brennan (4), Jean Catalano Lingelbach (1), Jeff Langley (1), Jesús Salazar (3), Jocelyn Soriano (1), Lulu deCarron (2), Manasi Diwakar (1), Mayank Pamnani (3), Neha Sandhir S (3), Nikos Vitorakis (1), Patrick Paul Garlinger (1), Quy Ma (1), Rasheed Hooda (5), Roz Warren (4), Rusty Alderson (4), Saloni Joshi (1), Scott Tarlo (3), Sharon Hurley Hall (3), Sherry S (3), Simran Kankas (2), Susannah MacKinnie (2), Terry Mansfield (2), Tracy Luk (3), Trista Ainsworth (16), Vic Alcuaz (2), Vinitha Dileep (1), Wolfie Bain (1)
I must tip my hat to some special friends who took the time to read and interact with 5 or more of my stories, Trista Ainsworth, Rasheed Hooda, Holly Jahangiri, Amy Marley, Agnes Louis. I know you are all busy writers and I am humbled and delighted that you took time to read my pieces.
Trista, you really amaze me as I know you were on your 100-day writing journey and publishing one story every day. Still, you took the time to read and comment on all of my stories. I’m truly humbled and grateful.
You can read about the start of Trista’s journey here:
Thanks again everyone for reading. You’ve filled my heart with gratitude. I hope something I’ve said here helps you become a better writer.
Happy Reading, Writing and Connecting.