Be Still My Beating Heart! The Thrill of Getting Boosted
I clicked open my latest email from Medium, expecting the usual writer newsletter or comment notifications. But this subject line stopped me cold:
“Congratulations! Your story has been Boosted on Medium.”
What fresh witchcraft was this?
I clicked frantically and scanned the email.
It was real.
My story, Bouncing Back from the Great Bread Baking Flop, had somehow been chosen for the coveted boost.
I leaned back in my chair, stunned. This rambling tale of my abysmal baking fail was hardly my best work. Yet here it was, plucked from obscurity by the story gods.
In just two days of boosting, I’d earned $32 and received over 100 member reads. I gawked at the stats, wondering if I was hallucinating. Without the boost, my stories normally saunter along at a leisurely pace. The boost shot my story into the stratosphere like a comet, blazing through the Medium atmosphere.
In comparison, here are some stats for a normal story:
Had I somehow gamed the system?
Schmoozed my way into the Medium inner circle?
Nope.
But engaging with fellow writers daily and publishing consistently for months had increased my odds. It was a numbers game, and my story had finally drifted by the right editor at the right time.
The boost was a shock, like opening the fridge expecting wilted lettuce but finding a box of donuts instead.
It was a happy accident rather than a deliberate strategy.
I never write just for accolades. I write to connect with people who might relate to my doughy fiascoes and tiny triumphs.
And if I get boosted along the way? That’s just the sweet icing on the cake.
