WRITING

Curation and Publications. What’s Wise?

Starting writers often ask about curation, self-publishing, and entering publications. Here’s my experience.

On Facebook, there are so many questions about curation and publications (pubs) and recently I answered one by Richard Paterson in the group Medium Dreamers. He is an ex-monk and blogger and helps people find more peace, joy, and inner freedom.

Well, that’s an interesting perspective, Richard, and I wish you all the success you can get on Medium. And most of all, I wish you lots of friends here! They are a great source of peace, joy, and inner freedom!

After I wrote my (rather long) answer on Facebook, I realized that probably many more people want to know more about this topic. So today, I turned it into a story.

To give you some background, I have reached the top 6% of earners on Medium within one year’s time. But please don’t think it makes me rich in money, though. I’ve never earned more than $187 one month yet. My follower count is now 2.9K and growing. But I think it’s the real fans that count. The ones who come back to read more. So connecting with them is mighty important!

Finding my voice in writing has made me rich in many other ways. I have loads of worldwide friends on Medium and other social media. The exposure gives me contacts with people who offer me paid projects and other opportunities in my niche field.

And for me most important, it gives me a voice for a better world. In the longer articles, I can much better show you my multi-layered messages, my inspirations, and my nuances.

I don’t believe the world will be better off by polarization, so I try to connect with others in their perspective. And then speak my personal truths about Gaia, the new economy aligned with ecology and relating subjects.

I’m never trying to convince others of my opinion.

I think everyone has a right to do completely their own thing. Follow their own intuition and live their own best lives. Be their own guru. So my message is often misread in short social media posts. Short words are a recipe for framing. Boxing in. Making simple. Being reduced.

Made logical in a reductionist world.

But I’m a systemic thinker. I love diversity. I think everyone should have a voice and we should support each other unconditionally to make the world a better place. Not my better place. But for all of us, all humans AND all other species.

A world of connection. A world of peace. A world of living within planetary boundaries. And we need all the wisdom we can get to arrive there. I’m just one voice, one perspective. And the more I study, the more I realize that I know so little…

So, introductions out of the way, this is the gist of what I wrote to Richard.

My Experience with Curation and Pubs

To give you my experience on Medium, I started in May 2019. In July 2019 I published my 3rd story and it got curated. This is the lucky story, it’s still one of my most successful ones.

I knew nothing of pubs back then, so I just self-published. Two pubs picked up on me and asked me if I would consider writing for them. The Startup and Age of Awareness. They have great, active editors. So I published some more and tailored some of it to them.

Then I started getting in contact with other pubs I liked. Most pubs only accept draft stories. No already published ones. Now I publish in a range of pubs. I publish nearly every day and send it to a fitting pub. Every one of my stories is in a pub now, I don’t self-publish anymore. But some people have their reasons to do it differently.

There are a few pubs who are very good and very active and also help you get some visibility via Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Illumination is the most active one and not elitist. They publish quickly and are very open to all diversity. Therefore they are good for starting writers. And also for the more experienced ones like me, I just love my friends there and the supportive atmosphere.

When they started in March 2020, their founder Dr Mehmet Yildiz asked me to join. He found me on Age of Awareness. So you see, you never know where your light will shine to be picked up by others. I now write often for them. They have a good vibe of very supportive editors that help me get better.

Now the time has come for me to diversify again and I have written two stories that I’ve sent to Medium pubs (that’s a different category, they are listed on the home page at the top. They’re not easy to get into). I sent the stories to OneZero and GEN but haven’t heard yet. If they don’t react, I will just publish with one of the other pubs I love writing for.

For curation, it doesn’t matter. You can get curation whether you self-publish or are in whatever pub. I’ve had both. At first, I got excited, but now I don’t care much about curation anymore. I’ve had curated stories that do badly and non-curated ones that flourished.

So my advice is: just write and make friends!!! Pfew, this has nearly become a story. Maybe I should write one about curation and pubs… haha…

So far my Facebook answer.

Some More Tips

Well, and that’s what I do now. Make a story. Because that’s what we all do on Medium. Some extra tips for the newbies on Medium.

• Write a lot and concentrate on finding your own unique writing voice and topics. There’s a lot of the same on Medium, especially in the categories self, life lessons, personal development. And a unique writing voice helps to create your own niche audience
• Do not analyze too much. Life is not about curation, publications, or money earned. And I don’t think Medium will make you rich easily if you don’t have other media connected. The Medium successes have one thing in common that we have not: they started early when it was easier to get visibility
• It doesn’t mean though you cannot succeed. But it requires a long breath and you can only breathe deeply when you’re having fun and keep at it
• Always make sure you fill in the tags and the SEO settings (click on more settings) with appropriate search words
• Read, read, read. And connect, connect, connect. Not only on Medium but everywhere online. If you combine it all, it’ll give you more leverage and will grow your own unique bubble of people who love reading your writing
• Connections are often enhanced by meeting each other in separate communication groups on Slack. In the meantime, I have Slacks for Illumination, Age of Awareness, and an online community not yet active on medium, Seeds of TAO. Also there I share and help set op special collaboration projects
• Adding value to other people is a reason many people have for starting blogging. So be inspiring, seduce people all through your story so they keep reading, refrain from trying to convince, make it personal and let the passion and fun shine through
• Always keep in mind that success is linked to the price you paid to get there

Lots of luck, Richard Paterson, and see you around!

Further reading

More advice for new writers

Who wrote this? Here’s my story.

One of my community stories for Illumination, adding value to other writers and lifting a little veil on my own personal perspective