Monthly Update
December’s Highs
Martin’s Monthly Mediumupdate
Hi Folks,
Another month of cataloguing things, and while not as successful as last month (link at the bottom), I think it went well. I expected a dip this month, partly down to the Holidays, partly down to the fact that I am no longer qquite so novel, partly down to the not-quite-so-crippling-as-previously sense of being an imposter. So, some details, opinions, and commentary for your interest, if you want to look on my despairingly poor stats, and feel mighty!
Generally speaking, the charts are kind of reflective — a more balanced month — not the highs of the previous one, but certainly more balanced, and the dips are not as dippy(?). Weekends, when I generally don’t write, go consistently to pot, and it feels like the week is a battle to rebuild the attention — presumably the dreaded algorithm slump, so it might be worthwhile to produce a little more and retain some for Saturdays and Sundays.
Objective Statistics
Number of pieces published — 34 I aimed to post 31 pieces this month — one a day, so I managed to scratch past that one just. mostly the minute long pieces (23), but I had a short series on getting a colonoscopy, a fairy tale, and a started a blog type thing about directing a show I have coming up.
Most Popular Piece On Medium (most time read):
I really hoped this would do well — it was one of my favorite pieces this month. I set out to write a 250 word Fairy Tale based on prompts in a competition, but ended up writing this instead, and having to do something else for the competition. Medium says it’s an 8 minute read, and it got about 1h13m of reading. I like to think that it will get some relatively regular reading in future. Runner up was the November Update (link at the bottom), and third was the Colonoscopy — Spoilers edition
Most Lucrative Piece On Medium:
Did not expect this — more than double the first month (half month really). It largely swelled around a single day when I had one single internal view, no external view, no reads, and yet somehow earned $1.62. So that isn’t weird. It continues to get a dribble of readership, so I expect this to be the end of this guy on the charts. Runner up was the November Update (link at the bottom), and third was the Girl in the Tower
New Followers — 62 My aim was to get 45 this month, so that was a success, I think. To have 62 more followers t the end of the month is a sizeable increase on what I already had. A lot of them seemed to come late in the month, but they are all loved unironically. I did see numbers increase a little mid month only to drop again, but that is to be expected — I would expect a few of these new ones to fall away too, but we will see what happens. I also doubled my email readers — up to 8! For those of you reading this through your emails, thank you!
Did I pay off my membership fees for the month? I did again! And also another 3 months on top of that. Managed to get a grand total of $21.66. Not particularly impressive to many of you, I am sure, but to me, it helps pay off the few months previously, and I am very clearly not writing for a specific audience, or market, I am literally just writing my own thing on my own terms. Seeing that it can earn something is pleasing to me, as it means that I am not wrong in my theory that there is an audience for everything produced seriously, even if it isn’t a big one. I’ll happily continue in my cult status.
Not Particularly Scientific Stats
My Favorite Piece: I should rename this “My Favorite Pieces”, but the headline was written, so what can I do?
OK, my absolute favorite was probably The Girl In The Tower, but this little short piece from about a week earlier is on a par with it in my (biased) eyes. I was reading something about a meteor shower taking place and wondered for a moment how far some of these bits may have travelled. I had been wondering about the idea of wishing on a shooting star, and where that came from, likely linked to the idea that comets have influenced recording of history (more on that to come). The bit with the girl’s story was very late in the thinking process.
Even though they were only published this last week, the Lorain triptych came to me at the beginning of the month. I had been discussing how sex sells best on Medium with Ann James at the end of the previous month (hence the Robot Sex Party piece), and I started wondering about what the experience of the inevitable robot sex dolls (here’s a safe-ish for work vid on the matter) will be. I was also reminded a lot of Douglas Adams Ameglian Major Cow, and all those images of women in space on covers of pulp sci-fi in the 50s and 60s, which are essential drawn as space hookers. The first part was a lot more downbeat than I usual go for (though I believe that if we can create something that outlives us, and can be sentient, we have achieved the incredible), so I wanted to redeem and “humanise”, if not go beyond, Lorain.
Favorite Pieces I Read: You don’t need me to tell you why any of these are great — just read them!
Favorite New Faces: I think that I have been lucky enough to get a few good people every month so far, so I am going to shout out a few, rather than a single.
For instance, I have to mention my new reading buddy Uwem Daniels. I have come across a dazzling poet in NaieR, Flavio Musa de Freitas Guimarães, an intellect who is doing impressive stuff in what I think is his second language, the secretly philosophic examinings of raphaël couderc. I was introduced in the past week to the hilarious Bev Potter, and Amy Sea. I got to follow Shanice Lawton, who I found doing a series of one minute long sci-fi bits that connect up to be a greater serial. There are so many great writers out there, new and seasoned, that I have yet to read — there are many I am leaving out, and more that I have yet to sit and read. Please, never be frightened to link to to them!
Biggest Surprise: So, certainly the success of piece about The French Dispatch is one — how on earth it pulled me $1.62 out of thin enough air eludes me.
That the one above failed to get any real attention surprised me too — something like 4 views and 2 reads. I had reckoned that being a slanted time travel piece it would be more popular, which is a great reminder of how impossible it is for humans to predict stuff
Something I Tried: I kept this log of the financial success of various pieces through the month, keeping a list of the top 3 if it was 4 cents or more. Firstly, I am confirmed in my view that keeping stats is tedious and a lot of work. I had planned to do a weekly switch up of the second pinned piece, and I found that has given some life and interest to other and older pieces. Hopefully, as my portfolio on here grows larger, I should be make them a little more relevant to what is going on.
Something I Learned: I was very happy with the Fairy Tale — it deffo needs revision in the future, but it is a good start.
I was also surprised how irregular readership is — I am honed to anticipate certain days and certain things on Facebook, so this is very different.
Next Month
Goals: So, I think that I am starting to reach more (though this may be a menatl stretch. Again, I will aim ambitiously for 50 new readers this time out. I am deffo hoping to get Many Mini Manifestos even more active — it has picked up in the past few weeks, with great credit to Ann James for pushing it a lot. I did get the index up, so that is a problem solved — I am interested to see what it does for reads and so forth, and will report back. Once again, publishing goals include a micro scifi for each week day is the goal, and to have at least 10 pieces of substantial size (4m+) published. I may try for another Fairy Tale — I enjoyed it, even if I didn’t expect it to be set in England. The boy being home from school, and me being back directing may interfere with that aim though — we will have to see where we are at.
Things To Try: Well, I am happy with how the micro scifis have been going, so I am going to keep doing that for as long as I can. There has been some demand for some of them to be followed up — I am going to take that on a case by case basis for certain, but I do have some follow ups to one of my Martian stories. My main goal is that these stories have a completeness in themselves. If there is anything more featuring the same scenario, or the same character, it should be self containted. At least that is how I am thinking about it today, but I am going to try some connected stories like that.
So that is December — and 2021 — complete. I am glad to be back writing regularly, and need to keep it going. I am very grateful to the many people here who are so supportive, and so encouraging, and I hope for all of us that January will be successful in terms of story crafting, and in earning the odd dollar occasionally too!