Insightful Perspectives
Is It Fiction or Bugs That Suck on Medium?
A preliminary assessment with disappointing results for both
Yes, the cat is angry, upset, and annoyed today!
Cats want to survive. They don’t like to be half dead and half alive.
Background and Context
Like many writers, I am confused, disappointed, and concerned.
But this post is not about my emotions.
It is about perspectives from data-driven insights.
It is about the current situation of the platform manifested as a failure for many writers. I feel the evident pain of writers in their stories.
I enjoy reading fiction and supporting fiction writers.
When I was designing ILLUMINATION, it was evident that there were substantial fiction readers on Medium hence creating a fiction section for my publication.
Based on inspiration from some fellow writers, mentors, and editors like Karen Madej and CR Mandler MAT, I authored my first fiction piece on Medium.
To make it effective, useful, and appealing to a broader audience, I enhanced the piece with humor and a content management flavor. In other words, it is a fiction piece depicting real-life use cases and reflections.
I kept the piece for grade six level readability, which is average for a Medium audience.
Here is the piece.
As this was my first attempt to write a fiction piece, it took me longer than writing my usual articles on leadership, technology, social media, and other non-fiction topics.
To be able to write a fiction piece, I had to go out of my comfort zone. I did.
The overall experience was a remarkable and worthwhile effort from a personal satisfaction point of view.
However, the piece did not perform well.
It miserably failed.
What do you mean by failed?
I am glad you asked. Let me explain.
Compared to my other pieces, this fiction piece performed at least ten times worse than my usual articles in non-fiction pieces.
I had my doubts about the reason for poor performance being fiction. There appeared to be more issues. Therefore, I conducted a quick analysis based on the metrics available.
In this post, I want to give you an honest and quick analysis of my fiction piece compared to one of the average non-fiction posts.
I use my account details transparently to reflect the situation as the context for this comparison.
Analysis of the Failed Story
I posted this fiction story titled Imagine Sheldon In A Content Platform on 28 October 2020.
Weekends are my data crunching times as a hobby.
Let me give you some basic details about the story for your consideration.
The story is structured under four headings covering a nine-minute reading time.
I used these tags: Writing, Fiction, Humor, Satire, Self Improvement.
The story took me around three hours to write and publish.
My non-fiction pieces usually take me 30 minutes.
I spent six times more effort on this specific piece.
What results did I get?
Here are the key metrics of the story from my profile dashboard.
16 seconds!!!
This is the lowest average reading time I experienced on Medium.
How about views?
Comparison
I thought it would be useful to compare this failing story with another story published before my profile was destroyed.
As I mentioned before, I don’t like my profile.
It turned out to be a useless profile.
I used another article as a control for this comparison initiative.
The attached article was created three days before my profile was changed by Medium. I use this article as a control mechanism for comparison because it reflects my average reading metrics.
The article I created three days before my profile was changed by Medium reflects my average reading metrics, as shown in the screen capture below.
I prefer sharing stats honestly to get the correct information for their assessment of the situation.
How can we interpret these metrics using my current profile?
Here are some facts about my profile.
I have 4,400+ followers on Medium.
From my experience and observations, an average of 10% of my followers are fans of my content. This equates to 440 dedicated readers. From my overall stats, I have around 500 fans who regularly read my content.
But, please look at how many followers viewed it and how many fans read it this time!
Out of my 4,400 followers, only 116 members had a chance to view this piece.
Out of 500 fans of my content, only 56 of them read the piece.
Out of 500 fans of my content, only 25 of them reacted with claps.
This story is featured in my publication, followed by 41,000+ readers to give useful insights to the writers and readers about this platform.
Why do I point out these facts?
Because this was my worst-performing piece so far, it coincidentally happened with my profile changes and many bugs spreading across the platform.
My point is this post's timing is when my profile was changed, and many glitches happened on Medium.
What did I learn from the poor performance of my fiction piece?
Let me start with my assumptions.
The new configuration of my profile on Medium did not provide exposure to my readers.
Fewer than 3% of my followers saw my post on Medium.
97% of my followers missed my post.
My article did not even show in the #writing tag. My previous article used to show on top stories of the #writing tag, as I am a top writer in #writing.
The system does not recognize me as a top writer in #writing anymore even though I am still a top writer based on the secret version of my old profile kept by Medium temporarily. Interestingly, my profile was top 5 in the top writers of the #writing tag. After my profile changed, it showed 19th in the list because my content did not gain the same visibility and readability even though my contributions were the same or even higher.
Based on my recorded observations, the Medium current algorithm did not provide any benefit to my post. In contrast, it appears to disadvantage it.
I invested three hours of effort into creating this fiction article which performed poorly.
Being a top writer with 4.4K followers and being a chief editor of a significant publication with 41K+ followers did not create any story exposure.
What is going on?
Something is fundamentally wrong with this platform, as several top writers like Julia E Hubbel recently pointed out in several articles.
Money is not my goal on this platform but imagine writers write fiction to earn money.
What will happen to these poor writers?
Based on my case study, they can starve on this platform.
I have strong empathy for fiction writers, especially in this current situation of the platform and economic climate.
Where is the value of writing fiction on Medium?
Money aside, poor writers cannot even reach out to their audience. I don’t mean the audience provided by Medium, but the audience the writers created themselves.
Well, I create my value with the personal satisfaction of achieving my goal of writing a fiction piece. It was a desire for me.
I don’t know how writers feel about the current value.
The concerns and facts are that my piece did not reach my audience.
I mean an audience that I created with my hard work for several months.
This situation is disappointing because ironically, my content did not even reach out to an audience that I earned with my hard work for a long time.
I feel that rather than empowering, the platform punishes my efforts.
Is there any value gained from my 4.4K followers, 440 fans, and 41K publication followers based on this case story's performance?
I don’t know the exact answer to this question.
As a data-driven person, these stats do not make any sense to me.
Many questions pop up.
The first question coming to my mind: Does fiction writing suck on Medium?
I am not sure and want to obtain perspectives of the fiction writers.
More especially taking personal responsibility, I want to ask:
Does my first fiction piece suck to a level that even my fans can’t bother to view and read it?
I know I am not an expert writer of fiction. Realistically, I don’t expect outstanding results.
But my concern is that readers do not even get a chance to view it let alone judge it.
Doesn’t even the curiosity factor play a role in attracting the attention of 500 fans of my content?
This assumption cannot be correct because only around 3% of followers had a chance to view it based on stats. There is a big possibility that 500 fans of my content did not even have a chance to view my content.
What happened to my fans?
Does the platform restrict my fans from viewing it?
Most likely! It appears so.
Is it on purpose?
I don’t know the answer.
Or does the problem occur due to bugs blocking my readers?
Possibly.
I discussed the feature or bug notion in this story.
I asked the question of whether the cat was dead or alive metaphorically.
My optimistic side was tending toward the cat as being “alive”.
But considering the stats of my fiction piece, I believe the cat is dead in this experimentation.
What is the final answer to my above questions?
Maybe the answer is “all the above” play a sucking role for fiction or any other genre.
Or maybe the last two viable assumptions: restrictions and bugs are the culprits.
Despite my optimistic outlook, my current sentiment is a disappointment.
I leave it up to my readers to assess, decide, and comment on the answers to my above questions if they can have a chance to view this story. I doubt it.
Please feel free to criticize my fiction story if needed brutally. I don’t mind your feedback, even if it is negative. I embrace any feedback so that I can grow with your input. Coming from a harsh academic and industry background, I gained thick skin as far as genuine criticisms are concerned. I elaborated upon my uplifting attitude towards negative criticism.
Thank you for reading my perspective.
Despite all challenges, I will continue to produce even if my content reaches a small audience. Maybe things will be better soon, and the cat might turn out to be alive.
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Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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