Getting to Grips With Medium

Summary

Susie Kearley shares her experiences and challenges as a new Medium user, detailing her earnings, interactions with publications, and the time investment required for editing and publishing articles.

Abstract

Susie Kearley, an experienced writer with a vast portfolio of published articles, decided to explore Medium as a new platform for her work. In her second month on the platform, she has published 39 articles and earned approximately $30, acknowledging the low per-article earnings but hoping for increased revenue as her articles accumulate views. Kearley has encountered varying degrees of cooperation from Medium publications, with Illumination requesting significant revisions and Creatures providing a smoother collaboration. She has been added to 15 publications and emphasizes the importance of patience when waiting for publication approvals. The process of editing and updating articles for Medium has proven more time-consuming than anticipated, especially when sourcing photos and adhering to the platform's guidelines for health topics. Despite initial frustrations, Kearley finds Medium rewarding and plans to continue her efforts, appreciating the quick publication turnaround and the opportunity to write on topics not typically covered by traditional press.

Opinions

Kearley views her initial earnings on Medium as low but remains optimistic about future revenue growth.
She found the revision process required by Illumination to be challenging and less favorable for complex articles.
Kearley praises Creatures for their excellent communication and acceptance of her work without major changes.
She expresses frustration with the slow response times from some publications when trying to become a contributor.
Kearley acknowledges that editing articles for Medium, including updating content and adding references, is a time-intensive process.
Despite early challenges, she considers Medium a fun and educational experience and is motivated to persevere.

Trials and Tribulations of a Newbie! Earnings to date, publications, and more…

I decided to experiment with Medium after hearing about it on Twitter. I have 1000s of articles that have been published in magazines, and some are ‘evergreen’ in the sense that they don’t really go out of date. So I’ve looked at what I could publish on Medium from this collection.

How’s it gone?

Well, I’m now into my second month. I’ve published 39 articles and earnt about $30. Gosh, that’s a terrible rate per article isn’t it! The plan is that they’ll continue to earn as views accumulate and I’ll do some cross promotions to boost views. I won’t be retiring on the proceeds, but I hope to scale it up and make it worthwhile.

Dealing with publications

I’ve found some publications easier to deal with than others. Illumination told me to run my article through ProWriting Aid, which told me the story needed big revisions to change it from passive voice to active voice, a stylistic preference.

The article didn’t lend itself to active voice and some of the changes suggested by the software would have introduced unacceptable errors to my work. So eventually I deleted the offending sentences, revised other parts, and it was finally accepted. But it’s put me off offering them long complex articles again. They’ve been easier to work with subsequently, on shorter pieces.

Submitting to Creatures has been a dream, with lots of stories adopted, and great communication. Crucially, they made no demands that I should make major changes to my work.

Exploring History adopted my war nurse story, and I’ve submitted another. They’re slow to respond but seem easy to work with. Those were the first three who let me publish on their platform, and I’ve now got 15 publications to choose from! Fabulous!

Patience is required

One of the big frustrations I found early on, was that it took ages to get some publications to put me on their contributors list. One took about six weeks. Many haven’t responded at all. And until they do, I cannot submit drafts to them through the Medium platform. I have to be patient. The other option is to ‘publish’ without them, but then the article might not get much visibility.

Editing stories takes longer than you think

I’ve found that editing takes longer than I imagine. Even ‘evergreen’ articles need some updating, and Medium guidelines say that on health topics you need to link to studies etc, which I haven’t always done for print press if it wasn’t required.

So by the time I’ve checked things, added links, updated, tidied it up, added anything new, sourced photos, and laid it out, it does swallow up a lot of time. But you don’t earn if you don’t try.

It’s starting to pay off slowly

Medium started out as a time consuming and frustrating experience, but it’s starting to pay off now. I’m going to persevere.

It’s fun to see my work being published quickly (magazines can take months, even years). It’s good to have my work well received by readers, and enjoyed. It’s nice to be able to write about a few things that wouldn’t be of interest to the traditional press. It’s been quite a learning experience too!