Summary

A Medium writer expresses their experiences and frustrations with the platform, touching on their success with publications, follower count, writing frequency, content variety, readership, grammatical errors, and the financial aspects of writing on Medium.

Abstract

The author of the article shares their journey as a new writer on Medium, having been accepted by 14 publications without rejection and amassing 519 followers in seven months. Despite publishing fewer stories than some peers, they have managed to achieve significant readership spikes, although external traffic has not resulted in substantial earnings. The writer, who does not adhere to a niche due to diverse interests and ADHD, is also critical of the prevalence of grammatical errors and typos they observe on the platform. They advocate for the importance of proofreading and suggest that grammatical accuracy should impact a writer's earnings. The author concludes with advice to write consistently without sacrificing other interests and to utilize available tools to minimize errors.

Opinions

The author feels that their writing is relatively successful on Medium, with multiple publications and a solid follower base.
They believe that the number of followers does not directly correlate with increased earnings.
The writer values quality over quantity, emphasizing the importance of research and learning, even if it means publishing fewer stories.
They are frustrated with the frequency of grammatical errors and typos in Medium articles, which they see as discrediting to authors and reflective of insufficient proofreading or editorial oversight.
The author suggests that the presence of errors can negatively impact a writer's credibility and income.
They recommend that writers thoroughly proofread their work multiple times, using tools like Grammarly, to maintain high standards of grammatical correctness.
The writer is on a fixed income and emphasizes the importance of every penny, indicating a desire for more tangible rewards from their Medium writing efforts.

I Don’t Get Medium

Help Me Understand

After reading Umair Haque’s works on race, COVID, drought, fascist leaders, and the end of the world, this article seems pretty trivial.

As a relatively new writer (seven months), I wanted to vent—just a little.

I’ve read a lot of new writers have problems getting accepted into publications. Maybe I’m lucky, but I’ve been accepted by 14 and have written for most of them. I’ve yet to be turned down.

Followers are another matter. Many who write for Medium disclose how long they’ve been writing on the platform. Using that, I’ve compared the number of followers they have to me. At this point, I have 519 followers, which seems like a pretty good number. Not that it necessarily translates into increased earnings.

In seven months I’ve published 60 stories, for an average of about eight a month, far fewer than many have written in the same time frame. I have a goal of 15 stories a month, but I also have a life. An unexpected visitor or taking a day off to go hiking can mean one less story that month.

Some of my stories require extensive research. I enjoy that aspect and also learning right along with my readers. But these stories require more time. So you have to take that into account when counting the number of stories.

I don’t have a niche. I have way too many interests, so my subjects are quite disparate. But, on the other hand, I also have ADHD, and I can’t become entrenched in one subject for too long.

The most reads I‘d ever had in a single day was 35, and that occurred four times. Since I first wrote this, I‘ve had five consecutive days of high readership: 200, 61, 29, 39, and 154. It is mainly attributable to one story, but most of the reads are externally sourced, so I’ve made all of 74 cents on it.

Also, I don’t receive as many claps as I thought I would receive. How is an external reader to know that they can clap up to 50 times? This is not explained anywhere, far as I can find. So now I’ve got to go back and tell my family and friends they can clap more than once. Maybe if they’d known, things would be different by now.

So there’s that.

My other rant today is the number of grammatical errors and/or typos I see in the work on Medium.

I know I’m not perfect. It’s hard to be when you’re your own editor. So there could be errors in this story. But I go through each piece with a fine-toothed comb, several times, at times reading aloud, to catch mistakes.

Most publications stipulate that all submissions should be mistake-free and grammatically correct, and that includes typos. However, most editors say they’ll give a break for minor typos and that we all make them occasionally.

I followed the rules and bought the super deluxe version of Grammarly. It provides a report each week that tells you how your writing is coming along. Mine is telling me that I’m doing an excellent job.

But seriously? I see a lot of typos, and they stick out like a sore thumb. For example, today, I saw a typo in a sub-title, almost hitting the ceiling. How could this be missed?

It tells me a couple of things: writers aren’t proofreading their work to the extent that they should, and editors don’t have the time.

The story in question had 156 claps and three responses within 24 hours of its release. Before last week, that’s more claps than I’d ever received! I did not read the story because of that typo. I think errors discredit the author. So conspicuous!

Another thing I saw? Writers using the word “agency” when “urgency” was the word that was supposed to have been used. I saw this twice in one day!

When I was in the corporate world, I cringed at the garbage circulated, including that by some managers. When I saw a document that was not grammatically correct and/or had typos, I’d often judge that person. They did not care enough to proofread their work, so what does that say about them? Am I being too judgemental?

Many writers on Medium have dispensed the notion that to get good at this takes one to five years. I’m not impatient.

However, I’m now living on a fixed income, and every penny does count. So if there are readers out there who are like me, I, too, could be discredited for errors in grammar and spelling. (But seriously, I have a lot to learn when it comes to punctuation!)

The most money I have made in a single month is $10.75. The attention to detail I give my work is worth more. Unfortunately, grammatical errors and typos shine a bad light on the writer, the editors, and the publications. Maybe grammatical correctness should be part of the scorecard in our earnings.

I don’t want to be the grammar police! I just am.

Conclusion

On “popularity” and earning money: Write more if you can. However, don’t give up on your other interests. Stories come from those.

Typos: They shouldn’t be legitimized given the tools we have at our disposal! Read (or speak) your draft three times before you hit the submit button.

This is only the second time I have expressed a rant about Medium. I’m going to keep writing, but I‘d like to be more pleased with the results.