I Honestly Don’t Know if I Can Read Another Story on Medium about Making Money on Medium

A story that is not really about making money on Medium but is about writing about people who write about making money on Medium

I honestly don’t know if I can read or see another how to make money on Medium piece. But, here we are. Yes, we want to make money. The secret is out. Yes, some of us are making some money. That is amazing.

But can we maybe put a brief pin in the writings about writing on Medium and making money writing on Medium for just a bit? See how it goes when that does not flood everyone’s feed? Take a breather. Praise some art, lift up some struggling writers with support that is not about making money fast and fast and now and fast and long game and whatever else is being said obsessively about making money on Medium? Maybe just maybe?

When I was first told to write for Medium, I admit, the idea of money was so appealing. I had no job. I was an adjunct and it was summer. I was staring down a three month period of potential disaster.

And Medium came into my life and it was like a beam of hope, a ray of sunshine, a blessing. And no, not because of the sweet sweet $60 dollars I made that first month.

For the first time in ages, I was inspired and motivated to write and write hard. Write and write a lot. Write and feel it out. Write and feel myself. In writing I found my identity, my voice, my home, my comfort and my people. For years I would talk about writing, think about writing, secretly write, but not really do much else with it.

I would write love letters to my love, class notes to my students, giant posts on Social Media to my friends. But my poetry was dormant. Sleeping. Sitting in silence. Silenced.

Medium gave this all back to me. How? By being a platform that feels easy to use, easy to engage with, and that truly feels like community. It also feels like freedom.

And it comes with a bonus of somehow magically and miraculously being somewhat paid and rewarded for things that are feeding our souls as writers and poets and artists. This is the dream. The actual dream.

It is small for now, it might always be small. I do not know. But what has come from this writing, my poetry, creating a cute little poetry publication to put my extra poems not in other publications, what has come from this is: the amazing confidence and delight in my own writing. And the magical feeling of thinking and sometimes knowing people are reading my words! And the conversations about writing, poems, poetry, and yes, okay, yes, even some of the conversations about Medium.

I love the conversations about what we are doing with our writing and what we are doing on Medium. The ones that make it feel like we are all in this same little boat. Not in this how to get rich boat, how to work the system boat, not in this how to write and read articles that always say the same things over and over again about writing to make money, and tips and tricks on how to do it, same old same old. But in this creatives boat. This writers boat. This poets boat. This people doing the thing boat.

Yes, we need money, I know many of us do. Creatives, and especially poets, tend to not be rolling in financial security. Lavish us with some of this money, of course, please. But let’s be a bit cool about it? Let’s be a bit respectful?

Let’s see if we can make it so that the art comes first, the voice comes first, the process comes first. Let’s not gig this up so cheaply, I suppose?

Write what you like to write, focus on the things that make you a better writer. Write once a day, once a week, once a month, or if you feel so moved as I often do, write five or eight poems a day, and then just look at them. Just look at what you made. Sometimes my poems get 36 claps, sometimes my poems get 1000 claps, sometimes they get no attention at all. But here they are. And maybe someday someone will be as into them as I am, maybe?

But the point is, the process is what it is about. The process of writing, getting your voice into it, into the words, and of course, my daily struggle, working on whatever comma rules might exist and so on. The process of writing and the process of building of community and the co-creation of such unique things — the Facebook groups, the smaller publications, and the conversations that many of us have now with friends, true friends, artist friends, poet friends, writer friends, and mentors, via messenger, text, phone, or in the comment sections of our writings. I live and fangirl over some of these poets and writers so hard, I promise. And without Medium how would I have known they existed? Yes we all might go on to write books, chapbooks, have blogs, whatever else we can and might do, but I am not kidding for poets Medium is like heaven.

Treating this like some sort of typical online space to milk and drain dry with tips and tricks for money making is for me, at times, many times, a sad little turn off. We get it. You made money. Tons of money. So much money. You have stats. You made money this month and that month. Okay, okay, okay. I am happy for you? I think, yes. I mean, you are I think trying to inspire?

But, maybe now let’s focus on the writing, the art, the poetry, the community see what happens there. Let us use your words to lift up not just sell up the platform. Let’s see what happens when everyone is out here, going and growing, striving in every way, to gain and give their voice and talents and let’s see if we can protect this space as both a potential springboard for potential living wages for those of us in need, and as space for the connections that bring opportunities for growth as people in need of income and as authentic and talented writers in need of audience and support that bloom from the relationships and readerships on this platform.

I think things that might help include tips for writer, author, freelancer networking; tips for posting things in ways that look nice; tips for entering poetry or stories into journals or contests, with maybe lists of upcoming calls for submission or help navigating that entire world, really. Maybe let’s have this, please? More articles that will help us with our craft, help us with our gifts, and help us gain some sort of place in our fields of passion. And then help us with our income, our debt, our pocketbook, our daily bread?

We can use this place to change the world, I believe that. And by the world I might just mean we can use it to change how art is paid for, valued, given reward, and how artists and poets, won’t someone please remember the poets, how poets can be paid for whatever small joys we bring to someone’s day — this is not about making the big bucks, but it is about shifting the conversation away from make this money make this money to how can we ensure people who do art, who give art, who give literature, who give value in writing and poetry, get some value back, get a financial backing to sustain more of this art. Does this make sense?

I honestly don’t know if I can look at another story with any headline about money making on Medium. For a while at least.

Jenny Justice is a mom, Sociology instructor, and writer. You can follow her on Medium and at Jenny Justice, Writer. She has been recognized as a Top Writer on Medium in Poetry, Parenting, Reading, Education, Books, Racism, Feminism and Climate Change, so far. You can follow her poetry at Justice Poetic.