Of Boosts, Sour Grapes, and W(h)ine

A 10x boosted writer shows how boosts can have a significant impact on earnings

Over these past few weeks, stories bashing the idea of writing for boosts have poured forth. The cumulative message is why bother striving for one? They’re unpredictable. They don’t necessarily produce higher earnings. And as such, they’re not really worth the bother.

First things first.

I fully agree that it’s almost counterproductive to write exclusively for the sake of a boost — despite having just received my 10th boost two days ago in addition to being chosen for an Editor’s pick! (The latter is new for me.)

But only because there’s always going to be a certain degree of unpredictability – just as in school, work, and life. After all, we already know that boost nominators are never entirely sure that their picks will be rewarded. I myself encountered a situation where an editor nominated one of my articles for a boost but got the thumbs down from a Medium curator. Oh, well — but life goes on.

Let’s not forget too that there’s always going to be a human factor when evaluating writing — simply because not everyone is going to have the same opinions even of the best works. This is something I know from my various capacities as a peer- reviewed author and peer reviewer for scholarly journals in literature, history, and political science. Heck, anything from a book award to a Pulitzer prize can be disputed!

So, yes, sometimes chasing a boost can feel like chasing rainbows.

What I find more problematic amid this boost bashing, however, is the implication that writing a boost-type story is somehow unnatural or goes against a writer’s instincts. That it is profoundly insincere because writers must somehow write to please the boost gods. This is an idea that keeps cropping up not only in articles but in comments as well.

Sorry, but that’s nonsense! Would you like some cheese and w(h)ine to go along with your sour grapes?

It gets even more ludicrous when the same writers claim they would rather write to satisfy their audience. Hate to break it to you, but if you’re aiming your stories for a particular audience rather than a boost nominator and curator, you’re still writing for someone else. Ditto writing for a professor, colleagues, or anyone else.

So not surprisingly, I call BS on these bitter “rationales.” I’ve enjoyed pouring out my heart in each and every one of my stories. Of the 10 boosted, there have been at least 6 occasions when I wrote with very little expectation of a boost because none of the editors were nominators — or at least as far as I knew.

And heck, in one instance, I immediately ruled out a boost because I had just gotten one in the same publication a week earlier — a pub that did not appear to have a boost nominator. I recall thinking isn’t it a pity the one I wrote a few days ago got boosted because this one is even better? Well, lo and behold, it actually got boosted right after New Year’s Day!

Now, I strongly suspect there’s a certain degree of envy in this boost bashing. There may be some who are still waiting for their first boost and others wondering why they are not getting more. It may sting even more if they fancy themselves good writers or have the “right” credentials.

But let’s not forget that all of us, even those with multiple boosts, were once boostless wonders. We too fretted, wondering why everyone else was receiving them — everyone else BUT US: I know I did as recently as last August. I had to keep reminding myself that I’d only started writing in late May before beginning to discover the wonderful world of pubs in June.

It never occurred to me to give up though. As I read a few staff picks, I began to learn the ropes. And what I learned was that I didn’t have to change my ways but lean further into what I was already doing.

If I once felt discouraged because a 7-minute article had been turned down for being too long, I was now asking myself why worry about writing even longer pieces at 9-minutes, 12-minutes or even 13-minutes? I couldn’t help but notice how some boosted articles went all the way up to nearly 30 minutes.

After all, as Michael Jackson once sang, “Enjoy yourself!” and “Don’t stop till you get enough!”

Ultimately, 10 boosts later, I’m glad I put the effort and patience into reshaping my writing and formatting — even if it meant rechanneling my high school self that was more accustomed to writing personal essays and reflections decades ago.

Because let’s face it, the boost program is about as evenhanded as things are going to be on any social platform. Sure, there are other pieces I wrote that could have received a boost — like this witty and delightful story on 18th-century bathroom humor. I believe I may be the only one who has explained why such humor was so popular then:

Nonetheless, like the Rolling Stones once sang, you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need. And so I got a boost two weeks later, followed by another shortly thereafter.

As someone who has always been attuned to bias given my lifelong experience as a minority and a woman, I honestly couldn’t find a more equitable system. Not to mention as someone whose obviously ethnic, non-Western name has long suggested to the prejudiced that she is not fluent in English. And not least, a woman whose profile photo indicates that she’s neither young nor blonde, white, and conventionally attractive. (Trivia: did you know people with long, skinny faces and refined features are believed to be smarter and more honest?) Having at least two pairs of eyes among at least 60 nominators and curators assess your stories can help alleviate bias considerably!

Boostworthy wonders: let me count the ways!

Now, some of you may be doing so well that you don’t need a boost to get a respectable number of views and reads. If you’re the kind who regularly gets thousands of claps within a day of publishing your article and over a hundred comments, you’re probably already doing plenty fine. Especially if you’re publishing on a daily basis and multiple times a day at that. Lucky you!

But for those of us who are working at least one job or even two that demand copious reading and writing, boosts can supplement monthly earnings when we can’t write on a daily or even weekly schedule.

To get a better idea, let’s look at some of my views and reads. My most viewed and read pieces all happened to be my boosted pieces — with the 1st at 985 views and 648 reads (66% read rate) and the 10th at 356 views and 166 reads (47% read rate). Here, I should point out that the topmost boost was published in early October and the 10th just a little over two weeks ago on January 17 — hence the vast discrepancy in the number of views and reads.

From there, the next most viewed is my very first story on Medium, published on May 23, 2023 — my virgin piece as I call it! It had 217 views and 153 reads. Despite its 71% read ratio, it earned a measly $2.42. Even my least well-performing boost — an article on the rise of 18th-century horror — managed to earn more ($20.02) than my other articles despite its pathetic 35% reader rate.

Boosts not only allow you to gain more reads than you might otherwise get, but they are also weighted more per engagement. So think how much MORE you can earn when you are actually boosted!

Here, let’s compare one boosted story with an unboosted one written on consecutive days for a better comparison of the gaps between them. Notice that the boosted article, “No work is insignificant” (January 17, 2024) got more than 10x as many views and reads as the one written a day earlier, “We may have come on different ships” (January 16, 2024).

More spectacularly, look at the difference in earnings. The boosted article made 22.86x as much!

Again, this may not be the case for everyone, particularly if they have a large following or publish a great deal. But for the rest of us, the difference can be pronounced.

Then there’s the sheer fact that the boost is an undeniable boost to one’s ego: if nothing else, there’s that! No matter how many you get, you always feel excited. Granted, few outside the Medium community may know what a boost is. (“Huh? You got a boost? You mean that chalky drink?”) And none of us know exactly how many boosts are handed out on any one day and out of how many other pieces. Is the boost like an A (that is, before our present days of arrant grade inflation where 80% of a class gets an A) or is it more like an award that one might get in high school or college? So continue shooting for that boost — even if it may not be your be-all and end-all.

Since I believe in helping as many as possible write boostworthy stories as possible — namely, stories written skillfully enough to be boosted — I’ve begun writing a series of articles on essays and memoirs.

I should add that unlike the vast majority of those pretending to guide other writers, I actually have plenty of examples with which to guide you — not to mention over 20 years of experience as a real professor and editor. I can show you how and why something works — or doesn’t. Stay tuned!

© Frances A. Chiu, February 3, 2024. All Rights Reserved.