Publications are Charging Writers?

Well, that’s not where I saw the evolution of the Medium publication going…

I’ve had publications on the brain this week — and unlike my girl T-Swizzle, can’t seem to ‘shake it off’.

After compiling my brain-busting (literally, I had to take time off just to restore my vision) massive list of publications accepting new writers, I received a question from one of my awesome regulars, Audra Spangler. In her recent search for publications she came across a publication that required you to donate (pay) money to participate:

I’ve seen this before too. I can’t remember the names, and at this point, my mind is a pile of goop after combing through a graveyard of so, so, so many pubs to make my list. I need a brain douche after that.

But it’s true, there are publications on Medium charging or asking for donations. *Gasp. That’s right — they need your bacon. Recently, The Writing Cooperative started a pay-to-play freemium model, but more on that later.

The hilarious Rachel A Fefer wrote a post this week swearing off publications, and I understand why. In it, she wrote about everyone and their dog starting their own pub:

“There were Spaces within Spaces about Spaces like one of those endless mirror images in an Escher painting. That seems to be what’s happening here.”

She’s not wrong. There is a graveyard of pubs, both big and small. And the ones still alive seem to be splintering further and further. This comes as no surprise since it’s long been a complaint that Medium doesn’t properly support its publications and editors anymore. The amazingly wonderful and kind Dr Mehmet Yildiz has noted this before in regard to his Illumination pubs.

Will Pubs Get Paid?

My friend (ok — boss), the amazing Robert Ralph, expressed similar thoughts this week in his post, Editors Getting Paid (and in a video on his YouTube channel).

In that article, he discusses the proposed editor payment system that Tony Stubblebine mentioned in his post launching the new boost system. Or rather lack thereof. He’s disappointed and notes that if he didn’t run New Writers Welcome — he may not still be here.

On the bright side, editors who are now part of the Boost program are getting paid for stories they get approved through the Boost program. Currently, there are around 50–60 of them in the beta program, and more are supposed to be added soon. By the way, if you’re an editor and want to apply to it — you can do that here.

But there is still no funding or support for publications or editors. The money is going to the boost — leaving publications left out like the red-headed stepchild of Medium…again. But publications are the beating (and sometimes bleeding) heart of Medium.

It Wasn’t Always This Way — Pubs Used to be Paid

Did you know that some publications used to be funded by Medium? Ummm, fucking… what? And they paid editors. They also paid writers (or at least some). From what I’ve read, it was around $0.10/word . If you believe what you read on the innernut, Better Humans had rates of around $500 (for 3K-5K words). These paying pubs included the likes of The Ascent, Better Humans, Creative Cafe, Elemental, Forge, OneZero, Marker, Level, and Heated. Zulie Rane was paid $300 for a 1,250-word article in OneZero (which she said in this video around the 2–3 minute mark).

All of those pubs are graveyard bones except for Better Humans.

It looks like those pubs left after the funding stopped — some going to their own website platforms. That’s not exactly ‘shocking’.

In this Medium post from March 2019, they were offering publications a guaranteed $5K-$50K/month payment — which I’m assuming is where publications got the bacon from to pay Medium peeps. The funding stopped…the pubs left, or joined the Medium pub graveyard.

Now we have a patchwork of pubs, with overworked editors, and writers complaining about post-approval time delays. And people have to rely on haphazard, try-hard lists like mine to even find the pubs. While I’m happy to help out my readers, it’s a fuck-load of work (that’s 3.7 fuck-tons in Freedom Fucker Units)

The publication model needs revamping. It needs support, help, and resources. And the payments for those editors lucky enough (or the more likely — who know the right people) to get boosting powers…that isn’t going to help.

It’s time for change.

Publications Charging Writers Isn’t The Answer

The Writing Cooperative announced a few weeks ago that they’re selling a fast-pass to publishing with them. For $200/year you can get priority review for your submissions to their pub — with a 72-hour review window. That’s fast for them by the way.

So for $200 annually you get a ticket to ride at their amusement park full of readers. Well hot diggity…clickity-clackety, all aboard.

Publication of your article isn’t guaranteed with the fast-pass (available on Justin Cox’s, the founder, website) though, and some weeks they publish as little as 20% of their submissions. But it’s for good reason — they’re a great pub, with solid content and high standards. It’s why their readership is so solid.

While I don’t agree with paying to publish (granted his model is only paying to speed up the process), I fully understand Justin Cox’s decision. It’s a ton of work, over the long term to run a publication. And he has done a phenomenal job building the audience and has earned the right to be compensated for that incredible dedication.

And The Writing Cooperative isn’t the only publication to ask for payment or donation.

But what if more publications followed suit? Medium readership would be, at least in part, held hostage — and only the writers making enough money to pay would get those views and reads. It would be a vicious cycle.

Is this the only way that Medium publications can support themselves?

‘Ok Robin — So, What’s YOUR Solution?’

Don’t worry, my big-ass, mustache-covered mouth has some ideas. And I’m not the only one. My strangely-named Discord buddy StrangeCash had some great thoughts in his article, which include centralization and standardization ideas.

I mean geez, people are creating spreadsheets with the different rules for different pubs. Holy crap on a cracker…that’s ridonculous.

So, here’s what my loud-mouth ass would like to see:

1. An up-to-date list of active publications. Ta-da.
2. A list of what publications are accepting new writers (which could be implemented by having a checkmark in the pubs’ setting page). Mic drop.
3. Checkable boxes (with the option to add in your own custom options) in the pub homepage settings of requirements — which would show up in the draft editor for writers. Bazinga.
4. A built-in AI and plagiarism checker for publications. Huzzah!
5. A notifications tab that separates your personal notifications from pub-related ones. Editors so desperately need this. Please…my notifications are off the hook — like a corded phone in the 90s when you wanted to ignore people. As in…nobody can get a hold of me. Oopsies.
6. Bring more support to publications, so that we can return to the days when publications could raise the bar. Raising the bar takes effort, and effort takes resources. If not funding — then some other form of support to help publications do their jobs more easily. The publications problem is not the fault of the hardworking volunteers; it’s a problem of resources and tools. Oorah.

That’s all my brain bucket can muster at the moment. But publications need help. So, Medium — pull a stool up to the bar of the pub, and don’t forget to bring your piggy bank of ideas…or resources (as in moolah).

Robin Wilding, reporting from…. a bathtub full of marshmallows.