This Boost Thing is Ridiculous and Turns Medium into What I Was Trying to Avoid
I just want to write, I don’t want to promote
Being a successful writer requires two things — being able to write moderately well, and far more importantly, being able to promote your writing. I’m not quibbling or unaware, those are just the rules of the game.
What I originally liked about Medium is that it came with its own audience. I could just write, a few people would read what I wrote, and if it was any good, a few more, and so on. I’d get some views, get some feedback, become a better writer, maybe repeat that a few hundred times and maybe feel like I’d done something useful. By writing and learning.
Then along comes this maniacal focus on getting a select group of judges, nominees or illuminati among us to like our writing and bestow a boost. And it doesn’t seem to happen by just writing. You have to know people. You have to be in the right publications. It’s just one more set of hoops to jump through.
You know what that sounds like? Traditional book publishing. Traditional freelance publishing. Find an agent. Find an editor. Find a publisher. Promote promote promote.
I wrote a book seven years ago. It doesn’t suck. But I didn’t get an agent. I didn’t write 100 letters to publishers, and I didn’t take to building a social media following. I told my friends, they all bought or got a copy for free and I was happy. I didn’t feel like I was missing out.
Recently I started writing on Medium and enjoyed it quite a bit. Then this boost thing took over and I’m back to being at the mercy of some random yo-yo as to whether anyone reads what I wrote. Sorry all you nominators out there, I’m sure you’re very nice people, but why you need to gate-keep my material is beyond me. Another article that didn’t get boosted, now I feel like I’m missing out. No more level playing field.
I’d actually be ok with a hidden boost mechanism. That’s kind of how the real world works anyway. Somebody with influence randomly reads something you wrote and tells people about it. But Medium, could you please stop talking about it so damn much?? Stop making it so damn obvious that you’re paving the way to becoming a traditional publisher and ruining what was once a nicely differentiated place for writers on the interweb?
There are so many ways for Medium to promote articles, why not spread the love a little instead of reserving them all for a small number of boosted stories? If I want to submit my writing for judgement I can jolly well submit it to people who’ll pay me directly if they accept it. Medium was supposed to be different.
So I’ve moved my writing to a newsletter where I can control the distribution, get waaaay better statistics, and more feedback to help me develop my writing. Now I repost content to Medium because it doesn’t take long and I do get some good feedback via claps. Why we’re told # of claps and not total clappers is also beyond me. As if the amount of free time my readers have to clap is somehow a reflection of the quality of my writing. Give everyone a limited number of claps and then we’ll see claps that matter.
/rant