Why I Am Staying…

But not taking Medium too seriously

The Blessed, Cursed Algorithm

Several years ago I opened a Google+ account and began posting photographs from my European travels. I created a collection, named it Beautiful Italy, and started uploading photos, one each day.

For reasons concealed in the murky recesses of the mother ship, the algorithm decided that I was its guy. Day after day, the algorithm would reach out, tap my new image on the shoulder, and usher it onto the site’s front page — singling it out to be a featured image. Out of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of photographs posted daily, my pictures kept rolling double sixes.

As you might imagine, my follower numbers grew rapidly, climbing from zero to more than 25,000. My images received thousands of likes, and so many comments that I eventually turned them off — I was spending too much time moderating what others attached to my photographs.

So what did I learn from this rapid ascent? Did I grow convinced that I was the Ansel Adams of Italian landscape photography? Did I quit my job and start leading photo tours to Italy?

Naaahh…

What I realized, and what every content creator working with digital platforms needs to realize, is that success or failure is largely uncorrelated with excellence. The algorithm giveth and the algorithm taketh away. My Italian photography is good, but there are thousands of equally good photographers who posted on Google+ and never received the algorithmic benediction. I gained followers in the thousands, they gained dozens. The algorithm pushed me to the top, but there was no obvious reason for my success. Moreover, that success wasn’t replicable on other platforms. Despite a similar posting pattern, Instagram’s algorithm yawned at my work, and after a year of posting photos on Twitter, I have yet to reach 200 followers. If the algorithms measured quality, they would reach similar conclusions about my photographs and I would thrive across the platforms.

In fact, it is nothing more than a crap shoot.

If the Medium algorithm — based upon criteria that the company will never reveal — decides to promote your work, you will thrive on Medium. But you shouldn’t believe that an algorithmic push correlates with high quality work. You got lucky. That’s great, it might prove lucrative, but it is unlikely to be replicable — it probably won’t transfer to another platform or the real world of traditional publishing. Moreover, the next time the company rolls out a refinement to the algorithm, you may find yourself out shivering in the cold, wondering where all your readers went.

The algorithm does not lead readers to the best writers, it does not reward quality, but instead promotes or hides based upon closely-guarded metrics. Good writers have no better chance of prosperity on this platform than poor writers. Excellence offers no guaranteed path to success.

I won’t take Medium seriously until it can prove to me that the algorithm can separate the wheat from the chaff. Until that happens, I would much rather compete in the arena of traditional publishing, where experienced humans evaluate my work. Although an editor’s rejection can feel as capricious and arbitrary as an algorithmic decision, I do believe that literary excellence will win out. Hone your craft, perfect your art, and you will find the path to publication.

Poor Pay on the Hamster Wheel

I have just finished my first year writing for Medium. During that time, I published ninety-three stories and earned $473.11. That is an average return of $5.08 per story. Since I primarily write history articles, each story takes hours of research. When I add those preparatory hours to my writing time, my hourly wage declines toward a handful of cents.

Yes, argue some Medium influencers, but those stories will keep earning, month after month. Unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to be true. In December 2020, my Medium earnings carried me into the charmed circle, the small club of writers who earn more than $100 each month on the platform. On January 4, I took a break from Medium to focus on writing the rough draft of a new book. My earnings fell off a cliff. When you stop publishing new material, the algorithm stops sending readers in your direction. Much of the algorithm is cloaked in mystery, but one truth seems evident: if you hop off the hamster wheel, if you stop providing fresh content, you vanish.

I don’t want to be forced to keep writing in order to continue earning $5.08 a story. Fundamentally dissatisfied with this arrangement, I went back to my roots and began sending query letters to magazine editors. Last month, an editor bought a story.

He paid $1,800 for it.

In addition to receiving more than four times what I made in a year of Medium writing, a hundred thousand readers will read my work.

Remind me again why I should take Medium seriously?

If you want to be a professional writer, Medium is a dead end. Traditional publishing, with its gatekeepers (editors) and slow production schedules, still offers the surest and best-marked path to a writing career.

Google What?

Here’s the final reason I won’t take Medium seriously: what makes you think it will still be around next year? I invested a great deal of time posting pictures on Google+, gained thousands of followers who admired my work, and one day in late 2018 Google sent a message announcing the platform’s end. Google picked up its marbles and burned the table.

My Google+ success dissipated, smoke and ash in the wind.

I can’t take Medium too seriously, because I don’t really believe it will still exist in ten years. It might, but Google+ taught me that the carnival can pack up very quickly. If Ev and his team decide that this is no longer worth the expense or bother, they won’t ask your opinion.

There will be an announcement. Contributors and some readers will wail and gnash their teeth. A few months later, Medium will turn into an internet hole in the ground, marked by HTML error code 404.

Medium has not promised to be here for you in ten years. Enjoy the ride today, for you may not hear the carnies barking tomorrow.

The Title’s Obverse Side

I am not going to take Medium seriously. I feel that it has little to contribute to my goal of earning my bread as a professional writer. Traditional publishing is far more lucrative, it offers significantly more exposure, and it allows me to build a portfolio of work that may lead to even greater opportunities.

So why continue to contribute to Medium? Why continue to earn that $5.08 a story?

It’s fun and it is fast.

Medium allows me to write and publish anything I want. There’s no magazine that I can think of that would ever print my Oyster Burger Chronicles column, yet, I enjoy writing it, and the five readers who drop by regularly (you know who you are), make it worth my time. I can indulge my muse, following wherever she may lead.

And I can do it quickly. I had the idea for this essay this morning, and by lunch time it was ready to go. It probably won’t make any money, and the algorithm may stomp it into the earth, but I got it off my chest and can move on.

I firmly believe that traditional publishing is my best path forward, but I don’t intend to abandon Medium any time soon.

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