Writing Elsewhere | Newsletter

Why I’ve Been Quiet Lately

When is a story not a story? When it’s a Newsletter.

To quote the song by Live Aid, I heard the clanging chimes of doom in September, when Medium’s writing community began to fill my feed with posts on how the recent up-grades were hurting their earnings, moving their focus from meaningful wordcraft to interaction in comments and rendering their stats unintelligible.

I like writing for Medium, and reading what my friends post. I tried to tell myself it was a blip. I’m not one to rant when I can be obscure, instead I wrote a whimsical woodland-themed story about the state of Medium.

But my logical mind was yelling “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. There are other places to write, and the constant changes here pushed me to investigate other options. Many writing colleagues have already gravitated to Substack or put more energy into their Patreon, but I was undecided where to ‘lay my hat.’

I have always diversified. I enter competitions and submit my work for inclusion in anthologies. Since 2017 I’ve written for FrolicMe — dark and spicy fiction that supports some beautifully crafted erotic films. The films are behind a paywall, but it’s free to read the erotica if you register your e-mail.

For the past year, I’ve been contributing regularly to MeetRosy. It’s an app available in the US and Canada that supports womens’ health and sexuality. It acknowledges that reading erotic fiction can play a part in sparking our libido, and its wonderfully sex positive environment encourages top-notch fiction.

The editor at MeetRosy is Dr Donna Jennings; an expert who has moved seamlessly from her role as a sex educator to author. She creates quality erotic and fantasy fiction. So when Dr J communicated that she had on-boarded with a writing platform called Ream, I looked into what they do for their authors and was excited enough to create an account.

Ever heard of Ream?

It’s quite a new platform that’s growing fast. Its founder members are two indie authors: Michael Evans and Emilia Rose. They’ve each published multiple dark romance books, and the journey from self-published to their current success will resonate with so many writers. As someone who writes the type of sizzling, saucy fiction that Medium and Amazon shrink from promoting, being hosted by Ream I was putting my content on a platform that would never ‘disapprove’ or throw obstacles in the way of my getting paid or promoting my stories.

So far so good — the support for Ream writers is plentiful, including a submissions guide on YouTube, informative podcasts on marketing and author journeys, and a closed Facebook group for asking questions and celebrating triumphs. The platform has just created a comprehensive list of sub-genres, next they’re determined to improve the ease with which writers can be located, using these genres.

I set myself a deadline; I intend be ready to take subscriptions by the end of 2023. In the interest of discoverability I’ve already added some free stories on the platform. I am in the process of formatting 3 differently priced tiers. Anyone who enjoys reading my fiction can follow me there. On Ream it’s free to ‘follow’; Your support would be a huge boost to my efforts (and morale!)

If you’d like to receive my Newsletter, please:

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I have a Christmas story, that starts off sweet and then gets spicy, so I’m hustling to go live asap because I am dying to share!

https://reamstories.com/posy_churchgate

Does this mean Posy will stop writing on Medium?

No — I love the Medium community. I’ll still have a presence here, as editor and contributor to Tantalizing Tales, but very little spicy content. I need to switch my focus to Ream, I owe my readers there my newest serials and works of fiction. On Medium I will post more personal stories, and wacky and transgressive fiction offerings. Looking to 2024 I have a dark f/f collaboration with Eve planned to go out in installments.

Read October (she/her)’s post singing the praises of writing on Ream