MEDIUM
Why You Should Subscribe to the Medium Writers You Love
Following them isn’t enough
Medium is packed with posts complaining about the fact that the writers we most want to read rarely turn up in our feeds. Instead, the Algorithm constantly suggests a bunch of posts you wouldn’t read if you were stranded on the Moon and they were the only reading material available.
I’ve complained about this problem myself.
Problem Solved!
Guess what? There’s an easy fix for this problem. Don’t just follow the writers you love. Subscribe to them. It’s the only way to make sure you actually find out about every story a writer posts.
Just following a writer doesn’t mean their posts will turn up in your feed. But if you subscribe to a writer (by clicking the envelope icon to the right of the “follow” icon) you’ll get an email notification every time they publish something new. Which means? You can ignore your feed and enjoy the stories you really want to read. (Or, to paraphrase that great philosopher David Bowie, “Forget your feed and you’ll be free!”)
Subscribing is the new Following
Ever since I figured this out, I’ve been subscribing to the writers whose work I most enjoy to make sure I don’t miss a single story.
The fact that I’ve subscribed to you doesn’t mean that I’ll read every story you publish. I subscribe to too many writers to make that feasible. And if your latest story is about sports or food or tech or crime? Or if it’s ten minutes long? I’m not going to read it.
But at least I’m selecting what I want to read instead of relying on Medium to do that for me.
You’ve Got Mail. Lots of It.
When I recently suggested this solution to a writer who was lamenting that her favorite Medium writers rarely turn up in her feed, she protested, “but my email will be full of Medium posts!”
And that’s a bad thing?
Not for me! I currently subscribe to hundreds of Medium writers which means that whenever I open my In Box, there are dozens of new notifications, which doesn’t bother me a bit. I’m always happy to see all the good reading available to me.
And it’s not as if you have to read every one of those posts. Tony Stubblebine isn’t going to materialize whenever you open your In Box and stand there looking over your shoulder to make sure you read them all.
In fact, if you’re feeling overwhelmed or just too busy writing your own latest Medium Masterpiece to read someone else’s? You can ignore those emails. Or delete them. Or go into your Medium settings and turn your notifications off for a while.
And if you have so many Medium notifications that it’s hard to find your other email? You can creative a separate section for them in your In Box, as described in this very useful post by David Asch:
Try it. You’ll Like it.
Subscribing means you can ignore the unwanted crap that turns up in your feed and read the writers you most enjoy. So why not give it a try? Subscribe to your favorite writers. (For instance? Me!)
If you don’t enjoy the experience? Just unsubscribe (by clicking that little envelope icon again.) You’ve got nothing to lose — and it could upgrade your Medium reading experience.
By the way, if you happen to be one of the 200 people who subscribe to me?
THANK YOU.
Writing Coach and editor-for-hire Roz Warren, who writes for everyone from the Funny Times to the New York Times, can help you improve and publish your work. Drop her a line at [email protected]. (That’s Ros with an “s,” not a “z.”)