Write Your Stories on Medium — But Submit Them To Paying Markets Before You Hit “Publish”
When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Look for Well-Paying Alternatives
Since they changed the Algorithm, I’ve pretty much stopped making money on Medium.
For instance?
Yesterday my work received 744 reads.
For which I was paid?
Six dollars.
That’s laughable.
To be able to tolerate that, I recently decided to shift my Medium Metric from Money to Reads. The daily six bucks I earn here may be chump change. But I relish the idea that 744 people read (and presumably enjoyed) my work.
And? I’m grateful to Medium for bringing me those readers.
Another reason I’m grateful?
Medium motivates me to write every day, and makes writing super-easy.
But I’ve decided to make one more change to counter my drastically reduced Medium paycheck.
I still use Medium’s easy-peasy writing template and write-once-a-day ethos to craft a daily essay — but instead of hitting “publish,” I first submit that essay to a market that will actually pay me for it.
Right now I’ve got stories I wrote on Medium but haven’t yet published here scheduled to run in the Broad Street Review, the Funny Times, the Chestnut Hill Local and an upcoming Chicken Soup for the Soul collection.
Those stories, together, will earn me $400. Then I’ll post them on Medium (where I’ll be lucky if they bring in $40.)
Should you follow my lead? Of course! You have nothing to lose by submitting your new Medium Masterpiece to another market before you hit Publish.
And you may make some actual money.
When the payment algorithm changed and my Medium Paycheck went into the toilet, I thought about leaving the platform.
But I’m still here. And I’m still posting an essay every day. But it’s entirely possible that I wrote that essay on this platform, detoured it to a paying market, waited until their exclusivity period lapsed, and only then posted it on Medium.
It makes no difference to you, the reader.
But having that extra $$ in my pocket makes the fact even if thousands of you read it I’ll probably only make a few bucks a lot easier to live with.
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.”)
