Writing for Money

Reflections on the CEO’s latest comments

Writing for money and writing quality are not mutually exclusive. Quite the opposite, the two competing motives often enhance and encourage one another.

I am a writer and I have cultivated my craft over decades. Just as I enter competitions, and submit to other publications and platforms, I am incentivized by payment to write on Medium.

I work multiple jobs (also tutoring and admin) which includes writing to make ends meet. Time is money, and to dedicate time to reading and writing on Medium is an investment, not an idle hobby.

Writing for money is a good and legitimate incentive to write quality. In August and early to mid-September, I was very productive on Medium as it was earning me a respectable supplementary income to help me keep up with an increasingly inflationary economy.

That, as we all know, crashed in late September and has not recovered. Making two dollars per story, regardless of its quality or success, is disincentivizing and demoralizing.

It is convenient for a well-paid CEO to tell us:

Hobbyists who write for free?

I don’t know about you, but I find this comment both out of touch and insulting. Many of us who are not retired or living in large houses do in fact choose carefully how we invest our time, and many of us write for money.

We are writers. Writers in all times, the successful and unsuccessful, have written for money.

I can’t help but detect a subtle shaming taking place in the idea that writers should write for joy, or as a hobby, let alone for free. Maybe in a world without capitalism. A world without income inequality. A world without history. A world without money.

Do you know of such a world?

And in the context of 🌬️Mitch’s poem calling for transparency and accountability regarding Medium’s stark earnings crash, doesn’t the CEO’s comment about hobbyists writing for free seem a bit off-topic?

Maybe Medium is having an identity crisis and doesn’t know if it wants to be a social knitting club for rich retirees with loads of time and money on their hands or a platform for struggling writers.

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

Here is Mitch’s poem below:

Be sure to read the other comments on his piece, as there were a lot of words exchanged by the CEO and a few other writers, particularly Natalie and pockett dessert. Unfortunately, it does not appear we are any wiser about our earnings and about the policy going forward.

Here is an earlier piece I wrote this month that still has many unanswered questions about Medium’s latest policies and intentions.

Thanks for reading.