Yes, it’s Still Worth Writing Here (If You’re a Sneaky Ninja-Writer)
These top performing stories prove it
Writing is my art and my job, so it’s important for me to earn money from my words and provide for my family.
Artists being paid for their work shows we value creativity as a society. But sometimes, we have to write like a ninja to earn it.
I don’t invest time in platforms that don’t pay off for me, in some way at least.
I stopped writing for News Break when they changed their payment structure (even though I know others earning hundreds there). My style of writing doesn’t perform well on a news platform.
I tried Vocal and quickly saw that wasn’t good investment of my time either. The same is true for several other platforms and writing opportunities.
But Medium? I’m still here after four years. And it’s still worth it.
Approaching Medium differently
I’m going to talk about earnings because I know a lot of you want to be paid for your writing and we need to be honest about how that works — it’s not some magical thing just because it’s art rather than law or engineering.
Writers earn by:
- making the most of their time,
- cutting out time-wasters (clients, platforms etc),
- using multiple income streams,
- finding paid jobs that work best for them,
- and improving their skills so they can bring in higher rates.
Medium isn’t as profitable for me as it once was, but I’m still here for a few reasons.
One of them is financial — I consistently earn over $200 here every month, even when I barely publish.
My library of over 400 published stories means views keep trickling in. The long-term views on a collection that size add up. It’s easy money.
But Medium isn’t my only income. It’s certainly not my main income stream as a working writer, but it is AN income stream.
Even when Medium was bringing in thousands every month for me (oh, 2020 — you were fun), I made sure I had other non-Medium paths to work with.
Ninja-style Medium Publishing
Medium stories may not go viral and earn as much as they used to, but if you approach it in a sneaky way, it’s still worthwhile.
In the writing world, you can sell a story more than once. Worried your piece won’t earn enough on Medium alone? There’s a ninja alternative:
- Sell “first rights” of your original, unpublished piece somewhere off Medium. Look for magazines, online publications, literary magazines, anthologies etc that pay for stories like yours.
- Make sure you know what their exclusivity period is. An “exclusivity period” is the length of time before you can sell or publish your piece somewhere else. Often it’s a month or two.
- Once the exclusivity period has passed, publish it on Medium. Place a link to the original at the bottom if you want to, but you’re not required to. Whatever it earns is a bonus — you’ve already been paid!
Easier ninja alternative?
Substack has been a sneaky ninja of a platform recently itself. It’s quietly dominating the writing space and doing some great things — podcasts, video, and chat even.
Why not write your post in a Substack newsletter first and build up your audience to the point where you can add a paid subscription?
Repost to Medium and use Medium as a way to promote your paid Substack and draw in more subscribers.
Flip kick it
I don’t know the technical term for what ninjas do, but I image there’s some kind of flip kick in there? No?
Anyway, if you’d rather flip it and publish on Medium first (it is the easiest way to get your ideas out fast), you can use it as a profile of your work.
Lots of writers use Medium to promote themselves to clients and editors, and get established as a certain kind of writer.
Several of the editors and clients I now work with found me through my Medium stories. I even got on a couple of podcasts and was asked to judge an international writing contest.
For the fun of the fight?
There’s another way to approach publishing on Medium, or online anywhere — the fun of it.
It’s fun to flex your writing muscles and find your voice. There’s something very satisfying in writing consistently and processing your thoughts and ideas without gatekeepers.
It’s great meeting other writers and commenting on each other’s work.
The fun of the fight — to get words on a page, to be brave enough to turn up and face an audience, to take feedback and sharpen your skills — that’s an excellent reason to stay publishing here.
My top stories for the past year
First published on Medium
(and gained thousands of views)
First Published on Medium, then republished elsewhere
(Republished on Mamamia)
(Republished on two podcasts and in YourTango)
Published first off-Medium
(and then performed well on Medium, too)
Kelly Eden has been telling and selling stories for over 14 years. Want to do the same? Grab a helpful freebie (or three)
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