Hello Friends,
First of all, let me just say that I’m ready for the current political cycle to be over. After November 5th, I expect I’ll go back to a 3 day weekly publishing schedule. I don’t like the situation we’re in anymore than anyone else. I want it to be over. But more importantly, I want us to win.
If you’re growing tired of my political content, just know that we’re on a countdown. I will still retain political commentary on my newsletter, but not to the extent that it’s being featured now.
September in review
I’ve been enjoying interviewing my fellow writers, but this week I wanted to get back to talking about what’s working on Medium. Over the last month, it feels as if the Boost program has stabilized (at least compared to July and August). Here’s how my month looked:
7 Boosts on 11 published stories is pretty decent (I actually did 12 stories, but I missed the last one when I did the above screenshot). I had 5 Boosts in July and 6 Boosts in August, so the trend is good.
Lately, Medium seems to want more of a narrative style article, but full-on 3rd person narratives are still going to fail. A few days ago I published a 3rd person short story titled “There Are Some Challenges to Stand and Face and Others You Must Escape,” and it didn’t perform all that well. I’ll probably import that one to Substack at some point to see what the reaction is here.
The thing that seems to work on Medium is highly specialized. I’m finding success with first person, personal accounts with a sense of subtle wisdom. In the past you could be more overt and state your meaning directly. Now, the trend seems to be that you must cloak your point in a little more artistry.
My friend Dan Woll is not quite committed to Medium, but every now and then he posts a story. He posted one recently and I nominated it for a Boost even though he didn’t have the title in the right format and the image didn’t include a citation.
The story got boosted. You can read it here:
Another story that was Boosted recently that follows this format is this one by JR Roessl:
How Overstating My Diving Skills to Land a Commercial Nearly Drowned My Acting Career
The last story of mine that was Boosted in September was also in that format:
Chasing Two Olympians up an Andean Pass Was an Exercise in Humility
Getting back to “The Paddle in the Barn” by Dan Woll, I think there are a few important takeaways. You might look at that and think, “Well, I guess title case and image citations aren’t important.” However, I think that’s the wrong conclusion to draw.
I’ve observed that Medium is willing to make exceptions to its editorial guidelines on occasion. It’s pretty clear that the image in Dan’s article is from his personal collection, and an all caps title isn’t an egregious error. That being said, it’s always best practice to be as much in compliance as possible.
Don’t give editors an excuse to reject your work.
I appreciate the freedom of Substack, but Medium does provide a unique pressure/motivation to push yourself to better work. I think it’s good for writers to strike a balance between those approaches. Plus, if you happen to get a Boost on a story that happens to be about a trending topic, you’re probably going to make a decent amount of money on it.
Zebra unicorn
One other thing I wanted to mention is that for those of you who are waiting for the next chapter of my Zebra unicorn fantasy, rest assured that it’s coming. Here’s the first one if you don’t know what I’m talking about:
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ve been working on another novel with my girls that is almost finished. I expect I’ll be done with that one in about a week. I’d written the first chapter of the Zebra unicorn about a year ago and dusted it off just for fun. However, I found that I can’t write two novels at the same time (at least not yet). My brain starts to overheat.
Fortunately, I’m almost done with the other one so I’ll be able to get back to Zebra unicorn soon. I need a bit more whimsy in my newsletter, otherwise things get too bleak!
I’ve also been playing around with the podcast feature on Substack. I saw that Heather Cox Richardson posts her articles and then follows up with a podcast version usually on the same day. So, I figured I could repost some of the original stories that I wrote when I first started on Substack. I’ll keep doing that next week and then go back to Zebra unicorn.
Best laid plans.
Quote from a story that wasn’t Boosted (grrrr):
Write titles that Barrack Obama would say
The other day I was chatting with Ben Ulansey about titles. We concluded that Substack is wide open, but for Medium, you should write a title that you could imagine Barrack Obama saying. It’s kind of a nice rule to keep in mind.
Also, I’ve been advising people not to post simultaneously on Substack and Medium. You want to encourage overlap between those two email lists. Publish on Medium first with a statesmanlike title, and then if the article isn’t Boosted, wait a few months and post it on Substack with a more dynamic title.
For the most part, if something of mine is Boosted on Medium, I don’t repost it on Substack. It will be making good money because of the Boost and you don’t want to dilute those earnings.
New subscription tier
Finally, I’d like to offer a new subscription tier. In the past I’ve done discounts on annual plans, but this one includes monthly plans. Again, everything on my newsletter is free, but if you want to help out with a sponsorship, that allows me to keep going (and I appreciate it). Here’s the button:
Thanks everyone! As always, leave your questions or comments below!
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