SF Techs asking writers to pay to sustain a platform they want to use essentially for themselves.

Sorry to be blunt, but this is the impression I got when I received the two emails and read the piece giving details about the membership program.

(I apologize in advance for this long, grumpy response.)

I received the invitation to pitch a story. The form asked me “what was my rate”. What do you mean, what is my rate? I thought. Were they talking flat rate, per word rate, per reader rate, per click rate…? How am I supposed to answer that? Depends on the story. Depends on the platform. Depends on what is at stake.

“As fans of your work”, was the beginning of one sentence. I chuckled. Really? Come on! Who did you send that email to? On what basis?

So they asked me to pitch, without any explanation (and maybe no idea) as to what would happen next. They gave me 3 days. Yep, they were in a hurry.

One week later I received that second email. I was surprised, because I hadn’t sent any pitch. I hadn’t replied to the first email.

In that second email, there’s a link to an explanatory piece. In that piece, they were telling me something they finally knew, but didn’t know (or say) in the first email: that they were especially looking for writers writing about “US politics, science, technology, personal development, business and start-ups”.

Huh. Lucky I hadn’t sent them any pitch then. Not my topics. I mean, look at those words I’ve put in bold. I find them to be very exclusive of a lot of writers. I find them to be the opposite of what my reading and writing experience has been on Medium, at least at the beginning.

I liked Medium when it was simple, as simple as its writing interface. I liked the way it didn’t bully you into writing about something “practical” or “mainstream” or “culturally-oriented” like “US politics, science, technology, personal development, business and start-ups”.

I liked Medium when it provided you with a tool for being creative, for letting yourself go, and when it was actually proud about this: when it actually advertised this. I met a lot of writers this way at the beginning, I read a lot of original “content” (no, writing), so original that it was even difficult to tag.

Finally:

• About “parsing” Medium: Making yet a new distinction within the same platform without having any idea of what this distinction will really entail in terms of experience, is not an improvement in my book. And I’m not even talking about the other distinctions that already exist, like using a laptop vs. a mobile device. (Note to Self: What about that new thing “Series”, that you can’t read on a laptop? Why? Why??)
  Someone in the responses said “I’m old. I write on a laptop”. I don’t think it’s a question of age. I’m a writer. I use pencils, paper notebooks and a laptop to write, because I type on a keyboard. I do not even own a mobile device.
• About “pitching” Medium: getting recognized and paid for what you write takes time and you don’t pitch anyone about anything without having a clue about payment and author’s rights. For that reason, I found the two emails very “offhandedly” written, not very respectful of the work of writers. Writing a nice piece a week later telling writers how easy this is all gonna be for them now thanks to Medium, is not really reassuring. It is actually a bit embarrassing.

Yes, Medium is great as a platform.

Yes, $5 is a very fair price for all the hard work it represents, hard work for which we all are or at least have been grateful.

But what is Medium today? What is it becoming? I must say that, as a writer and reader, I am confused.