WRITING
Why Does This Keep Happening to Me?
When the Medium paywall slips, it breaks my heart — and my bank account
I woke up this morning and saw that the story I wrote yesterday — We Could Learn a Lot About Sex From the Dutch — had 844 reads. For just a second, that made me happy and I rushed to see how much money the story had earned.
It earned nothing. Not a penny.
Once again, a story had slipped out from under the paywall.
I don’t understand
Not once have I ever chosen to post a story here for free, and I never will. This is not a hobby. I’m a full-time writer. If I’m not writing something for Medium, I’m probably writing something for Substack, and if I’m not working on something for a platform, I’m working on a book or doing freelance SEO. I’m at my keyboard, working hard, for well over full-time hours. I only wish I could sleep less so I had time to write more. I write as many hours per day as my body will bear.
So obviously, I’m not working this hard to give away my work.
Yet, every once in a while, a story turns up outside the paywall. It’s almost always a story I think is especially promising. At least twice, it’s been a Boosted piece. I typically notice the story…
