Musings of a Curator (Otherworlds)
This might be a slightly controversial piece, but I feel a need to say some things with the writers of Otherworlds in mind. As this post sits squarely within the casual bounds of The Pub, please take it as my honest opinion mixed with a whole lot of self-reflection. Please also note everything I mention is based on my personal experience and observations on Medium. Any perceived sense of pressure on anyone besides myself is not intended. I’d love to hear your thoughts in response, if you have any.
To set the context I’d like to talk a bit about Otherworlds first. This publication was not meant to be a “competitor” to any other fiction publication on Medium (see my earlier comment here). Rather, I think of Otherworlds as a place where anyone can post any kind of piece related to science fiction and fantasy (SFF) in order to more easily engage with an SFF-friendly audience. I’m still not sure if the concept is workable on this platform, but I’m glad we’re giving it a try. Anyhow, it’s been pretty clear to me that the active SFF-reading audience is quite small on Medium and, to make things more challenging, it is not centralized. That means it’s harder to attract attention to SFF, which in turn makes publishing such pieces less appealing. Why publish a piece if there’s so little engagement it feels like it’s not worth it?
For those reasons and others, I’ve been questioning myself over whether or not I should publish more SFF fiction pieces here — and I’m leaning toward “rarely.” There are too many guarded and unguarded roadblocks on the path that, for me, leads to nowhere. I might feel differently if I could sense a huge outpouring of support for SFF fiction on Medium. But since I don’t see that, and I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon, I feel a need to shift much more of my energy and effort onto paths that I believe will lead somewhere. And I’d like to encourage other writers of Otherworlds to consider these paths as well, if they haven’t already. Here are my thoughts:
Work on priority project(s) first
For me this means working on two offline projects: one is related to writing and one isn’t. These projects are goals I believe are ultimately worthwhile. They are where my precious time and energy should be going first. I don’t intend to ignore Medium, but I need to keep it on the sidelines while focusing on my real goals.
Consider selling short stories
If short stories are your thing, why not try to sell them? If I had a decent enough collection (which I don’t at the moment) I’d try my hand at self-publishing. I’d have to investigate more thoroughly before proceeding, and it’d be an investment, but it’s a concrete option. Maybe some of you already know something about it and can share advice or lessons learned?
Consider entering contests
Contest opportunities are a web search away. I’m keeping this in the back of my mind for future contemplation. It seems to me there’s value in entering a reputable contest for the learning experience as well as for the chance at a prize.
So at this point nine months after arriving here, the things listed above just make more sense to me than posting fiction for free, whether here on Medium or anywhere else. Here are a couple exceptions I can think of:
- You want to freely share your fiction regardless of level of engagement
- You are implementing a well-thought out fiction marketing plan
If either of these fits your situation, by all means go for it. I wish you much success.
I also wish much success to those who may still be struggling over where they “fit” on Medium, especially if they’re actively writing SFF fiction. So I offer this piece as something to think about, mainly because I wish I could’ve read something like it when I started out here.
I also want folks to know I hope they don’t feel any obligation to Otherworlds, because that was never expected; but the doors are always open. (Though if I could ask one thing with regard to potential submissions: please be patient with me if it takes longer than expected for this human curator to hit Publish — real life may sometimes cause delays. :)
~ End of Musings ~ Any thoughts?
