I Got Curated and Published in a Top 10 Publication in My First 20 Days on Medium
Disclosure: Smoke and mirrors in effect
I must have been the last writer on earth to find out about Medium.
I know what you’re thinking, and maybe you are right. I live under a rock.
But, much like Betty White, my late entry forced me to catch up quickly.
I started by reading some articles about Medium success stories, such as ‘How to Write Medium Stories People will Actually Read’ by Quincy Larson and ‘How to Get Featured in Publications Owned by Medium so You Can Reach More People’ by Tim Denning.
Despite common Medium advice, I knew I would not be able to publish one story per day while adhering to my personal standards (which are what anyways?). I have this incessant habit of wanting to read and re-read and re-re-read my work over several days.
However, after my first week or so, I had already published 4 stories in my own publication, Lang-guage, about language and culture.
After those few notches on my belt, I googled Top 10 Medium Publications and found a publication with over 350,000 followers that showcased topics I write about. I read up on guidelines, tips, and sample stories, so I could then write one that fit the mold.
And, like a breakup, one quickly became two. And, like childbirth, two quickly became three.
I battled between not wanting to bombard the editors and not wanting FOMO, and the latter won. I readily submitted all three handcrafted drafts to the publication. When I got the email congratulating me that one was accepted, The Adventures of How I Learned Fluent Portuguese on My Own (and How YOU Can Too), I got the same butterflies in my stomach as I had when decades ago I opened my university acceptance letter.
I could barely wait until the scheduled release. Surely, my story was going to go viral and blow up my DMs. I would have to be preemptive by changing my phone number and preparing some talk show interviews, right?
When the article was released, the first email I got was from the Medium Writer Program to inform me that my article was curated. It would be recommended to readers across Medium’s homepage, app, and emails!!!
I knew that this was going to be a good day.
And it was.
But not for the reasons I had thought.
Now, I am 20 days new to Medium and I am the first to admit that I don’t quite understand how stats work yet. But in the 24 hours after ‘my big break’, I got (drumroll……) 25 views.
25 views?
Even a video of a cat spitting up a hairball can get 25,000 views.
Plus……24 views from RSS readers and AMP?
Even if my life depended on it, I couldn’t tell you what that means. But, it doesn’t seem to mean much because the 24 views from RSS readers and AMP don’t count towards my read ratio.
Which is an embarrassing 11 reads.
11 reads?
I think I’ve read my grocery receipt more than 11 times.
Well, I guess I no longer need to clear my schedule, change my phone number, or prepare my debut on late-night talk shows.
But clearly, I made some pocket change, right? Like a nickel or a dime, yeah?
Nope. $0.00.
Sigh.
You may be asking yourself, then why was it a good day?
Well, I learned some hard lessons today.
First, curation and publication are far from one-way tickets to paradise.
Second, patience is a virtue, and it will take time to develop a readership despite curation and publication. Actually, the article started to pick up beyond the 24-hour mark and in the following 2–3 days, it ended up with 91 views, 52 reads, and $1.94 to bank.
Third, I learned that I’ve got to keep myself in check, y’all! What was I thinking? That I would change the world with one story in 24-hours?????
Wishing you all better beginner’s luck than me. Writers unite.
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