I Stopped Caring About My Stats
And I’ve never been happier.
A funny thing happens when you follow your passion and self-publish your writing online — you inevitably turn your focus to numbers and not your craft.
At first, it’s minor. You check Medium to see if you have any new claps for your latest work. You log into Twitter to find out if you have new followers. You take a peek at Facebook to learn if your piece has been shared.
Soon, you’ve developed a full-blown habit. You’re using Excel to track the data. You want to know why @axauthor86 (not a real handle, as far as I know) has more Medium fans than you. You’re determined to get more re-Tweets and Facebook likes, and you’ll be damned if that other writer gets more Instagram followers than you.
You expect to earn hundreds of new fans per day. You need to build an email list with thousands of addresses. You want all the numbers and you want them now.
Eventually, you’re spending more time crunching numbers than putting words to page, all while wondering why more people aren’t reading your work.
