How Writers Must Demand Access to Superior Editing Tools

If you're going to submit a story to me, you have to be willing to listen to my suggestions

Hello Friends!

I’m sitting here writing this on Sunday afternoon. My wife and I have been dealing with our anxiety about the future by getting a lot of chores done. Today, I plan to head on over to the courthouse to get my passport renewed. It’s always nice to have a ticket to escape in hand. My wife will be doing hers this week as well.

Yesterday I finished assembling a wardrobe that I’d picked up for my eldest daughter. It was one of those things that comes in a box that you have to build at home. The last step was drilling a board into the wall so I could install a corner brace to keep the wardrobe from tipping over.

It was already unlikely to tip over, now it’s impossible. It’s the small victories that bring us a sense of comfort.

Right now, I’m waiting for a friend to come and get me in his pickup truck. We just picked up a new refrigerator. My wife’s been wanting one for a while. We’ve been using the same one that came with the house which we purchased back in 2009. I hope the new one lasts as long.

What’s new in writing?

There’s actually quite a bit new going on in the writing sphere. I find myself reflecting on the meeting I had with the folks at Medium about upcoming changes to their publications.

Medium’s publications are pretty much unique on the internet, and if they’re going to add new features then I’m all for it. Mainly, I’d like them to give us some more editing tools. I’d like a suggest/track changes feature within the platform and a better tool for leaving notes. When I edit, it often looks like this:

For the record, this is what I often do to my own work. If I’m doing this to your work, it means I like you.

I think that few people understand what goes into the process of creating a quality article. There are many people on the management side of things who look at hard numbers and understand the value of good content, but they don’t understand the sacrifices and work required to create good content.

Personally, I think it’s rewarding to help writers cultivate their skill. But that’s not something you can do in 5 minutes. It takes years. In fact, I’m still cultivating my skills! As writers are developing, they need to see a return to keep them motivated and to give them the time they need to write.

Sometimes, the best thing for a writer is to get a big audience for an article that needs a bit of work. That teaches you a lesson no editor can convey. It’s a fun balancing act, and Medium provides a wonderful opportunity.

In my meeting with Medium we also discussed the idea of adding a feature for direct messages, which I advised against. I think I like that Medium doesn’t have DMs. I don’t use them too often on Substack, so I don’t think they’re necessary. You’re better off interacting with people by reading their articles and leaving a thoughtful reply. Private notes cover most of what you’d need DMs for, and leave out mostly what people don’t like about DMs.

I also asked them if they could have some sort of a search feature on their publications. I do my review publication for independent books, and it would be nice if there was some sort of convenient archive within the publication that people could reference. They could do searches for “adventure” or “sci-fi” or “memoir.” Something like that would be helpful, but I’m not sure how that translates to other publications.

It remains to be seen how much of what we discussed ends up being implemented.

Overall, I’m curious to see what the future holds for Medium’s publications. They’re kind of unique in the world of writing. In my opinion, Medium remains the best platform for writers who are just starting out as internet authors. It’s a great way to get visibility and earn decent money without a following. As your following grows, you can take on other platforms (like Substack), but I feel Medium is the place to start.

That being said, if you’re a writer who has a couple books out there, or you come from some other form of traditional publishing, Medium is also a good starting point as you make the transition to the online marketplace. It’s different than the old days of submitting to magazine editors or publishing houses. Even if you’re a great writer already, Medium gives you a good opportunity to learn.

My articles last week

All that being said, last week my articles on Medium didn’t perform as well as I wanted them to. I usually get at least one Boosted story per week, and I wrote 3 last week that I thought were worthy. None of them went through, but a couple are proving to be very popular.

These high read ratios are helpful. Usually, if your story stays around 80%, it will earn well for a longer period. That’s why you see that second spike in the earnings chart. That was on a Sunday! We’ll see if it continues to gain traction this week.

Whenever something isn’t Boosted, it just accelerates the timeline for me to bring it over here to Substack. That allows me to create the audio version and use a more optimized title. It will have a second life.

I already brought this one over from Medium, it’s a darn good article:

Speaking of audio, I’ve really been enjoying doing the podcast. I have been “writing” episodes when I go out for a walk with my dog. I bring my headphones and work out the content, then I create a transcript from that low-quality recording and do a better reading. It creates a good product that is a mix between extemporaneous speech and refined writing. I like the opportunity to edit at least once.

I’m going to continue with the working model of one article and one podcast episode per day. I tried to do 3 a day like

Jason Provencio

, but it wore me out too much. I’m still trying to do around 20 articles for Medium a month, so I’ve been staying busy.

I have a lot more to tell you such as:

• What’s going on with the zebra unicorn (I’m writing it—it’s a long story)

• What I’ve learned from recording an audio version of my novel ‘Beyond Birkie Fever’

• How to use a headline analyzer tool (I’ve been meaning to do this)

Hopefully I’ll cover that later in the week. It’s only Monday and I’m already behind! That’s good, it means I have a lot of work to do! Thanks for reading everyone!

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