Join Me for a Q&A Today—and Other Writing News
The video link is included in this post
Hello Friends!
Just a quick reminder that I’ll be hosting one of my video meetings later today. These are a lot of fun and it’s been a while since I’ve done one. I’m looking forward to seeing anyone who is able to attend. You can bring your questions and either ask them to me directly or type them into the chat.
Here’s the information you need:
Time: Feb 21, 2025 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75669387323?pwd=pxLbfi5W19HWZaB4n1x7YROpYXoTzU.1
Skiing and Writing and Worrying
It has been another astonishingly busy week. On Wednesday I skied my 22nd American Birkebeiner. I took my camera along to document the adventure, but the starting temp was -9 degrees, and the battery froze (as did my water bottle).
I did do my first Substack live post a couple weeks ago when I went out skiing in a blizzard. I might as well share that here because it gives you the idea. My connectivity doesn’t seem to be the best. I might have to break down and get new cell phone in order to take full advantage of this feature. The audio comes through okay though.
Even with all the anxiety of the world today, I feel a lot better when I get out and ski or exercise. We have to take our mental health breaks. That’s kind of the message from this clip:
I also discussed my skiing adventure in yesterday’s podcast (in case you missed it):
It was a fun day. Cold… but fun.
State of Medium
I know that a lot of people still have their concerns about Medium. I’m starting to think of Medium as a 4 year writing school. You get enrolled, you learn everything you can, and then you move on to bigger things. The earnings I’m getting now still would have had me jumping out of my seat when I first started. It’s just that I’ve had some really high earning months on Medium in the last year, and now I’m not making as much.
Still, I intend to stay with the platform. I think it’s a wonderful community and I love to help writers get their stories Boosted and improve their visibility. It is challenging, but writing always is.
I feel as if getting your story “featured” in publications might be what Medium is transitioning to. Here’s my month so far:
No Boosts, but 3 featured stories. The featured stories are generally outperforming the other ones.
I wrote 3 stories last week that I thought should have been Boosted and none of them was. When that happens, I feel mildly disappointed for a few days, and then I come back ready to write something even better. Again, that’s the way it is with writing. Every time they pass on your work is an opportunity to come back and blow their socks off.
I missed my column for The Writing Cooperative last week because my daughter was at a basketball tournament. We had to drive through a blizzard to get there and I was all frazzled. But I’ll make sure to get one for this week.
Also, I just completed two educational videos about Medium for
, she’ll have more details about those.Substack
I’m still seeing good growth on Substack:
I guess the next milestone will be for me to hit 300k views in a month, which is kind of astounding.
With earnings down on Medium, I’m relying more and more on Substack to keep me going. If you’ve been considering becoming a paid subscriber, please do so. It makes a huge difference. I offered the $20 annual membership because I want to make it affordable for everyone to contribute. I’m going to need a few more people to sign up for it to really work. Remember that you will always renew at the price that you signed up for, so don’t worry about an unexpected price increase.
Also, on Monday I’m going to raise the founding membership to $150 a year. I wish I could add in a “patron of the arts” tier and put it at $1000 for those of you out there who are doing very well. You could always purchase paid sponsorships for others (wink, wink).
If $20 is too much, you can always sign up at the regular amount and then cancel after a month. But I’d prefer you did an annual plan because it always makes me depressed when I lose subscribers. I know that sometimes people have unexpected loss of employment (especially right now), and there are all sorts of other reasons, but as a writer your first instinct is to blame yourself.
Again, I’m looking forward to seeing all of you later today! Bring your questions and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability. See you at Noon, CST!
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I have been waiting since December to join one of these! But I leave for London today where I will be apologizing to everyone I talk to for being from a country that has decided to fuck up the world. Ugh. I wish I could easily adopt accents because I would go as a Canadian, eh? I hope your video chat goes well.
Hi Walter, 200000+ views is crazy good and more than 1000 subs too.
If you continue to grow so fast.. imagine where you'll be in a few months!
Think your flywheel works and also your approach to send soooo many emails. It's smart to put all your work here. you're a great example that there are readers out there and people who love if someone shares his opinion. Must feel amazing sharing your thoughts and seeing so many resonate with it. I checked the best performing newsletters from Germany. Most are about finances or politics or both.
You add personal stories and writing tips!
We can add the replays to the Medium School! That's the best we can do..this way people also can access the replays and we add more and more videos and have up to date info. Please only think of recording it