As a devil's advocate, the people who put together "the can" have invested resources into that can. They need to be compensated somehow.
Last fall, Medium changed its rules. There was some pushback, which I'm not sure if it was successful.
As I understood the new rules, Medium becomes co-owner of any content on Medium. This means if my book starts selling well on Amazon, Medium has the right to publish the same book on Amazon. We would be competitors for the same book and I would not get any royalties from Medium.
I put my second novel up in December.
To beat the rules, this submission was my second round of drafts. If Medium wants this piece, they can go for it. The third round is better.
Most of the story is still in the second round. If, by a small chance, some Medium readers likes this work, they will be forgiving of lower quality.
But I'm pretty sure at least 99% of content on Medium is not commercially viable. I would put my my books in that category. But just in case that is not true, Medium only has the rights to the second round.
