Shelly

So don’t wait for people to discover your work here. It isn’t going to happen.

I joined Medium last April. By June I kind of figured out I was not going to be an elite writer here. I don’t think my primary topic has mass appeal.

There are lots of well-written and timely articles on Medium. Medium is definitely interesting for this reader. Just because an article doesn’t track highly on Medium, that is not a reflection on its quality.

Speaking of primary topic, Umair has written a few papers on his theory of eudomonics. They are quite interesting. But he is not promoting his theory. Rather it seems he is making a buck on his dystopia outlook. He may prefer to make a living with his eudomonics, but the “masses” don’t want to hear about it. They prefer to read Umair’s articles about how the ship is sinking. But if Umair doesn’t have to get a real job, then good for him.

So why am I still here? Two reasons.

First, placing my flagship essay on Medium articles is useful to my goals. It seems Medium articles have longer shelf life than the usual internet forum. On other places, my work gets buried in a couple of weeks, regardless of the vibrancy of the thread. So it is possible the right kind of person will find that essay on Medium without me really having to any more work. Today this essay has 400 views, and 30% of them from outside of Medium. And I can put up really long articles (like my essay). Other internet forums usually have length limits. So I got the article to be “somewhere other than my website.” Mission accomplished!

Second, I am writing a novel based on my TDG. It should be ready by mid-January. In the meantime, I am building my fan base. When the novel is finished, I will put up one chapter at a time a couple of weeks apart. I hope that the Medium feed will deliver each chapter to my fan base, but my hopes are not high in this regard. The big advantage is that I can put these long chapters up and they will be active on Medium for a couple of years.

When six chapters are posted, it will be time to seriously curtail my activity on Medium. As much as I enjoy reading Medium articles, they are taking away from other things I need to be doing. .

I am negotiating with a Medium publication to place my six chapters. I’m not sure they will agree, but there are others. As long as my novel is parked somewhere on Medium, that is my objective.

My primary topic is about saving the world. Umair’s primary topic is also about saving the world. But he can’t make a living on it. So he writes about dystopia. He is probably hoping his fan base starts reading his eudomics and applying its principles, but I don’t think he is having much success.

As you said a previous communication between you and I: “Dave, you have a plan”.

Yep, I do have a Medium plan. And a plan outside of Medium. I doubt the Medium plan will pay off for the effort I have put into Medium. But one never knows. I am more optimistic about the other plan.

Becoming a professional writer was never part of my plan.