I started writing on Medium at the end of 2019. After reading Cal Newport's book, Digital Minimalism and now at the end of 2021, I'll be temporarily pausing my writing for the website.
As a reader, Medium is probably one of the best sources of well-written articles online.
As a writer, it became my training ground to write with structure, and for a much bigger and critical audience. I'll always be grateful to this platform! But...these are the reasons why I need to say byebye to it for now:
Time
I need to spend more time working on books. Working on does not only mean writing but marketing it enough to get the books into the hands of new readers. And selling, and engaging with readers, potential buyers, and other authors.
The genre of my first two books is poetry, which, what writers call a difficult genre to get into because very few people read poems.
Publishing a book brings about a lot of post-publishing work, which I will write about later on.
Money
There's no denying that writing for Medium has a good financial reward. There were months when I didn't write, but still earned some cash. That's true even up to now.
What I earned in Medium since I started went into my savings and for building my website. This is why I'm thankful to the platform, and to the readers who have followed me.
But here's the thing: Medium's made too many changes in their system that it has become hard for me to succeed there as a writer now unless I publish an article almost daily. I can't do that anymore. Plus, the publications I used to write for and made my articles popular closed or pulled out as well, for the same reasons.
Effort
A single article on Medium takes two to three days (some, longer) to write, research for, then edit. I would rather spend this time on the books since it's a better investment of my effort, with a much better return.
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No new articles on Medium for now. I'll keep my account open so the articles may still be read but that's it.
It sucks but that's how we evolve. We say goodbye to things we used to love, things that helped us grow, and move on to new ones what can lead us closer to where we want to be.
Odyssa is the author of Like A New Sun Rising: A Collection of Poems on Love. She also publishes stories in Medium. Be a Medium member by clicking here. To subscribe to her stories by email, click this.
Im sorry to see you leave. I only just discovered you on Medium. You see I'm a new writer there. I sent you a message on the contact tab of your beautiful blogsite. It's about your medium article on how to be a part of medium partnership program even if your from the Phillippines. I hope you'll see it. Thank you