Essays are an objective for my short-form writing for adults' goal, by the way. I wasn't just going off on a tangent here. The whole Seeking Time thing is a new objective for that goal.
I think of them as meditations on time.
Why, Gail? Why?
- I've written here before about repurposing blog material to be published in other ways. I'm very interested in doing that, and this is one more attempt.
- I've thought for a long time that if I ever did something different with my time management content, I would do so in some kind of memoir/personal essay-type way rather than setting myself up as a time management specialist, which anyone can see I am not. Publishing this series of essays at Medium gives me an opportunity to do that.
- I'm also trying to grow my Medium readership, if that is even possible. Something happened on Medium a couple of years ago, no one seems to know what, and readership and income tanked for many writers. While some people have said they didn't lose readership, their income just started evaporating, others of us saw both go down. One publication editor I've dealt with has discussed that the work he submits for the boost program (which provides extra promotion) is not being selected anymore, so his writers aren't getting as much readership as he'd like. Some publications have closed down, for whatever reasons. The readership thing wasn't always the issue for them. Nonetheless, stuff happens there.
- I was never a big noise on Medium. But instead of at least maintaining where I was, I have gone backwards. I have already cut back on my humor writing there, in part because I've been spending so much time on the Reading History Project and researching markets and submitting elsewhere. But with readership at Medium so low, there's not a lot of reason to make submitting there first a priority.
What's the Plan, Gail? You Gotta Plan?
My impression from reading articles about Medium published on Medium is that:
- Readers there like self-help and technology. The Seeking Time essays can be promoted as self-help.
- Writers who publish frequently are able to build more of a following than writers who publish less. One writer whose work I liked used to publish in excess of 20 pieces a month. This is why I published 5 essays the first week and will try to do 2 a week for a while. That's going to be tough. I'm set for this week, but have to dig down for the next essays. I'm very aware that while I'm writing these essays for this publishing experiment, I'm not writing other things I could be submitting elsewhere. But that's writing for you!
Conventional Medium wisdom states that if you can have work accepted by Medium publications, your chances of readership improve because it will be seen by all the publications' followers as well as yours. However, I have been published there by publications with big followings and just didn't see readers coming from them. I've done better with a couple of the smaller sites.
As a result, I'm publishing Seeking Time directly myself, because that means I can control the timing. That's why I was able to get work out every day the first week and twice last week. I didn't have to wait for acceptance and publication on someone else's schedule.
Seeking Time Essays to Date
And How's It Going, Gail?
I follow a few writers on Medium who both publish directly themselves and with publications. They write and publish regularly and seem to have decent followings. What I see with them leads me to believe theirs is a workable model.
Not so far for me, though. I assume that if this attempt is successful, it will take some time. I'm just not sure how much to give it, when there are so many other things I could be writing and places I could be submitting to. I should try to keep this up until mid-August, anyway, or maybe until the end of summer.
More to come!
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