Why I’m Shutting Down Publishing Stories For The Rest of the Month

The Odds of Getting Boosted Greatly Diminish as Each Day Goes By

By want from Syracuse, United States — Pile of Pennies 1, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53217532

I published a story about the changes to the Medium Partner Program in early September and couldn’t have been more pleased. I accidentally stumbled onto a formula that worked for me in August, increasing my earnings by 40% over July and giving me, by far, my best month ever. As September is coming to a close, I’m about to possibly my worst month of the year, despite having attracted over 11,000 new followers this year, almost half of them so far this month (5,102).

Reflections on the New Medium Partner Program Guidelines

I couldn’t be more excited about the followers though I have no explanation for the sudden surge. Having a platform is a big deal with literary agents and publishers and given my goal of being traditionally published, the 25,000 followers I’ll have by the end of the month at least looks good on paper. Looking good on paper isn’t nearly as satisfying as getting that paper, which is as elusive as ever.