I believe that at my age of 77, a retired magazine photographer and writer in Vancouver that Medium does not represent for me anything as important as a place to make money or to be known. Since I started my Blogger blog in 2006 ancillary to my webpage I have blogged over 5000 times. Many of the photographs in that blog or not bad. When possible I re-tool my blog and put it into Medium. It is fun to do. Since I started in Medium almost when it began I was able to secure my own personal magazines including my popular photography one. According to Medium statistics I have 3.8K followers. If I am to believe that message from my Medium Friends (below) these 3.6K followers have no idea of what good journalism or good writing is. My goal in Medium is simply to place my blogger blogs in it. I like the Medium statistics based on who reads and who doesn’t. That’s it. No more and no less.
Apr 20 · 1 min read
I have at least 1000 essays in Medium. I do not pay that $5.00 to upgrade. I have asked the Medium helpers for info if being upgraded is the road to curation. No reply up to now.
My only conclusion is that I must be a lousy writer. Until journalism died a few years ago I was gainfully employed as a magazine photographer and writer. Obviously Medium’s standards are very high.
Alexwh
Apr 8, 11:23 AM PDT
Dear Medium Friends,
At my ripe age of 77 I don’t have time to read more than the novels, the
hard copy NY Times (1800 Canadian per year) and other newspapers etc.
I am not interested in most of the paywall essays in Medium. I believe
that my essays are a tad different and I am not putting out advice or
lists on how to, etc. So on principle I do not want to upgrade, nor will I.
My question is that if I do not upgrade how come I don’t see anywhere
when I publish that choice to have my essays looked at by your editors?
Sincerely yours,
Alex Waterhouse-Hayward
Hi Alexwh,
Thanks for writing in.
You have reached the help desk for Medium. This is where we handle technical questions, issues, and bugs related to the use of Medium.
At this time, we are not able to respond to individual questions related to curation, nor provide feedback on individual stories. We understand this might feel frustrating and are working on ways to share more information and feedback with writers.
Our curation team reviews and curates stories based on our publicly available Curation Guidelines, so always make sure you are writing with those in mind and working through the writing, review, and revision process to produce stories that meet a high editorial standard. You can also find tips from the Medium Writers Team on how to strengthen your writing and story presentation.
If your story is not selected for curation and distribution, that doesn’t mean it won’t be read. It will continue to live on Medium. It will be displayed on your profile page and will be discoverable via search engines and by Medium’s on-site search. It can be shared via direct link, and your followers can find it in “New from your network.” You can also submit your story to appropriate publications to boost distribution. Additionally, if you join the Medium Partner Program, you can earn money from your stories behind the paywall based on engagement from Medium members, regardless of distribution status.
There are numerous strategies to grow your audience and expand the reach of your stories. Improving the formatting, readability, and quality as outlined in the Curation Guidelines will go a long way, and this set of journalism guidelines are also helpful. You can find tips in the Help Center around growing distribution. You can also submit to publications, including Medium publications. You can also promote your story on social media.
Thank you for writing on Medium.
