Batting a 1,000

I joined Vocal on January 19 and 43 days later I've crossed the 1,000 reads threshold. That's according to Vocal's stats, at least, which I don't consider to be an exact science. The math doesn't always line up when comparing reads, comments, and "likes". Their numbers are in the ballpark, though, so I'll use them as a benchmark.

As a Vocal+ subscriber, my thousand reads earned me the promised $6.00. So, I'm well on my way to building a nice nest egg for retirement! As a bonus, I've racked up a few other incentives, which is nice. I don't know that one can cover the grocery bill with Vocal earnings, but frankly, any payment and recognition is more than most online or print publications offer to those of us engaged in "literary" writing.

I'm not the most prolific, or talented, writer, but over the past 15 years, I've had a handful of publishing credits for both poetry and fiction. Most of that has been in online journals, as well as a few print placements. For those who might feel slighted by Vocal's compensation plan, I can tell you that one month here has paid me more than all of my combined journal earnings. In fact, I believe my total payment from literary journals has been $0.00, plus a small handful of "complimentary" copies of print volumes that included my work. I'm not saying the traditional literary community has become a scam, but the lottery it ain't.

Having been involved with more than one literary journal, as a poetry reader, and as the editor/publisher of one I started myself, I understand there's not a lot of cash floating around for poetry and "literary" fiction. Participation is more a labor of love than anything and that's true for writers and publishers. All that said, I don't think it should be that way. It simply is. New avenues and publishing schemes are needed and Vocal is doing better than most in terms of experimenting with "what works" in the current environment.

I have no sure way of knowing how my initial experience on Vocal compares to other writers. In the past, I have done nonfiction pay-for-hire writing, mostly related to travel and music. I never made a living from it, but I was paid for my efforts, as opposed to my experience with literary publications. Focusing on poetry and fiction is, admittedly, a self-limiting choice in terms of making money, but it's a deliberate choice. It's what I enjoy and I want to get better at it and I want to reach people through those mediums. On Vocal, the only non-fiction I've contributed has been related to writing and literature. I have no plans for the foreseeable future of veering into other directions here.

I digressed a bit, but in comparing my experience to other Vocal authors, the fiction writers and poets are the relevant creators. From what anecdotal evidence I have gleaned, my results here have probably been average, overall. In some metrics, I suspect it's below average. When I see the number of "likes" and comments on other creators' posts, mine are often rather meager in comparison. Part of that may be due to a lack of longevity on the platform, but it tends to be equally true of writers I follow here who are also new. Although "likes" and comments do not translate one-to-one for "reads", there is certainly a correlation between them. I'm curious to see how those numbers play out for me in the coming months.

It's probably too soon to infer much from these numbers, in regards to the perceived quality of my writing, but quantity is...well, a little more quantifiable. So far, I've published 90 "stories" on Vocal. For 43 days, that seems on the high end compared to what I'm seeing from other writers. My calculator tells me that comes out to a rough average of 11 reads per story, but that doesn't paint a very useful picture. If you look at the above screenshot (Figure 1.1), you'll see that I got a whopping 270 reads from a single story. Let's remove that story from the equation and see what happens. That drops the average down to about 8 reads per story. There are 36 stories (a significant 40%) that have accumulated less than 5 reads each. Eek. That doesn't make me seem very popular! Again, I'm curious to see how these factors balance out in the coming months.

As you can see, my readership numbers leave much to be desired, but let's turn from quantity to quality. Obviously, quality is subjective and harder to measure. The lackluster reader numbers can certainly be viewed as a negative in terms of quality, but they don't tell the whole story. For one thing, the sheer volume of stories hitting Vocal daily is quite high. The user interface, especially on the front page is also not very good. These combined facts (and, yes, I contend that Vocal's UI is one of the platform's weakest points) make it difficult for any particular story to be seen. Unless you are lucky enough to get a Top Story, someone must go looking for your work. Even if you score a Top Story, the front page turnover happens quickly enough that your story may still be missed. I have seen the explanations for how Top Stories are chosen and, while there's no perfect system, the choices here often seem arbitrary. Sometimes it seems less arbitrary but for all the wrong reasons. I'm not going too deep into those weeds in this article, though. Maybe after I've built up more tenure here I'll do a full SWOT analysis of the platform.

I've already insinuated that Top Stories may not always be a guarantee of quality - and it's not - but it does represent a worthwhile vetting mechanism. It is at least a rudimentary form of quality control and, honestly, most options available for a platform like this are open to abuse if you open the process to membership participation in determining Top Stories. To be fair, most of the stories I've seen that get a Top Story nod range from above average to excellent. The exceptions and questionable calls are, thankfully, a minority. This leads me to the self-congratulations portion of this article.

As far as accolades and recognition, I've been pleasantly surprised to rack up a few already. Here's a rundown:

• 3 Top Stories: "The Breakers Motel", "Prompted #1" and the "7"
• 3 Emerging Creator Awards (in the Weekly Leaderboards): 1st Place, 3rd Place and 2nd Place, in that order
• 3rd Place in an "Unofficial" Creator-sponsored Challenge: "Ghost Writer" (in the Secret Writer Challenge by Real Poetic)
• A Runners-Up prize in an "Unofficial Creator-sponsored Challenge: "It Lurks in Shadows" (in the February Write Club Challenge by RM Stockton)

That is all quite gratifying. Even more amazingly, I have gotten a few random tips from my fellow Vocal creators and that is, perhaps, the most gratifying recognition of all. To think that some of my peers were moved enough by my work to slide a buck or two my way is humbling. When I've gotten one, it's made my day.

Now that I'm in the thousand reads club, I'm excited to see what the next thousand reads holds, or whatever future measurement I choose to focus on. It's all relative, to some degree, but I like to keep tabs on my progress and experience as a way to stay motivated. I imagine I'll reassess my time on Vocal periodically going forward.

Hopefully, this article provides some motivation, or insight, to someone out there. If not, go read some of my actual stories and poems and see if they are a better fit for you!

In any case, if you read all 1,314 words of this article without falling asleep, or clicking away, you have my gratitude.