Writing Quicksand

Some of you may know that I write on several platforms. I have been writing for a year and a half, and in that time I have learned quite a bit. Some of what I have learned is good; some not so much. What I have found mirrors what is happening in life in general. No one is doing anyone any favors; companies are making money off others’ talents, and they seem to be the only winners. This is my honest critique and assessment of just three of the platforms I use.

Competition

Writing is a highly competitive field. Some believe it is a dying art. More and more publishers are closing their doors as a culture of technological ingenuity makes it possible to read just about anything online. With the advent of AI, you barely have to do that. It tells you everything you need to know. So even reading on your phone is essentially unnecessary in many cases. Only time will tell whether we have created a generation of lazy and illiterate children who only ask for answers to queries and receive them on demand instead of seeking them for themselves. That is, indeed, a dangerous slope.

Pitfalls

Aside from the obvious obstacles, there are others I never anticipated. I believed that writers and writing platforms would be places of strong support and encouragement to succeed. What I found and continue to see is that it’s a jungle you have to weed through, and you are given a boat. Not only are you navigating it in near darkness most of the time, with the parameters changing with every turn, but in some cases you have to avoid sharks. Yes, sharks in a jungle.

AI is a huge problem for authentic writing and creativity. It is the lazy way out of actually writing. Some of you may have noticed it. Pieces that don’t really have emotion. Ones that, yes, have metaphors and the elements of good creative writing, but still fall a bit flat because they are generated by a bot that has all the pertinent information about humanity but lacks the actual experience of it. How can it fully describe the anguish of love or loss without having felt it?

We have all seen or read AI content. We may or may not have encountered it on social media, where scammers run rampant. They use AI to converse and to do their homework on whoever they are pretending to be. AI has a particularly consistent tell: it seems to favor a plethora of emojis in its content, thinking that is how humans talk or communicate.

It is also telling when a writer spews out content after content, every hour. I follow some people who literally post something each hour. Amazing work, but suspect. I know I am not that prolific, and I am not so sure any human is. I know some writers post extremely brief work, going for quantity, but most platforms shun that, citing that quantity is not quality. I do agree with that model of thinking, though there are always exceptions, as long as it is authentically and completely the author’s own words and work. Which brings me to the quicksand.

Even with talent, skill, and drive, we face an upward climb in writing. Each platform has its own unique kind of quicksand. Some are easier to get out of or to at least hang and gain steam in, and some are constantly looking for ways to give less and gain more for themselves.

The Three Amigos

Medium seems to me to be the worst platform for a writer wanting to build a career. Notwithstanding the pittance they pay writers and editors, they keep raising the bar to even gain followers and build your audience.

Literally, you earn a penny or two for each piece. You only earn that after you are accepted into the partner program, and that is not a guarantee. It took me two tries before I had enough work for them to consider me for that determination. And now I am making pennies per article. Whoopee.

The Friends of Medium tier gives you higher income. You might earn two pennies instead of one. Either way, you only earn something if your work gets a number of claps, the exact number of which is not disclosed. You also have to have parts of your work highlighted by readers; the number of highlights is not disclosed, nor is the method used to determine them. Is it based on how many sentences, words, or just any highlight that helps you earn something? Who knows?

The trifecta in this deal is comments. You need them, and you also need to leave them for others. You are almost required to read others’ work and leave thoughtful comments: not the “great story” go-to for the compliance minimum. In any event, you might think the more you write, the more you can earn, but they have thought of that.

They limit you to two publications in any 24-hour period. If that is not enough, publications have a laundry list of almost unattainable targets to hit in order to make anything, and limits on how many pieces they publish each month to do it in if they want to be in the elite club to be boosted by the platform. In other words, they keep adding more rope to tie the hands of the creatives on the platform.

They, in turn, make a fortune. Each person on the platform has to pay an annual fee to be on it. Even if you want to read someone’s work, you have to pay to access it, except for those who are sent a free link to read it. I assume it is to generate more subscribers to the platform because the writers, the editors, and the publications are not getting any part of it.

Medium encourages writers and publications to share, share, share on all social media. Why? Because people who want to read you will sign up, and they, in turn, make more and more. But that does not trickle down to the talent. Writers and pubs are moving elsewhere.

Shark Infested Jungle

Substack is another thing altogether. There, you can earn income through subscriptions to your site. They charge nothing to create your own site, and you can import your followers from other sites. You do have to follow and subscribe to others on the platform, read their work, and if you sell products on the platform, they take a cut. That’s normal and not bad. Here is where the sharks come in.

While Medium is the quicksand pit in the jungle, and you have a boat that doesn’t help you, Substack is the dark waters, infested with sharks. As soon as you sign up, the shark frenzy begins. Tens and tens of salesmen hit you, inundating you with schemes and systems to grow your Substack. Not just grow it, but grow it exponentially in lightning-fast time. Oh, you too can have 10k paid subscribers in one week if you buy their snake oil. Did I say snake oil? Oh, I meant their esteemed plans. Generally, in the rage anywhere from $49 to over $500, you too can do what they did and get there.

Do your homework. It’s easy to find out whether anything they sell is legit and has proven results. After querying several AIs, the resounding answer was, you guessed it: no. If your goal is income, save the money you haven’t even earned, and just be consistent. Treat your writing like a job. I literally sit at my desk for at least 8 hours a day, doing everything that aligns with my goals as a writer.

That said, Substack is a far better choice for earning income from writing, especially if you are not looking to publish a book but want to make money writing about topics people want to read and are willing to pay for. It has great potential, but that potential comes primarily from subscriptions. So stay the course and be consistent.

Speak Up

Now we get to my personal choice these days. I am leaning more and more into Vocal. This is why I am writing this piece on this platform. It is by far the friendliest for the writer, the simplest to use, and the nicest place for the reader, or your followers, to read you.

The platform is free unless you opt for the Vocal Plus tier, which allows the writer to earn $6 per thousand reads. On a like-for-like basis, over the time frame I have been on these three sites, Vocal stands out as the best place to put my eggs. That benefit is not free, however. The Plus tier is almost $100, so for some, it might not seem worth the price. But here is the reality.

In Medium, I have earned an astonishing $1.95, whereas in Vocal, I have earned about $26. Yup, it’s that big of a chasm. Now add in the contests and challenges you can enter on the platform, which offer winners $200 most of the time and include second, third, and/or honorable-mention prize amounts. The potential is limited only by your work, talent, and effort. I will add the caveat that the challenges seem weird and strange. Much more so than any other competition I submit to, and the verdict is out on why.

Even so, on Vocal you earn for reads. Yes, reads. From anyone. The longer the time they spend scrolling and reading, the more you get paid. That doesn’t mean type out a book. I mean the content you post can’t just be a blurb. You need something that engages the reader.

There also seems to be a pattern among winners, which I’ve inquired about but don’t have any further information on. In any event, so far, it’s the best option.

I’ll be writing about WordPress, Wattpad, and Beehiiv, along with a couple of others, as I explore their ins and outs in the coming months. So stay tuned. I’ll also update anything else I learn about the three here later on.

Catch me on Patreon, Substack, Beehiiv, Medium, Vocal, Wattpad, or WordPress. Dealer's choice! Check me out on Social Media too via Linktree or my website, Ink and Echo. And if you'd like to support my coffee habit, you can do that on Ko-fi too.

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