This was super interesting for me, both because I was actually late to the Medium party and because I'm often on the reviewer side of things.
About the first idea: Gosh, how I hate writers who write about making money with writing. It's like reading the same post over and over again. As far as I know, there are two versions of it. A) Don't worry about your audience, write what's on your heart, and the millions will come, and B) Write for your audience and write nonstop. And none of them are actionable or true.
About the reviews, it was humbling to read your opinion. I try to keep in mind that there's a real human behind the text who worked, sometimes for years, to write the book I'm reviewing. Tough love is often just a socially sanctioned way to be mean.
Thank you - glad that you liked it :) You are one of the good reviewers - I enjoy reading your reviews, and I believe that any writer, whose book you process, can be happy about your observations and considerations. Your reviews help.
About the making money part - I'm myself divided, as I do like to learn how to become successful. Maybe each of these articles will help? Maybe exactly this one, if not the many others I have read, will tell me just what I need to hear? So I hope, and the hope is in a sense positive. Like buying a lottery ticket. Of course I will not win, the chances are too small, but I can thrive for a couple of days on the hope.
And then there is the other aspect: I feel betrayed at times, as the advice, as you say, seems to be standard canned advice most of the time. Not actionable, that's true, and to become actionable, they need to take me and my way of thinking, my situation, and my wishes into consideration. They almost never do that.
What is much more useful is the kind of inspiration that comes from learning how to put commas right, how to re-phrase a statement to become more interesting, or someone's experience with, e.g., publishing a book - which contains so many details, so many obstacles and decisions, that it in this case is possible to learn from hearing what others did.
Aw, I'm glad I'm not one of the meanies. I do try hard to lift other writers up. And, yes, I like personal anecdotes or authentic, inspiring posts. Or funny ones, like Phil's. And I've fallen for the make-money posts, too. Funny enough, the last time I was about to subscribe to one of those "make-money writing courses", their payment page didn't work. So I guess that was just fate saying to me there's no one-size-fits-all solution. We all need to find our paths.
Poor them, not getting your money when you finally wanted to pay it :) Maybe it was a test - only the most dedicated subscribers were allowed in? Maybe the wish to make money felt so urgent that no care was taken to actually test the method...? Or fate, as you say.
Honestly, it was an urgent need for an IT team haha because it's a person with thousands of followers. But I'm glad because I think my path is not the one of churning out content like a machine.
This was super interesting for me, both because I was actually late to the Medium party and because I'm often on the reviewer side of things.
About the first idea: Gosh, how I hate writers who write about making money with writing. It's like reading the same post over and over again. As far as I know, there are two versions of it. A) Don't worry about your audience, write what's on your heart, and the millions will come, and B) Write for your audience and write nonstop. And none of them are actionable or true.
About the reviews, it was humbling to read your opinion. I try to keep in mind that there's a real human behind the text who worked, sometimes for years, to write the book I'm reviewing. Tough love is often just a socially sanctioned way to be mean.
Thank you - glad that you liked it :) You are one of the good reviewers - I enjoy reading your reviews, and I believe that any writer, whose book you process, can be happy about your observations and considerations. Your reviews help.
About the making money part - I'm myself divided, as I do like to learn how to become successful. Maybe each of these articles will help? Maybe exactly this one, if not the many others I have read, will tell me just what I need to hear? So I hope, and the hope is in a sense positive. Like buying a lottery ticket. Of course I will not win, the chances are too small, but I can thrive for a couple of days on the hope.
And then there is the other aspect: I feel betrayed at times, as the advice, as you say, seems to be standard canned advice most of the time. Not actionable, that's true, and to become actionable, they need to take me and my way of thinking, my situation, and my wishes into consideration. They almost never do that.
What is much more useful is the kind of inspiration that comes from learning how to put commas right, how to re-phrase a statement to become more interesting, or someone's experience with, e.g., publishing a book - which contains so many details, so many obstacles and decisions, that it in this case is possible to learn from hearing what others did.
Aw, I'm glad I'm not one of the meanies. I do try hard to lift other writers up. And, yes, I like personal anecdotes or authentic, inspiring posts. Or funny ones, like Phil's. And I've fallen for the make-money posts, too. Funny enough, the last time I was about to subscribe to one of those "make-money writing courses", their payment page didn't work. So I guess that was just fate saying to me there's no one-size-fits-all solution. We all need to find our paths.
Poor them, not getting your money when you finally wanted to pay it :) Maybe it was a test - only the most dedicated subscribers were allowed in? Maybe the wish to make money felt so urgent that no care was taken to actually test the method...? Or fate, as you say.
Honestly, it was an urgent need for an IT team haha because it's a person with thousands of followers. But I'm glad because I think my path is not the one of churning out content like a machine.