
Yay! We got the all clear yesterday, finally, when the poet tested negative for the second time on the trot. This means he can go to work, there will be a gig this week, and he can come shopping with me! More importantly, we can go and visit my mom at the weekend. If my brother and his family are still there, then we’ll see them too. But if they’ve already gone, we’ll see them next time.
I’ve started to publish daily on Medium and Vocal again. If I have something new to write, then great, and I’m building up to writing something every day. For now, though, I’m topping and tailing previously published material and reformatting to suit whichever platform.
Here is my profile on Medium. And here is my profile on Vocal. Vocal stories are free to read for everyone, and we get paid for them all, but non-members can only read up to three stories a month on Medium, and we only get paid for reads from members.
I know that the jury’s out in some quarters regarding these two platforms, but for me, it’s passive income and it drives readers towards my blog, website and newsletter. And the more people I get subscribing to the newsletter, the more control I have if one of the platforms I use suddenly pulls the plug or moves the goal posts.
The main reason I stopped publishing on these platforms was because Amazon didn’t like me publishing stories and books via Draft2Digital if the content already appears online. What I didn’t know was that Amazon are quite happy to publish stories and books direct from me, as the copyright holder, if the content already appears online. So while I was publishing more than 50 books last year, it saved time for me not to have anything I was publishing already online, despite me keeping anything I was publishing via D2D behind a paywall.
So I’m ploughing through a lot of old material, freshening it up, and submitting it to the publications or communities on Medium and Vocal. And if I publish anything new but go on to publish it as a book, I know now to send those pertinent publications direct to Amazon and simply not tick the check box on D2D for Amazon. It was taking far too long before to respond to the D2D feedback and then arrange to have it removed from Medium or Vocal, which was both rude and embarrassing.
At the same time, I’m closely monitoring (a) how long it takes each platform to accept or reject anything, and (b) how much I earn from each platform. Once I’ve discovered which one is best, then that’s the one that will get the bulk of my stuff. It might even be that some kinds of story suit publications on Medium and another kind suit Vocal. Anything that doesn’t fall in one or the other, I’ll publish myself.
I’m also putting some paid content on Post.News, such as how-to-write guides and short stories.
So we’ll see how it all goes and, hopefully, I’ll soon get into a good rhythm.
I spent yesterday morning reformatting a short story and submitting it to Fiction on Vocal and Illumination on Medium. The Vocal story was published immediately. The day before I submitted an article to Journal on Vocal and an article to Gardening, Birding and Outdoor Adventure on Medium. The Vocal story was published immediately, the Medium story was published the very next day. Today, I might do another short story. (I found out that Vocal now auto-publishes any stories that meet its requirements. Before, we had to wait at least 24 hours to be approved.)
By the time I got around to the ghostwriting, I had to go and get some earphones so I could play some rain into my ears while I typed. The poet, first day back to work, had meeting after meeting after meeting. If I didn’t block it out, I wouldn’t have got anything done. Before we knew it, it was time for him to go to band practice (which had been in the balance all week), which meant I had some quiet time in which to work… and then I was awarded a Top Story on Vocal for the short story, which means, I think, an extra fiver! (US dollars.)
I’ve had a bit of an upset stomach for a few days, which has got worse (after effect of Covid, apparently), so I was actually glad, for a change, to work through the night, just in case… Hopefully I’ll make up some nap time today. But we are out at a gig tonight, so maybe tomorrow… or the day after, depending on which day we go and visit my mom. We won’t be going there, though, if either or both of us have upset stomachs…
Have a fab weekend!
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