I quit submitting to publications many months ago. I did this for two reasons. Most importantly, one cannot lock a story and earn money from it if it is in a publication. (Only a teeny tiny handful of elite publications are allowed by Medium to let their writers earn money.) Secondly, the exposure incentive is a myth.

I see publications that have hundreds of thousands of followers but their stories get very few claps and responses. Where are those hundreds of thousands of followers? Back when I still submitted to publications I saw very clearly that the numbers for my stories in publications were not any higher than for my stories published independently — in fact they were often times less. The one and only difference between my stories in publications and my stories published independently was the fact that I could earn money on stories published independently and I could not on stories in publications.

So I not only quit submitting to publications but I also quit the two publications I once had. Why publish in my own publication if I can’t earn money from it? Hey, I’ve got rent to pay.

As a reader I don’t give a damn about publications. I read my favorite authors and my favorite topics. If a story I’m reading happens to be in a publication I generally don’t notice and I don’t care. I am only interested in what is written, not what brand is attached to it.

As a Medium reader and writer I try to avoid stats. I try to check my stats page no more than once or twice a week, if that. As a society we are utterly obsessed on stats and quantity over quality. I am far more interested in words than numbers. Those feverishly obsessed with stats and feedback are wasting a lot of their time and energy that would be better spent writing.

(As a reader, though I ignore stats, I do, however, do a lot of clapping.)

I do not write for an audience (or for a publication). I do not write for the reader. I write for the story that is trying to come through me. Any focus on stats and feedback closes me off to those stories trying to come through. I give my undivided attention to those stories and let the stats fall where they may.