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Mark Starlin's avatar

I agree with not stretching yourself too thin. Many of these sights have a social element such as comments. And you need to be active on a platform to build an audience (in my experience.) And I also agree that a personal website or blog will not get regular readers. This is the social media age. No one "surfs the Web" anymore. They Google it. And visit social media.

I have written on Medium for almost four years. Short fiction can do well there, if you cultivate a loyal following. Serial fiction bombs for me on Medium. I have tried several times with dismal results.

The platform seems to be in decline. My readership is about a third of two years ago. And I find it harder to find quality stories to read. Many writers were discouraged by an 80% cut in writer payouts two years ago (for most writers) and are jumping ship (many of my favorite writers from a couple of years ago have left or gone inactive.)

I have been posting a novel on Royal Road for a few months and it has been slowly growing in views. It is not the usual GameLit or reincarnation stories that are popular on RR, so I happy with its progress. You have to use Patreon to monetize. But I am not opening that can of worms until I have more followers.

I have been on Substack for over a year. My short fiction (and humor) does well there. The jury is still out on serial fiction for me. I have a running serial that gets little attention. I am also posting my second novel as I write it. But it only gets a handful of views.

Each platform has a unique, loyal audience. And there seems to be little overlap, so it is fine to post the same stories on more than one platform.

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Chevanne Scordinsky's avatar

I’m currently on Substack, Medium, and have started composing original work for Ko-fi. If I’m able to churn out more fiction in the future (since my life is fairly busy right now), then I’d consider some of the other platforms. I can sustain what I’m using and I’d rather concentrate on doing a few things well.

It’s hard because I like Substack and the “reward” for good work. It just doesn’t pay. Medium seems to favor the same meta articles and tips to make a million pieces. I make some pence off Medium but not much. I’m hoping that I can just use it as skill-building to benefit Substack.

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