Why Traditional Substackers Loathe Medium Migrants

Can you hear the drums banging? I can

Substackers angry with a Medium migrant (Wiki Comms)

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when there was a happy medium between the two big writing platforms.

Newsletter-based writers with a distinct niche used Substack to build an audience and income. Whereas Medium writers were dreamers. Sitting down in the morning to write whatever floated into their empty heads.

Not that this was a bad thing. Empty minds are great for spinning carefree nonsense and sentimental claptrap that now and then might end up being good. Maybe even brilliant.

But this wasn’t the Substack way.

Substackers knew exactly what they were doing and had a clear vision. They were in it for the long shot and would suffer for years without earning a penny if they knew they were going somewhere.

So it must be galling, like watching celebrities who suddenly start supporting your football team, to see all those wannabes migrating over from Medium in search of gold.

Suddenly, all those listicle-loving, meta-obsessed, cloying memoir writers, with their whimsical notions and skewed perspectives, were cluttering the airwaves with their clichés.

Ugh!

For some, it’s got too much.

This is from a writer called Smillew

It’s unlikely you’ll have heard of him — I haven’t. He’s a crossover writer who publishes on Medium and Substack, but who tries to keep them separate.

He published his first Substack piece way back on November 21, 2022, with a piece entitled I Will Promise You 2 Things, informing everybody of what was to come on his Top Hat Seminar.

Although, admittedly, things did take a while as his next piece, The Gift of Recognition, about how he got his first paid subscriber, wasn’t published until July the following year.

But this is how serious writers work. They are patient.

Clearly, though, Smillew is livid about what has happened to Substack. And not just those coming from Medium. But from everywhere. People flocking to Substack like it’s the new Instagram when it was meant to be a serious writing platform.

This tweet, sorry Note, is particularly cutting.

A sign of a man frustrated by what was once sacred, now reduced to a selfie gallery.

Not that he's entirely blameless. This was today's note.

Not sure where this fits into being a serious writer. But hey. Everyone’s doing it.

Even my fellow compatriots Matthew Clapham and Sally Prag, and my best friend Peter William Murphy, can be seen wasting their days leaving meaningless dittos in the hope of drumming up views— maybe even paid subscriptions!

What used to be sacrosanct is now cloaked in mediocrity. A wall of confusion and banality like Facebook used to be before it went full-on nasty bastard!

I’m as much to blame.

I entered Substack at the beginning of the year in good faith. I opened a serious fiction publication called 21st Century Fiction.

Then I went AWOL and opened up two more publications. One for comedy and another for spoof movie reviews.

After that I really lost my way and started posting notes. Then made an even bigger mistake of making a video with Peter Murphy, who is a serious writer like Smillew.

So where do we go from here?

As usual, I’ll likely face a barrage of criticism from Medium and Substack enthusiasts, accusing me of being wrong.

These will be the three main complaints.

— Many writers can exist happily on Medium and Substack

— I hate Substack

— I hate Medium

Or variations of the above three. Either way, people will say I don’t know what I’m doing.

So let’s clear this up right now.

The writing world is full of bluff and bravado. Everyone’s happy to offer their penny’s worth of advice, but if everyone knew what they were doing, they would soon realise it’s not worth it, and go and do something worthwhile instead.

Am I right?

(Probably)

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For more comedy, check out 21st Century Comedy here.

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