Letting go is not a process that comes naturally to us. In this series of honest and poignant essays, Heidi Priebe explores the harsh reality of what it means to let go of the people and situations we love most — often before we are ready to — and how to embrace what comes next. How do I test my reading speed? Unfortunately, I had already manifested, through my furiously dancing fingertips, a 2, word essay pointing out the ignorance I felt strongly present in the magazine article, only to find there was no way to share it — cue Medium.
I was impressed with the response to the article on Medium, which was my first — 26K views, 7K reads, fans, and euros in my pocket to date. And I was even more impressed by the tools that Medium provides an author. While the interface is as simple as paper, knowing what passages a reader highlights, how many views turn into full reads, how many people follow you after reading something that you write, what their interests are — so that you can see how people coming from different backgrounds engage with your writing — and of course, being able to have detailed responses to your work, are just nothing short of a godsend for an author.
And this led me to try publishing a book on Medium. The book is a big one, nearly pages in paperback format. However, the practices use an unusual support in place of the breath — which is the more common, but deficient in particular ways, support today.
But these all come from various spiritual traditions, and none of them are framed within our modern mechanistic materialism, thus there is a necessity to explain how things differ from how they are understood today, in order that the reader understand exactly what they are using.
Why Publish a Book on Medium You might think this is totally inappropriate for Medium, and there are some shortcomings, but for me the biggest reason to attempt publishing this book here is the potential audience, and the availability that Medium affords me as a writer. While there are still many physical book readers — myself among them — the option to have a book on a mobile device is just such a no-brainer.
And in fact, the tools that Medium provides, which I mentioned above, are absent from ebooks. And of course, having an ebook still leaves you searching for an audience. So the biggest reason for launching a book on Medium has two aspects: availability and readers.
With Medium it is different. Anyone can access Medium. And of course, the potential audience on Medium is not limited to merely members and current readers of Medium, but can be garnered via social media, word of mouth, and friends, all of whom can be directed to the Medium site, with little effort.
There is also the cost and hassle savings of not hosting your own blog, which was another alternative I considered. I still buy the domain names and setup email addresses as appropriate, but I no longer see any reason to host a website. Such small websites have the same security and hacking worries as the biggest names, and it is all on your shoulders.
I never realized just how much of a problem it is until I subscribed to a service available to Wordpress sites via a plugin called Wordfence, which not only scanned my server for hacks on a daily basis, but also monitored all traffic in and out. I figured they had cracked the code — swag, website — and I just needed to follow suit.
Despite making some poor choices, I did try very hard to do right by this unexpected reversal of fortunes. The school where my husband taught had a financial planner that offered services to teachers, so we met with him and his partner, but it was obvious they only wanted to sell us life insurance. Our tax guy told us what to write off, but we had no idea what we were doing.
No writer I knew had someone they trusted for financial advice, and our unconventional earnings made getting clear advice very difficult. I lived in Brooklyn, a borough of one of the most expensive cities in the world. While I was buoyed by the very small, very occasional foreign book deal, this was it until there were more books in the pipeline. What could I have done differently? I could have opted to move to a city that was less expensive, certainly. I could have chosen not to quit my day job, but it would have been tough.
I had five books under contract at once, plus the enormous task of building and maintaining an author brand. I had no idea and was not told upon entering the program how nearly impossible it is to find work as faculty in any college or university, regardless of how qualified you are.
I could have and now wish more than anything that I had paid off my student loans. I could have put myself on a strict budget — one that assumed I was never going to get big payouts as a writer again. I could have saved a down payment for a house.
And I could have put money aside each year for retirement. As the royalty statements came in, and a foreign book contract was dropped due to low sales, my worry began to grow. One sent me on tour, which is about as luxe as it can get for an author, but very few people showed up at the events, and that was that. Fast-forward to my third book deal, for a contemporary novel. Bloom Discovery Award , garnered several starred reviews, had multiple books on important lists, and worked hard on author-branding and social media.
What other job would lower your salary after getting such great performance reviews? But no one tells you your numbers, so I really had no idea where I stood. Never mind that the book was critically praised and had made some of those nice lists.
It is a business, after all. Which is fair… to a point. In reality, they were paying me less than half the salary of a local public-school teacher. I do more marketing than most marketing professionals, including loads of promotional work such as interviews, guest posts, and podcast appearances. My publishers have never made so much as a bookmark for me though twice they agreed to design them if I paid for the printing. If I wanted to go to a book festival or important industry conference out of town, I had to pay, unless the festival organizer covered the costs, which they rarely do.
I have a book coming out next year that is getting more marketing attention already, but I know better than to get my hopes up. None of the people in the room so to speak warned that the next time around the advance might be lower. At the end of the day, I decided that this book deal was better than no book deal.
We signed the papers, and made a wish. In retrospect, I should have taken that two-book deal. It's time to celebrate the newest edition of The Old Farmer's Almanac! Long recognized as North America's most-beloved and best-selling annual, the handy yellow book fulfills every need and expectation as a calendar of the heavens, a time capsule of the year, an essential reference that reads like a magazine.
Always timely, topical, and distinctively "useful, with a pleasant degree of humor," the Almanac is consulted daily by users from all walks of life, throughout the year. The edition contains the fun facts, predictions, and feature items that have made it a cultural icon: traditionally 80 percent-accurate weather forecasts; notable astronomical events and time-honored astrological dates; horticultural, culinary, fashion, and other trends; historical hallmarks; best fishing days; time- and money-saving garden advice; recipes for refreshment; facts on folklore, farmers, home remedies, and husbandry; amusements and contests, plus too much more to mention--all in the inimitable way that the Almanac has done since Always timely, topical, and distinctively "useful, with a pleasant degree of humor," the Almanac has been beloved for centuries by people from all walks of life.
As the nation's iconic calendar, the edition will forecast cultural, culinary, and other life-changing trends; preview notable astronomical events; provide time- and money-saving tips for gardeners of all varieties; set the hook for best fishing days; forecast traditionally 80 percent-accurate weather; and cover a range of related topics, including anniversaries, folklore, husbandry, home remedies, recipes, amusement, contests, and more--too much more to mention--all in the inimitable way it has done since Score: 4.
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