Do I Write On Vocal Because I Am So Lazy?
Some More Thought On Why I Write On Vocal
Introduction
These are some thoughts about why I publish just on Vocal and my blog, Seven Days In, and while these platforms are still going I will still publish regularly on both.
The music is "Alright" by Cast
This Is Where I Am At
There are many platforms where we can publish our work, but I am not sure that they should be used as a money-making endeavour.
For me, that is Patreon, Substack and Only Fans, and you have to build up and get a paying audience to make them pay. I am lucky that my writing is a hobby, I don't need to make money from my writing but it would be nice to.
I keep my blog going, and in the twenty years that I have shared my work there I had six followers, twelve comments, and one point four million visits and about a hundred pounds in revenue which works out to about five pounds a year.
Medium to me was chasing subscribers and was awkward and too fiddly, so though I have left my free profile there, I doubt I will go back, maybe to read a free article.
I can't spin plates so I have Vocal for my creative writing and articles, and my blog for logging what I think about the books that I am currently reading.
I find Vocal the easiest way to publish and you do get rewarded for reads. There are a lot of issues at the moment, especially with the DOS attacks and server issues, but these have happened before, and Vocal is still here, though we could be better informed.
The status page should have some useful and accurate information each day:
While I have been subject to some abuse, I have dealt with it, but others feel that Vocal is not a safe environment. They are scared they will lose their work, or it may be stolen (remember digital work can be stolen over and over). or may be threatened via various pathways.
I am fine but Vocal needs to make sure that creators feel valued, safe and protected.
Conclusion
While Vocal has been rocked over the last few works and many creators are scared because of it, I expect Vocal to be back to normal, but it needs to protect its creators from AI and plagiarism.
Consumers need to be listened to and Vocal need to show they are listening, then things will start to get better.
I would love to hear your thoughts
About the Creator
Mike Singleton ๐ Mikeydred
A Weaver of Tales and Poetry
Join & Share In VSS
Creationati
Call Me Les โฅ Gina โฅ Heather โฅ Caroline โฅ
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More stories from Mike Singleton ๐ Mikeydred and writers in Writers and other communities.
The Newsman
Introduction I have written a lot of stories (nudging three thousand now) and I tend to publish two or three a day on Vocal. If we say an average of four hundred words per piece, that is one point two million words I have dropped here.
By Mike Singleton ๐ Mikeydred 10 months ago in Writers
Family Is The Best
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter โ What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise โStay away from the following word packages. They signal to the smart reader that you lack freshness and are an uninteresting writer. Better than ever For some curious reason A number of... As everybody knows She didn't know where she was Things were getting out of hand It came as no surprise It was beyond him Needless to say Without thinking He lived in the moment Well in advance An emotional roller coaster Little did I know The Objective - To purge yourself forever of stale and/or imprecise language.
By Denise E Lindquist6 days ago in Writers
Comments (11)
Whoa, whoa, you're just going to drop OnlyFans into the mix and move right past it? You mad lad!
All in all, I consider Vocal the best of the writing platforms. Sure, there are improvements they could make, but it's basically a wonderful site.
Well-wrought, Mr. Singleton! I have a day job and real-world responsibilities which have not allowed me to buckle down and pursue my art as a career. For me it is a spiritual practice, and some of the fruits are shared here. We might recall that after he was derided for the cosmopolitan nature of "Moby Dick" Melville worked at the excise office to support his family but wrote many more books. I suppose that's the kind of situation I find myself in, and Vocal has been the most congenial to me, for many fo the reasons you state here. I let Medium take my five bucks a month to support the authors that hustle there, but I've only ever published one article on it. SUpporting literary art is my aim. The world improves where we learn to better articulate ourselves, in my humble opinion. You're certainly prolific! Approaching the 3000 mark! Congrats and keep on truckin'!
Helpful. Thankyou ๐
I just like to have a place to publish & join in a community that likes to read.
Yes, AI and plagiarism. These are the worst!
It has indeed been rocky of late. Yes I believe we will all get through this however even though I have my works on my computer I am going to begin downlowading the actual content on Vocal to a harddrive. ( My Vocal work tends to be edited a little more than what I have saved)
๐'d hearing your thoughts! You're definitely not lazy Mike! :))
Can't hear video - says it is not available in my country - maybe Donald stopped that too, LOL. Anyway, I agree with your great points. Vocal is an easy way to publish works and we do get paid for reads or Top Stories, etc. I know the team is working on stopping the spammers and the outside attacks. They will have to have more resources dedicated to stopping the attacks and keeping their systems hardened against them, daily. I hope they don't become the attack magnet that Microsoft was (don't use it now, so can't say if was should be "is"). The system issues slow us down on the reads we can do and others who read our items, as well as publishing. I would hope in those instances, Vocal would extend Challenges one week, notify everyone timely (worldwide users, different time zones, etc.), and help users fix problems that occurred during the system issues, if they are unable to get it done. The time zones affect users differently in system issues when challenges are closing.
Well done Mike - great choice of music btw! Yeah, I like writing on Vocal for the community but it has been super glitchy recently. I gave up trying to read anything the other day. Patience was never my strong suit!
Being a writer one had to take chances on various things when publishing anywhere. You have written another great editorial that tells us just to keep writing for one takes chances in doing whatever. Good job.