How much would you like to tip your writer today?

You may or may not know that I publish my writing on a membership platform called Medium.

Medium pays me monthly for every piece I submit, based on how many times it’s read by paying members.  Needless to say, I don’t make much from this – though during Lockdown 2020, one particular article generated enough cash for two successive mortgage payments.

(I was indescribably grateful, even though I don’t think that article is very good.  I cobbled it together in a hurry, in order to meet a deadline, and I think it reads that way).

Last year, Medium introduced a new payment option: writers can choose to receive a small commission when new members sign up to the platform via that writer’s own personalised link.

Last week, I received an email with news of another option: readers can now leave tips for individual writers.

(Screenshot from Medium)

I don’t know how I feel about this.

The tip set-up is optional, but I enabled it because… well, why wouldn’t I?  It didn’t cost me anything, and I’m already writing on Medium.  Seeing as I’ll always be writing somewhere or other, doesn’t it make sense to try and earn from that?

All the same, there’s a grubby, guilt-inducing, sort-of-desperate feeling about asking readers to leave me a tip.

I avoid creator membership and crowdfunding sites, like Patreon and Buy Me A Coffee, for the same reason.

Actually, not quite for the same reason. I avoid those sites because they add pressure to create something more outwardly dazzling than I might have done if nobody was looking.

(I miss the days when I wrote silly blog posts just for fun, without any hope or expectation that they would be read, and without considering things like calls-to-action and audience engagement).

But I also avoid those sites because I hate promoting myself and my work.

I’d claim that this boils down to modesty, but really it’s because I’m never sure if I’m good enough.  Would actively asking people for payment – not for my client work, but for my own personal writing, which nobody is asking me to do – just make them scoff, or laugh?

I’m gradually getting better at self-promotion, as the years pass by and I improve as a writer.  I also support a handful of other creative creators, through the very sites that I choose to avoid.

It’s funny, though… because I don’t feel that they are being grubby or sort-of-desperate.  I simply enjoy their work, and would love to see more of it.  And my world would be a sorry place, without creative people infusing it with life and colour.

(Amongst many other absurdly generous things, John-Paul Flintoff sends his subscribers little gifts, like this wonderful print, as a ‘thank you’ for supporting him).

But the jury’s still out on this Medium tip-thing.  For me personally, at least.

In the meantime I’d love to know… what are your thoughts on tipping creative people?

And if you’d like to start a blog, write a book, or even publish some Medium pieces of your own, my Wondrous Writing Hub begins again in September.