Curation Coupons?

A Proposal

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

Getting curated is a big goal for those who are serious about their future with Medium. It can bring a writer’s work to a much wider audience than their own group of followers. It also serves as a gold star of affirmation. But curation isn’t happening for many because there are not enough curators to read what is posted.

Houston, We Have a Problem

Sometimes dozens of submissions pass by for a single writer and none are considered.

Often I can take or leave curation, but I’ve just submitted something to a publication that I would really like to see get a fair shake. I would like to see it get read at the very least.

I have worked harder on this piece than on anything else I have written here. I’ve been meticulous in my editing, and it is about twice the length of most of my submissions, about a 10-minute read.

Curation Coupons

I wish I had a curation coupon. I wish we all had curation coupons. I wish we could flag one piece a week or even one a month or one in 20 submissions where we could say, “Please read this one. This one means a little extra.” It wouldn’t guarantee curation, but it would guarantee consideration. Curators could still consider things that didn’t have a coupon.

We could have “uncoupons” for that matter. A way to flag pieces, like this one, that is not necessarily a fit for a wider audience. Why clog up the curators’ queue?

One way or another something needs to be done to find a solution that works for everyone.