One thing that most writers on Medium have, at least the ones who approach it as a career, is a mailing list. I have one, Shannon Ashley has one, Shaunta Grimes has one, Zulie Rane has one, Brian Rowe has one, August Birch has one — and most of them offer a free short course or a short e-book if you join. Most of us actually have more than one. Usually, there is one for fiction and one for non-fiction if you are a novelist. I have added an extra one for survival and prepper tips because that’s something I do.

Which to Subscribe to?

I subscribe to most of them.

I can’t pay for all of the premium courses people offer. If I did I would have zero money, so I subscribe to the ones I can and that I think fit what I need the most. I put the others off for later or pass them by completely.

The free courses though, I take everything I can from all of them! Every one of them has some benefit, some compelling point to make. August Birch has an incredible course on how to get subscribers when you first start your own mailing list. I’m still in the early phase of implementing what he teaches, but it’s great information.

Shaunta’s Ninja Writers is incredible — a dedicated community that is pushing so many fledgling writers to be better than they are.

What I get from Brian Rowe is different depending on the day, but there are so many amazing tips there, especially on how to improve the quality of your writing! I’ve grown a huge amount since I subscribed to his list.

I just subscribed to Zulie’s. I’ll evaluate once I get more from her. Her writing on Medium is always amazing though.

Do You Really Need Formal Education?

There is so much out there, so much free value nowadays, that I don’t know if you actually need to go to school to gain the skills to become a great writer. I clearly have a long way to go before I would put myself in that category, but I’m better every day — and I’m only scratching the surface. I have hundreds of emails that I haven’t had the time to read through. Just a quick skim has revealed that there is so much great information.

That’s just talking about what I get free from mailing lists I sign up for. There is a thousand times that on Medium just there for the taking (especially if you sign up for membership — if you want to be a writer you should do that as soon as you can).

Curating the Messages

The downside of the wealth of content: how do you decide what to read?

Well, there are some obvious things. Brian Rowe is a great writer. His stuff is compelling and easy to read while offering huge value. I prioritize his stuff.

Shannon Ashley might be the top writer on Medium. Clearly, she is doing something right. I want to listen to the woman who is killing it doing what I want to do.

Shaunta Grimes gives so much value, so incredibly much value. To tell the truth I get behind with her stuff from time to time… I can’t keep up. Every time I check my e-mail I find a couple of new e-mails from her. Every single one of them is high value. It’s like having someone trying to download an MFA directly into your brain. Sometimes when I find I’ve gotten too far behind on her messages I stop and read a bunch of them at once.

August Birch is another one who is great. His stuff tends to focus more on the marketing end of things. Of course, as writers we have all that stuff figured out right? I’m incredibly grateful to him, not just for the value he provides me in my inbox, but also for allowing me to write articles for The Book Mechanic. It was the first publication I was part of on Medium and gave me a huge boost to my confidence.

What I Have Gained

By subscribing to so many lists I’ve basically hit myself with a giant hose full of knowledge. I’m absorbing it as fast as I can, processing it as fast as I can. I feel like I know more about self-publishing, ebook marketing, writing, and a hundred other topics than most of the people around me. That is simply because I’ve been open to receiving what is freely available.

Sure, there’s the odd piece of marketing, but very, very little. What there is is welcome. Why would I not want to help out the people who are giving me so much? It’s not invasive, it’s never a hard sell.

Now I’m trying to give some back. I’m working on sharing some of the knowledge I have gained with others, while still crediting the people I learned it from.

A Short List of Medium Members I am Learning From

This list is not comprehensive. For starters, it’s only the ones I can think of right now, which means it will mostly include people I have read in the last week or so. Anyway, it links to the profiles of the members — follow them. Join their lists if you want to be a writer.

There are a million more great writers on Medium and you can learn a great deal from them. These are only ones whose email lists I subscribe to. In the near future, I will do a post curating what I think are the most important articles for writers that exist on Medium. I will, without question, miss thousands.

Go Thee Forth and Learn

I’ve only given you a starting point here. There are thousands and thousands of other resources, thousands and thousands of other people giving back amazing amounts. Value that you can get for free.

Get as much of it as you can, and then add to it. Give something back.