Readers spend almost five million hours each month reading publications on Medium. Medium is the popular online publishing platform founded in 2012 by Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Medium’s use of an algorithmic timeline expands the audience.

Medium—the Popular Blogging Platform

Medium is a publishing platform for articles, blog posts, and stories. Writers can generate traffic and boost their readership via Series, the new platform that targets Medium’s mobile phone reading audience. Series allows writers to create stories that develop over time. Readers who subscribe to the writer’s Series will be notified about updates.

Recommendations grow the reader base. The more people who like the content by clicking on the heart icon, the more it will appear on readers’ timelines. Medium also lets bloggers know how many people viewed their articles and how many read it completely.

E-Readers and Mobile Phones Boost Serialized Fiction

Series is a concept targeting the on-the-go reader. It is a modern take on the 19^th century serials that churned out short stories and boosted writers’ careers, now with mobile phone users in mind. Serials, then as now, were publications that published chunks of material episodically. Today writers can unfold their stories to be read on mobile phones by adding material over time.

In the Victorian era, serialization was a popular method of publishing stories. It made stories accessible to more people, created suspense and anticipation, and boosted readership by word-of- mouth. Dickens and his contemporaries used the series format prolifically and profitably.

The ubiquity of the serialized publication declined after the printing press made long novels affordable for the masses. However, with the creation of the internet and e-readers, this form of publishing novels is coming back in a big way. Medium is taking on JukePop, Amazon, and other online platforms that have re-established the popularity of the serial format. It is offering a bite-sized version of the serialized format.

Series Specially Designed for Mobile Phone Users

As more readers visited Medium on their phones, the platform’s creative thinkers conceived a new means for storytelling that complemented the screen constraints of mobile phones. Series offers writers a way to deliver their stories in a more immediate and dynamic format.

Readers can opt to receive notifications of new installments and save their places so they can return where they left off. Readers can provide feedback to the creator, who now can share deeper, more complex storylines with readers.

Writers can begin crafting their series on Medium’s app or online. Readers can select what they want by downloading or updating Medium’s Android or iOS app on their phones. Upon downloading or updating the app, phone users can tap the Series tab to begin reading the content.

As America becomes more diverse, a significant portion of the current majority population feels threatened. However, as white Americans and Europeans age, diversity is a primary factor in national growth and innovation. In fact, what is unfolding is increased competition for migrants in aging developed countries. Since a majority of characters in children’s books are white, adding diversity is a positive way to introduce children to the diversity they will experience as adults.

Children’s Books Do Not Reflect Growing Diversity of America

A study of diversity in children’s books published in 2015 revealed that more than 73 percent of the characters are white, although that is no longer the ratio in the general population in America. Non-Hispanic whites were actually 64 percent of the population according to the 2010 Census. A snapshot of the U.S. census in 2012 revealed that at the present rate the white majority will no longer be so by 2043.

Books as a Vehicle for Understanding the World

Teachers have said that a good story helps children get the message about respecting differences. From “Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss to Queen Rania, different writers have tackled this subject in our time. Writers have plenty of room to add to the growing genre of diversity books for children.

Story of Civilization is Migration

In ancient times, people and animals moved freely because of climate change or search for opportunities from one region to another. It was recently discovered that cheetahs migrated from North America across land bridges all the way to Africa. Geneticists have revealed that we are all descendants of people who left Africa in one migration.

Carl Zimmer’s article, “A Single Migration From Africa Populated the World, Studies Find,” published in the New York Times on September 21, 2016 discusses this revealing research originally published in the journal Nature.

Diversity Books for Children

The “We Need Diverse Books” movement, started in 2014, calls for more diverse children’s books to be created and made available to young readers. At school and at home, young readers can be exposed to books that help them learn about respecting differences in people. Children’s books can be windows and reflectors for their young readers.

Research about prejudice reveals that direct contact lessens stereotyping. Books introduce children to the outside world. Bringing young readers into contact with diversity via books is an entertaining and educational opportunity that children’s book and short story authors can offer their young reading public.

Writers can create stories from their imagination. However, the unfolding history of how we came to be also offers writers many opportunities to write reality-based stories for children.

Aspiring writers should understand the difference between a novella, novelette, and short story. Each form has a specific structure and varies by word count. Some stories are best when they are brief; others require a bigger storyline that can still be finished in one sitting. The idea behind a novella may require more layers and plotting to do it justice.

No Standard for Differentiating Each Classification by Word Count

There is no universal standard for the different classifications. However, standards established by organizations such as the Science Fiction Writers of America provide some guidance. For the SFWA, a short story is up to 7,500 words, a novelette is more than 7,500 and up to 17,500 words, a novella is more than 17,500 and up to 40,000 words, and a novel is 40,000 words or more. Page counts vary, as formatting influences page counts.

Brevity Does Not Diminish Quality

Making a living out of selling shorter works is possible: with the advent of e-books, writers are frequently able to sell works of shorter lengths. Busy readers find it easier to read shorter works of prose. Some writers have found that selling stories individually is better than selling collections because it is easier for readers to choose what interests them.

About Short Stories

Well-written short stories are not inferior to longer works of prose. Every word counts in a short story, and for some writers that is one of the challenges of writing in this shorter form.

In the era of e-readers, short stories are becoming more popular, and their writers are being recognized with major literature awards, including the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Man Booker International Prize.

Novelettes Allow More Details than Short Stories

Novelettes help authors improve their craft. The writing style, plotting, and character development are displayed in this short form of fiction that is more structured than a short story. A novelette helps authors boost their readership by piquing the readers’ interest in a more compact form than lengthier works.

Novellas or Short Novels

Many beloved and influential books have been novellas. Famous novellas include Animal Farm, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Of Mice and Men, and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. For publishers, shorter debut novels provide a lesser time commitment that encourages readers to get to know a new author. Longer works are subsequently less of a financial risk for publishers after an author has developed some recognition in the market.

Every story finds its ideal length when it is neither underdeveloped nor diluted. A piece of fiction should be as long as it takes to tell the whole story. Writers should not try to limit their story’s content and should allow the story to determine the word count.

However, size matters in publication. Writers should research the market and find out the specific parameters of publications, publishing houses, editors, and agents regarding word counts. Then they should submit the manuscript that shares the same structural parameters.

Children’s literature is not a poorer form of fiction. Writing for children connects authors to the most enthusiastic readers and impacts their lives. A 20-year study has revealed that books at home increase the potential level of education of children later in life. If you are considering writing for children, you will be rewarded by your choice.

Children Read More Books

As revealed at the Nielsen Summit in 2015, 11 of the 20 top-selling books in the country between January 2014 and September 2015 were children’s books. Children’s literature is booming internationally as well. Kids are voracious readers. They read more books than adults. The publishing industry’s dominant growth sector in 2014 was the children and young adult category, according to the Association of American Publishers.

Reading Improves Children’s Brains

It is rewarding to know that your work has a positive effect on your readers. A study of 17,000 people in England, Scotland, and Wales revealed that reading for pleasure boosts intellectual progress. Those who read books frequently at age 10 and more than once a week by age 16 earned better test results. The impact of reading was found to be almost four times greater than having a parent with a post-secondary education.

Moving Fan Mail

Young fans’ sincerity and their sharing of how meaningful books have been for them makes this genre a special one for writers of children’s literature. Children’s book authors love and treasure their fan mail! To give you an idea, the chroniclebooks.com blog on February 18, 2015 presented a sweet collection of fan letters received by authors for Letter Writing Month.

Making a Living from Children’s Books

Advances vary for children’s book writers. According to the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, the advance for a standard project ranges between $8,000 and $12,000. However, as this amount is shared with the illustrator, the writer may end up receiving between $4,000 and $6,000.

Royalties are paid after the book sales earn back the advance amount. Royalties vary but typically range between three and a half and six percent for a picture book, and otherwise between seven and 10 percent.

The payment rates are different if a writer is employed to write a book. In this case, payment is made either per word or per hour. Per-word rates range between $1 and $5, with $3 per word being the average, according to Writer’s Market. Hourly rates range between $50 and $70 per hour, with the average around $63 per hour. In addition to writing, speaking fees for children’s book writers range between $1,000 and $2,500 per day.

Books that sell well also sell in bulk because schools and libraries are ready customers. It is hard work to write something that engages children and holds their attention, but the hard work of writing pays dividends.