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I’m scrolling through the list of publications I can submit to on Medium. There are 26 publications I can submit, all of whom I respect and have written for.
I edit for Invisible Illness, the biggest mental health publication on Medium with almost 37,000 followers.
So I don’t want to start my own publication.
At one level, there’s already enough on my plate with my full-time job, church, life, and Medium that I don’t have time to start my own publication. At another level, I don’t think putting another publication onto the market is going to help anything. The market on an open freelancing site like Medium is already so oversaturated with publications with lofty goals and noble intentions that, as a writer, I find myself a better editor, writer, contributor, and champion than the owner of my own publication.
We need great leaders. But we also need great followers. One friend I respected said this in a high school English class: we prize leadership, but what about being a follower? Why does our capitalistic society value leadership over followership if followers are the people doing the work, executing the vision of their bosses, and are loyal enough to stand by their organizations or…