As a new writer, I feel like I’ve left my Medium run too late (I joined in 2016, but was WordPressing instead of Mediuming). Getting curated (which has yet to happen and is supposed to be *the* thing) is like waiting to get picked for a high school sports team. And I’m too old for that shit. As a freelance writer, I wanted to be on Medium to bypass the whole pitching process to magazines/literary journals, but it’s as bad, if not worse because the platform passes itself off as egalitarian when it is, in fact, a total crapshoot. The curators are gatekeepers and all-powerful and invisible. And inherently subjective. Medium itself says that. At least with magazines/literary journals, you you know where the goalposts are. And you can actually email an editor. They have a name. And will respond. And you know exactly how much you’ll be paid. I know, of course, that I can email Your Friends @ Medium and pester them into curating my stuff (because that’s a thing too), but why should I? I now think that Medium is one big echo chamber, and it’s not a place I’m convinced I should stay…