I typically don't read the "writing about writing" articles; they are on my auto-trash function. But when I saw your name as an author, I had to make an exception. Because I knew, yours would be different from those "the secret to making tons of money on Medium" drivel.

You nicely and politely reject them, too.

The reason why those don't work is twofold. First, why should a really successful writer share his/her secret sauce in the first place? He/she would only enlarge the pool of competitors for the limited amount of money that Medium can distribute (from the subscription fees they collect). If you have a secret sauce that makes your product outshine the others, then you'd be hard-pressed for a reason to share that sauce. No business in the world would do such a thing.

I know that sounds harsh, but I have learned this truth the hard way many times over.

Second, maybe neither the successful ones nor those who analyze their success really know the causes of success. It's plain statistics. If you analyze the successful ones only, you will inevitably detect some common denominators (publishing regularly, choosing this style over some other, etc. ) What you don't see is how many writers who don't have the success do exactly the same thing. Without that number, you won't know whether the common denominators are truly the drivers of success.

This, by the way, is the major flaw of all those self-improvement and success books that use the capital names (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, etc. ) as examples.

I truly enjoy your writing, Kylie, your take on the motivation for writing, and your balanced advice to our peers here on Medium.