With shaky hands and fluttering heart, I present to you the Medium Catalogue Feature Project—a service (and sort of a product) I’ve been working on for a few weeks now.
It’s still new, but ripe for a maiden voyage!
The project involves making a PDF of all your stories (epub and docx also available). For now, there’s a basic option that serves as a one file backup for all your articles to date, and a streamlined option formatted to be more visually appealing.
Or, scroll on below for more about what it is and how it works.
This Feature Is For Medium Writers Only
Perhaps at some point, I’ll dig into how to do this for Substack writers, but for now I can only market it toward stories published on Medium.
But Why?
Medium has an interesting option they included months back to “download your information.” This was after a particularly loud public cry for some stability, as articles had been going missing at random and people became afraid of losing their work. If you’re interested in seeing this for yourself, it’s rather easy:
Step 1) Go into settings, under the tab Security and apps, and click the Download your information text link.
Step 2) Read the pop-up and click Export. When they send you the link (which is usually within minutes), you will have 24 hours to check that email and click it to download the info. Waited too long? That’s ok, go back to step 1 and do it again.
What’s The Problem?
#1: They’re all HTML files!!!
Try to open one. It’ll fling you off to the last browser you were using and open there. Uneditable, and unusable by most people’s standards.
#2: That’s not all. Each story is its own file; which means the space it’ll take up on your computer is tremendous! A little IT factoid, all those tiny files take up more space on the hard drive than it says. Storage isn’t designed for hundreds of tiny files. And if you’re like me, you’ve got thousands of files in that folder—which leads me to the next point…
#3: The articles are mixed in with every comment you’ve ever made anywhere on Medium. Sifting through them to find which ones are articles and which were lengthy comments can sometimes feel like an unnecessary chore.
Which Is Why You Don’t Have To
The Medium Catalogue Feature Project is all about simplifying your life and helping to catalogue your accomplishments of Medium publishing. I can take that zip file and work my magic to combine and transform your articles into a cohesive document. Something you can be proud to scroll through, conveniently packaging your backup in an easy-to-read format.
And coming soon, chapters (up to 200 per document, so searching is an easier task)!
It Starts With The Zip File
Medium’s zip file is the key. Just send that file on over to me (there’s a spot to upload the file on the commissions page), and take note of how many articles it should have.
The article # is important! Knowing how many articles to sort out of the jumble helps ensure I don’t miss any of your vital works in the process. The more articles you have, the more comments you’ve left, and the easier it is to miss a file or two by accident.
Once you’ve selected the catalogue type, uploaded the zip file, and let me know how many articles to look for, I can get to work creating a compilation of your hard work!
Um…It’s Sensitive
While I highly recommend sending the zip file over as-is, I acknowledge there may be information you’re not comfortable with sharing. I only work with the articles, and discard the rest—hard erasing it so it is unrecoverable. It’s unprofessional to read or keep the other stuff, so my first order of business is isolating the articles and getting rid of everything else. None of those files stay in my possession very long and are never opened.
However, if you’d rather find an alternative way to get the articles to me, please contact me in private and we will find a way you are comfortable with. No worries—I respect your privacy and concerns. Let’s work together to make it happen, ok? 😊
What Does It Look Like?
Capturing the essence of your unique catalogue is impossible before having the chance to compile it, but I can show you an overview of some of the others I’ve had the privilege to create:
And I’m Looking Forward To Compiling Your Catalogue, Too
How will your articles look in a PDF? With or without chapter links or a simple but elegant cover image preceding them? Let’s find out together:
Until next time, remember to follow yourself, always!
Wooot WOoooooot! Love it!
Yay congrats on launching your new business! 🥰