The Closing of Plethora of Pop: Our Song Is Over
A bittersweet farewell from the founder of this publication
I’ve been sitting here for several minutes staring at the screen and wondering how to begin this post.
This is not at all easy.
As you can tell from the title of this piece, I’ve decided to close Plethora of Pop. It was a very difficult decision for me to come to. I created this publication three years ago and it has brought me immense joy since then.
More importantly than that, though, is that it has brought me wonderful friendships with many writers, editors, and readers here — friendships that I hope will last for a very long time.
So, why am I closing the publication then?
Well, it mostly comes down to time. As much as I love running this publication and being the chief editor here, it does require a lot of time to perform the tasks I do here. While it wasn’t a problem for me in the past, I now have multiple other things going on in my life that also require a lot of my time to perform.
One of my top goals right now is to become a novelist. It’s been a dream of mine for most of my life and recently I’ve been taking steps to make it happen. This month I began work on a novel that I’m very excited about. I’ve enjoyed the process a lot so far, but I know the work ahead of me is going to require a lot of my time.
In addition, as some of you know, I’m also the host of two podcasts — Gotta Pop and Buddy’s Book Buddies. Those, of course, also require a lot of time.
Balancing the novel, the podcasts, and Plethora of Pop has become a struggle lately. Therefore, I came to the difficult decision to close down Plethora of Pop. The bottom line is that I need more time to focus and work on the other things I mentioned — especially my novel.
Closing the publication is not something I fully want to do, but it’s something that I feel I need to do. I know this will be an inconvenience for many of you and I apologize for that. However, I hope you can understand my reasons for doing this.
Despite all of the above, I am not entirely leaving Medium. I’m still going to be writing here from time to time. However, it won’t be as frequent as before. Also, it may not be primarily focused on pop culture anymore. Maybe I’ll try writing some things on Medium that I’ve never done before. I don’t know yet. I’ll figure it out as I go.
Although I’ll no longer be a publication owner and editor here, I am very excited to remain on Medium as a writer and reader. I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with all of you and continuing to read your wonderful words.
To The Writers Here
I’m writing and publishing this on Friday, August 30, 2024. Effective immediately, I will no longer be accepting draft submissions for consideration to be published here.
Plethora of Pop will permanently close two weeks from today, on Friday, September 13, 2024.
If you have stories you have published here, please feel free to remove them from the publication before that date, if you choose to. However, please know that you do not need to remove them from here.
For those who have never dealt with a publication closing before, when a Medium publication closes, the stories published in it are not deleted. They simply go from being within the publication to being on the writer’s main wall — just as if the writer had directly published it there themselves.
At that point, it’s completely up to the writer whether or not they want to keep the story there or possibly attempt to publish it within another publication.
NOTE: If you have any questions about the closure of the publication, or would like to contact me for any other reason, my email is buddygottwrites@gmail.com.
Again, I deeply apologize for any inconveniences that the closing of Plethora of Pop may bring to any of you.
Whether you were a writer, editor, or reader for Plethora of Pop, I sincerely want you to know that I greatly appreciate you being a part of it. Running this publication has been a truly wonderful experience for me. I really can’t thank you enough for being part of this community that has brought me so much happiness over the past few years.
I wish nothing but the best for all of you!
Take care,
Buddy Gott
