I think what you’re experiencing is just the Matthew effect, which is often stated as “the rich get richer”. Simply stated, people watch, read, and consume what seems to be popular. And it makes sense. With so many publications, a reader won’t take the time to sift through unpopular publications even though some of them may have great content. For a reader it is just much more efficient to read those publications that have tons of followers. They may not have the best content, but if they have so many followers, the content must at least be decent.

New writers as myself face the exact same problem. Everyone just reads who’s popular because no one wants to waste the time searching for new writers. After all, looking for new writers also means sifting through a lot of really bad writers and no one has time for that.

Also, growth on the Internet is not linear. You don’t reach big follower numbers following a constant pace of growth. Instead, you barely grow for a long time and then — if you’re lucky — your follower numbers explode.

I think all you can do is be patient and keep the bar raised high enough (although perhaps not so high that your output is reduced to a trickle).

Good luck with your publication.