Age of Empathy: Submissions and Style Guide
Welcome to the community
Read this general Age of Empathy submission guideline first, please. Then review these more specific details. Thank you for writing with Age of Empathy.
Submissions
Age of Empathy publishes creative nonfiction to Inspire, Connect, and Grow. No previously published articles currently accepted.
If you are interested in becoming a writer, send a draft of your story to [email protected] with “Age of Empathy submission” in the subject line.
Style Guide
At Age of Empathy, our editors use a style guide to ensure every piece meets certain standards before we click “publish.” This creates a uniform aesthetic across topics and authors as well as ensures the quality of content published. Adhering to Medium’s guidelines is essential in growing this publication.
Initial Formatting
The sequence of the three first elements the reader sees when opening your article should be:
- Title
- Subtitle
- Cover image (more on this in the next section)
Please keep them in the right order, and don’t add a kicker.
1. Title
- We follow AP style for title capitalization. In title-case, all major words are capitalized, while minor words are lowercase. Title Case Converter is a helpful tool if you’re not sure.
2. Subtitle
- Please make sure your piece has a title and a subtitle.
- In your subtitle, use sentence-case; this means capitalize it like you would any other sentence (like this one!). Only capitalize the first letter of the first word unless the subsequent word is a proper noun such as a name of a language, person, company, library, etc.
Finally, make sure your title + subtitle combination does not exceed 100 characters. Medium has a 100-character limit in its previews. Breaking it is the number one way we see writers hurting their title’s ability to convince. Use wordcounter to check.
3. Cover image
Welcome readers to your piece with a pleasant cover image.
- Make sure that your piece has a header image with proper credit.
- Use Unsplash, Pexels, Pixaby, or other free-use image websites for your front image. Don’t limit yourself to one word when searching. Take your time — it’s worth it. Always use horizontal front images. They look much better on mobile devices. Try Wikiart for free use art to use. It’s fun to use something unexpected.
- Always cite your images.
- Always use Alt + Text to describe your submission for vision-impaired readers.
General Formatting
Your page aesthetic will be different depending on the type of work you’re submitting.
Creative Nonfiction
This article from Casey Botticello is very helpful for formatting your articles. We accept article submissions 4 minutes in reading time or longer and 10 minutes or under. Creative Nonfiction is sometimes formatted differently. Along with reading the personal essays in AoE, Human Parts and Inspired Writer are good publications to read to see what we’re talking about.
Quotes
Quotes are your friend. There are two different types of quotes in Medium: block quotes and pull quotes. Check out The Brave Writer’s guide on how to use them.
Links to related articles
Box Links: You may include up to two box links at the end of your story. Be judicious with self-promotion. It’s an important part of the platform, but posting too much will turn many readers away. We think a short bio/blurb about you plus 2 box links will allow sufficient self-promo.
If you are responding to a prompt and wish to tag other writers, please feel free to link as many as you’d like. For example, type “@[NAME OF WRITER] inspired me to write this piece” to hyperlink to their profile. It looks like this: Shanna Loga. Don’t overuse this feature though — it can be offputting.
Tags
There is currently 1 category for which to submit your work: Nonfiction. Use the “Nonfiction” tag. We currently have auto curation under Nonfiction, which is this platform’s word for Creative Nonfiction.
This tag is important —it means your work will be distributed. Currently, if you don’t use the Nonfiction tag, your work will not be distributed. Use all 4 remaining tags with intention. Some good ones to know are: Mental Health, Mindfulness, Creativity, Writing, Family, Love, Relationships, and Society.
Further Considerations When Writing For Readers and on Medium
Editorial Review and Promotions Team
Aimée Gramblin, Danielle Loewen, Nia Simone McLeod, and Dayon Cotton
We’re committed to highlighting your wonderful work in the best way possible.
We reserve the right to lightly edit your submissions, mainly for grammar. We highly recommend using the Grammarly plugin and Hemingway editor before submitting your work. If your submission does not meet a minimum editorial standard (e.g., basic grammar, punctuation, mechanics, formatting), we will not be able to accept it.
If we have a question or suggestion about your submission, we’ll leave you a private note.
We do our best to stagger our publishing times throughout the day so your article enjoys the most time on the front page as possible.
Our editorial team does our best to review our current writer’s work within 48 hours/2 business days.
New writers need to submit a draft through this Google Form. We may take up to 7 business days to review your new writer submission. We attempt to be quicker than this, but sometimes we are slow. We appreciate your patience.
Age of Empathy will publish one article by author per day. Please limit your submissions to one per day.
Thank you for being part of this wonderful community!
