Announcement of New Writers for ILLUMINATION #11
Welcome and a quick acknowledgment of your acceptance to ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications on Medium
New writer applications to Illumination via our registration portal. Please review our checklist and the onboarding pack before submitting your stories to our publications.
Dear New Writers,
Happy Weekend!
The purpose of this post is to inform you that we gave you writer access to our publications. Thank you for joining us. We are pleased to have you and look forward to reviewing, publishing, reading, and promoting your stories.
We serve a large group of integrated publications supporting 24,000+ writers. Most of these writers actively contribute to ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications on Medium.com, listed here. This diverse and inclusive community gives voice to every ethical writer who wants to delight their readers.
We have a free and moderated collaboration platform using Slack. New writers receive invitations to Slack after we add them to our publications.
Please don’t worry about acceptance. We don’t reject any ethical writer. If you cannot see the publications in your list, it means a glitch has happened. So, please inform us on Slack, and we will add your profile again. You can contact Dr Mehmet Yildiz directly when you don’t see ILLUMINATION or other pubs you applied to in your list. He will help you.
Once you are in Slack, this means you registered properly. If you have no Slack access, this means your registration did not happen, so you need to apply again. Most likely, your entry went to a spam folder, or you provided the wrong ID. Please send your correct ID again.
Once you join us, the first step is to review the key points in the onboarding pack, which contains all the important information. If you are an experienced writer, possibly you know most of the points, so you can safely skip them. But if you have just joined Medium, you need to understand how the platform works.
As of August 2023, Medium made significant changes that impacted the Partner Program, writers, and publications. The key point is having more focus on quality than quantity.
So please submit only one high-quality story a day. You can check our monthly updates for the recent changes on Medium. We also started a new curation service for well-written stories, as explained in the first volume.
Why do ILLUMINATION editors return some stories?
There could be a few reasons, but the big one might be that your story doesn’t match the new submission rules, has too many language errors, or you forgot to caption your images. For instance, we’re not publishing stories about Medium anymore.
The editors usually drop a private message explaining why they’re sending it back. You can read it by clicking on the * (star) sign, usually on the top right side of your story.
But don’t worry. Getting sent back doesn’t mean your story is rejected or not worthy of publishing on Medium. We don’t turn away stories from ethical writers. We respect all as long as they adhere to platform rules. They might ask you to make some changes and submit it again or suggest sending it to our other publications that might be a better fit and find more relevant readers.
Each publication has its rules. So, please find links to all submission publication guidelines in this story. You may bookmark it in case you want to join more of our pubs in the future.
ILLUMINATION-Curated as Boost Nominating Publication
Medium recognized our special publication, ILLUMINATION-Curated, serving experienced writers as a formal boost-nominating publication. This gives us an opportunity to nominate stories meeting boost guidelines.
Joining ILLUMINATION-Curated requires proof of your experience in submitting high-quality stories. If you believe your stories meet our requirements in the submission guidelines, please contact our chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz, who can review your stories and invite you to this publication with the blessings of other editors.
We recently interviewed Dr Yildiz to understand the boost process. This interview can be helpful for you to understand the process.
Making quality our priority now, we updated our submission guidelines as listed below. The changes are reflected in our new submission guidelines linked below. Please review the submission guidelines for the publications you contribute to.
Recently Updated Submission Guidelines
ILLUMINATION Videos and Podcasts: Submission Guidelines 2023
Publishing and Conduct Guidelines for the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION
Sample Boosted Stories Recently
To give you an idea, Dr Yildiz introduced a few sample boosted stories. You may check them to understand their value and learn from the approaches of these experienced writers.
Should Doctors Be Less or More Empathetic? Dr. Julian Barkan
How Cholesterol Levels Impact Your Heart Health Dr. K P Vasudeva Rao
Four Ways to Balance Your Content Creation Obsession by Clayton Moulynox
Can I Connect with My Transgender Daughter as I Connected with My Son? Tony Leo
How Ōura Got the Fitness Geeks and Insomniacs Around Its Little Finger Jussi Luukkonen — your curiosity guide
How Survivorship Bias Colors Our World: Impact and How to Overcome It Sridhar Pai Tonse — Leadgen Coach- Tech Startups
Lessons from the Grave Sara Fellers on ChannSpirations and Coincidences
Grandma and God Brought Me Home AJ on ChannSpirations and Coincidences
Facing the Judge and Jury of Your Inner Critic jules - Miz Mindful
The Island Odyssey: A Weeklong Adventure in Rhodes Jozsef Kovacs
You can learn more about boosting in the attached story.
Practical Guidance for Absolute Beginners
We summarize the key points in four sections. They are detailed in the master onboarding pack on the submission guidelines.
1 — How to submit your stories to publications
Now that you joined Medium and wrote your first story. Please follow these simple instructions. Once you do it a few times, it will be second nature. Not knowing this feature caused many new writers to wait for days.
When you draft your story, please click on the … (3 dots) on the top right side of your screen. Click on the add to publication, choose Illumination or other relevant pubs, and submit your story. When the story arrives in the publication queue, editors will review and publish it if your story qualifies. If not, they will leave a private message and return your story to fix, resubmit, or transfer to one of our other publications if it does not suit ILLUMINATION.
We no longer publish certain types of stories on ILLUMINATION and ILLUMINATION-Curated, so please review the new submission guidelines.
2 — Use Copyright-Free Images and Remember to Caption Them
A crucial issue is some new writers forget to add captions to photos and use copyrighted images. Violating copyright rules can lead to substantial penalties imposed by legal institutions.
Several writers got hefty fines; our editors don’t want this to happen to you. Therefore, our editors are diligently working to safeguard our writers. We kindly ask that you honor their requests, as they have your best interests at heart. You cannot use every image on stories behind the paywall.
If you are a new writer on Medium, please review the Photo Handling Policy before starting, as it is the most time-consuming issue for our editors and causes delays in publishing. Writers failing to meet our photo handling policy will be removed from publications.
3 — We don’t accept AI-generated content per Medium’s new strategy except for one dedicated publication [the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION]
Our publications do not accept content written by artificial intelligence tools, but we have a viable solution to make writers and readers happy.
Those writers who use generative AI tools like Jasper or ChatGPT can send their stories to our new publication, the Lampshade of ILLUMINATION. Details are attached.
4 — What is Slack, and why should our writer join this group?
Slack is a collaboration and communication tool. Unlike social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, Slack is a private tool. Therefore, it is not just another social media platform. We use Slack because Medium lacks a chat tool, making it challenging to communicate with writers, editors, and publication owners to address issues. For instance, when your stories encounter problems or when you have questions, you can easily access our editors, who can help resolve your concerns. Our Slack is free and moderated, boasting over 18,000 members. Additionally, you can share your story links and garner more views. Joining our group can provide numerous benefits. It is a valuable tool to build your audience easily. Furthermore, it is configurable; for example, if you prefer not to receive notifications, you can simply turn them off. You can learn more about Slack from this story.
Recent Issues on Medium
It came to our attention that some serious issues happened on Medium, affecting the earnings of writers in the last week of September. Our editor Mike Broadly provided a comprehensive update.
If you are a new writer on Medium, please check out the following four points every new member keeps asking us. Medium is a unique platform and not very intuitive for beginners. It has its idiosyncrasies, like self-publishing versus adding drafts to publications. They produce different results for the visibility of your stories.
Now, Time to Meet New Writers Joining Today
Let’s welcome writers who joined our publications today. This is an excellent opportunity to explore the stories of these writers and follow them if their content resonates with you.
Pernoste & Dahl, Shyam Suma Francis, Sajid Sherif, Bigdreamsstudios, Juneorenji, Christina Daniels, Ali Evelyn, ChrisCrutch, izzibella Beau, Robert Cormack, Curated Perspective, Edward Reid — Writer, Historian, and Philosopher, Alice Lam, Stephen Trevarthen, 𝑨𝒌𝒉𝒕𝒂𝒓 𝑨𝒍𝒊, Liz Mroz, — Sharique Ahmad, Liberating Options, Aana Ethan, Dr. Bahadur PT, John Davis, Reza Sasanian (Mirza), FAITH ♡, Moonpie, Adam Johnston, Nuzha Sharik, Gajanan Rajput, Aayush Thakur
New writers, once more, please remember to submit only one story daily, preferably as a draft. We don’t accept multiple stories as our focus is on quality to increase your chance of being boosted by Medium.
Change of Perceptions and Expectations
Unlike some perceptions, ILLUMINATION editors don’t publish every story. Your stories must be well-crafted and valuable for our readers. Our focus is curate-able and boost-able stories, even though every story cannot be boosted by Medium, even if they are written well. Our goal is to delight readers who support the growth of writers.
How to Increase Earnings from Content Creation
Apart from the boosting opportunity on Medium, which can increase your income, our chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz, recently answered this frequently asked question by many writers on how to increase income from writing engagement.
Many writers desire to make a living from their craft. Using Medium as a single source is not a viable option. There are other opportunities that you need to consider. We believe this story will give you valuable perspectives.
You may also check this new case study posted by Dr Yildiz today, which gives aspiring writers unique perspectives.
Collaboration and Promotion
You will receive an invitation to our Slack workspace to collaborate with other writers, share your story links, and contact editors and our chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz. It is a free and moderated service.
You may meet some of our editors from the attached collection.
Introduce Yourself in a Story
Please consider introducing yourself in a story and post it to ILLUMINATION or our other publications. This might bring you new followers and expose your profile to new readers.
Our editor Aiden (Illumination Gaming) compiles and distributes these bios to our subscribers. You may get bio ideas from the attached collection.
You may also self-curate your stories to gain visibility. Aiden provided a sample example, as attached. You may follow a similar format by categorizing your stories based on topics.
You may also enjoy a recent story from one of our new writers and editors, Mike Broadly — Healthier Lifestyle, who made significant progress in the last two months. You may contact Mike on our Slack workspace, who volunteers to support our new writers.
Writer Introduction
We enjoy introducing writers to our community and subscribers. Today, we introduced Ani Vals.
We recently introduced a few more writers like Thomas Allen Moon , Omni Essence, Sneha Nagre, Sridhar Pai Tonse — Leadgen Coach- Tech Startups, Zondra Dos Anjos, and Ani Vals
You might also check recent editorial introductions from our team.
You can learn about our other editors’ backgrounds from this collection curated by ILLUMINATION-Curators.
Recent Announcements for Connection
You may check the following two announcements to meet other recently joined writers, including links to their profiles. This is a good opportunity for new writers to build their audience, as writers are great readers. We enjoy enabling collaboration on Medium by encouraging meaningful engagements.
Welcome to our writing and reading community, and we look forward to the meaningful and high-quality stories.
When you have questions, please feel free to contact our owner and chief editor, Dr Mehmet Yildiz, on our Slack workspace. He is also happy to speed up publishing your stories if they are delayed 48 hours or more.
Critical Policy Documents for Our Writers
Every writer contributing to our publications must review these guiding policies before submitting their stories. We are tolerant, but these are non-negotiable rules.
Writing Challenges and Prompts for New Writers
Helpful Resources for Beginners
Starter Kit for Writers of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications
Improving the Quality of Writing Using an Editorial Checklist
Five Tips to Become a Prolific Writer Despite Full-Time Work
You may find more helpful stories from the content management collection of Dr Mehmet Yildiz typically written to help new writers joining Medium.
Sample Curated Collections for New Readers
We curate and feature stories from multiple editorial accounts.
Here are our latest curated collections by ILLUMINATION, ILLUMINATION Amplifiers, and ILLUMINATION-Curators for your enjoyment.
Invitation to New Writers
To join our vibrant publications, please send a request via this link.
We will help you gain visibility and succeed as a writer on Medium. Please mention the publication name with your Medium account ID in the request.
ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications include:
ILLUMINATION ILLUMINATION-Curated ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR ILLUMINATION Book Chapters The Lampshade of ILLUMINATION Technology Hits SYNERGY Readers Hope Illumination on YouTube Illumination Gaming ILLUMINATION’s Blog EUPHORIA by Dr Mehmet Yildiz
