Applying to Publications on Medium for Beginners
A useful list and strategies for noobies looking to get published.
After reviewing my first two months of being very active on Medium, I decided simply writing everything at my own whim wasn’t a good long term strategy. I wasn’t trying to be shown in publications, and I knew that was the next big step to make.
So I did what I always do with new challenges, I sat down and researched before coming up with a strategy. It resulted in the creation of many lists of publications, which I wanted to share with other Medium writers out there to be helpful.
Writing to be published
As a new blogger, and one that likes to be creative, my first few pieces that I submitted to varying publications didn’t get accepted. I quickly realized that it was because my stories didn’t suit their style.
Unfortunately, many of the bigger publications don’t tend to respond to your submissions, especially if you’re not yet a writer on their publication. You often have to email a publication first (with one of your drafts) before they’ll add you as a writer.
IF they’ll add you, that is.
Of course, you can’t expect to be accepted as a writer all the time, nor are we entitled to a response from an editor’s valuable time. The bigger the publication, the more of these requests they get every day.
It must be pretty tough with over 300,000+ writers on the platform — that’s a lot of emails and submissions!
Grateful for feedback
I have ended up getting great feedback from two publications in particular — The Writing Cooperative and The Post Grad Survival Guide.
I tried twice to publish on The Writing Cooperative, but my stories didn’t suit their style and expectations. I’m glad they replied and pointed out what areas of their submission guidelines I didn’t comply with.
At least I know for next time if I want to try again.
The Post Grad Survival Guide is a bit smaller, but much more niche and I have had great replies and interactions with the team there.
So far, since I started the strategy of trying to get published, I’ve had 8 articles in the last two weeks get released. I’m super stoked about this and hope to get more out in the coming months.
For those keen to see what kind of articles got published and where — here’s the list, in order of getting published (with number 6 being curated):
- https://readmedium.com/be-careful-what-you-wish-for-in-a-career-it-just-might-come-true-a10dd5726a4f
- https://readmedium.com/using-a-rubiks-cube-for-mindfulness-and-destressing-e66e9291927
- https://readmedium.com/why-do-you-humans-hate-bots-4c202b2d4054
- https://medium.com/me/stats/post/525ffd8f2e92
- https://readmedium.com/why-time-is-the-only-thing-you-need-to-be-successful-2d5d1057b5ac
- https://psiloveyou.xyz/i-lost-the-last-letter-my-uncle-ever-wrote-to-me-6fdc9add7d02
- https://readmedium.com/that-foreign-feeling-1983a545233d
- https://readmedium.com/why-you-should-bootstrap-your-first-startup-business-as-a-resume-booster-54be42288d97
3-Layered-Cake of Publications
I’ve outlined below the first of three different groupings of publications on Medium that followed my own path for publication. They are organized by my interpretation of an approach to getting published when you’re just starting. I’ve also listed relevant details on each group and publication.
I’ve put a description of each layer, followed by a quick list of the publications, with further expansion on them below for ease of reading and how to apply.
Layer 1 — Small But Friendly and Very Tasty
This first layer is for those that didn’t get curated with their first few articles (**this is based on my theory that all new members get their first 2–3 articles manually reviewed by curators — read the curation guidelines!).
This grouping of publications can help you get used to publications, how they work and what to do in them. I’ve highlighted these in particular, as they are chock-full of writers.
Many of them accept all writers just by responding to an article or sending them a nicely worded quick email.
Several of them are also writer-editor decentralized publications. This means that there are no editors to review your work before submitting it. It also means when you hit ‘publish’ it’s published right away (unless you schedule it).
Some of them are niche, but many accept all kinds of story topics.
The main benefit of these publications when you’re just starting is getting your stories read!
Self-publishing at the beginning, with 0 followers, is very difficult to get an audience to read your stuff (unless you get curated right away of course).
Some of the below publications have hundreds if not thousands of members, and many of them are also paying members of Medium — which means if they read your work, you’ll earn something.
They’re also great places to find both new and well-established writers on Medium. You’ll get to see new personalities of people that post a lot, and might come across a few great articles. You’ll also get to see different styles of writing, what works well, and what doesn’t.
These are useful places to start in your first few months of writing on Medium (and even after that of course!).
J.J. Pryor’s Quick List:
- https://medium.com/med-daily
- https://medium.com/writers-blokke
- https://medium.com/pop-off
- https://medium.com/predict
- https://medium.com/journal-of-journeys
- https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen
J.J. Pryor’s Long List:
1. Med Daily
Followers: 935
Topics: Everything!
How to Apply: Go to this page, read and send an email to [email protected] with a link to your draft. They’ll add you as an editor, so you can post at your leisure.
Owner: T.S. Johnson
2. Writer’s Blokke
Followers: 161
Topics: Everything!
How to Apply: Reply to the story on this page. Just be sure to write your username in the reply to make it easier for them to add you as an editor.
Owner: Benny Lim
3. Pop Off
Followers: 146
Topics: Pop culture — TV, media, music, content
How to Apply: Reply to the story on this page. Just be sure to write your username in the reply to make it easier for them to add you as an editor. The owner of the publication will clap 50 times on your reply to let you know you’ve been added.
Likely Owner: Melissa Miles McCarter
4. Predict
Followers: 7,600
Topics: Future predictions and related topics
How to Apply: Go to this page here for full instructions. Send an email to [email protected] with your draft or published work that you think would fit. If they like it, they’ll add you as a writer.
Owner: Eric Martin
5. Journal of Journeys
Followers: 1,000
Topics: Anything nonfiction and related to yourself — stories, epics, poems, etc
How to Apply: Reply to this article here and say that you’d like to join. They have many writers on this publication and I can see several got in touch through this method. Or, as Brian Brewington commented below, you can reach out to him, Tammy Hader or Brian Kurian on Medium or Twitter.
Likely Owner: Brian Brewington
6. The Partnered Pen
Followers: 5,900
Topics: Any topics written by MPP members
How to Apply: Although not officially stated, they have a huge amount of writers. I recommend emailing them at their official email and include a draft or two, with a nice note and your username. [email protected]
Likely Owner: Unknown
Next Layer and Other Tools
To get the next followups to the story, be sure to follow the Feedium publication!
Here are a few other top articles from there that have helped lots of Mediumites:
‘Rant’ over.
