Applying to Publications on Medium for Beginners: 3 Layers of Fun!
The 2nd layer of the publication cake! A useful list and strategies for noobies looking to get published in medium-sized publications.
This is the second entry of a three-part series on applying to publications as a newbie on Medium.com. The first article can be seen below and focuses on smaller but newbie-friendly publications.
Layer 2 — Medium on Medium
The second layer of the publication cake is focused more on medium-sized ones. Many of these have been around for one or two years and have a very loyal audience. They tend to be slightly niche, and often include popular topics — but only one topic per publication.
These are also all privately owned publications, as in, they aren’t owned by Medium. You’ll occasionally see one or two stories from these publications on the main page, but that’s usually only the cream of the crop.
The reason why these are a great layer 2 of our publication cake? You have to be reviewed and added as a writer. Not that that sounds fun initially, but it’s a great way to get feedback on your Medium stories that you might not have received otherwise.
You’ll quickly learn that most publications only accept draft versions of your stories. Many of them don’t like more than 1 or 2 pictures. They’re also more strict on the organizational style of your story. Use only big ‘T’ fonts for titles. Page breaks in appropriate instances. Go light on bolding and italics. Don’t use the dropped first letter in a publication, sometimes.
These are just points dealing with aesthetics, even more important is the actual substance of your stories. Does your story match the overall theme of the publication? Have you looked at several of their top stories and compared the structure to your own? You can try a couple of these things when first venturing into this 2nd layer.
But as I mentioned before, my favorite part about this layer is that many of the owners & editors will give you feedback! If you want to be successful on Medium.com, this is extremely important in the long run.
All of the below have between 1,000 and 100,000 followers and are accepting new writers to the best of my knowledge.
Quick List:
- https://medium.com/the-post-grad-survival-guide
- https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose
- https://medium.com/literally-literary
- https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor
- https://medium.com/the-ascent
- https://medium.com/the-happy-startup-school
- https://medium.com/slackjaw
Long List:
1. The Post Grad Survival Guide
Followers: 21,000
Topics: Geared towards fresh grads — topics can include anything related to that, as long as there is some aspect of advice or learnings for their readers — work, relationships, travel, finances, etc.
How to Apply: Fill out the google form on this page with your username after reading through their guidelines.
Owner: Tom Kuegler
2. Live Your Life On Purpose
Followers: 7,900
Topics: Geared articles on how to do well in life, including: Life & Learning, Personal Finance, Productivity & Purpose, Individual Success
How to Apply: Reply to this story with your username and the phrase “I want to be a writer!”
Likely Owner: Steve Spring
3. Literally Literary
Followers: 27,000
Topics: Geared articles on how to do well in life including: Life & Learning, Personal Finance, Productivity & Purpose, Individual Success
How to Apply: First read their extensive guidelines, this publication is a bit of a stickler for quality writing! (Nothing wrong with that of course!) Then go to this page where you need to fill out some information including a draft, your username, and agree to some of their rules.
Likely Owner: Jonathan Greene
4. Data Driven Investor
Followers: 23,000
Topics: A wide variety of topics all geared around data, business, and investing.
How to Apply: First read through this article they published. Then send an email with your draft submission and your Medium username to [email protected].
Likely Owner: John DeCleene
5. The Ascent
Followers: 77,000
Topics: A community of storytellers documenting the journey to happiness & fulfillment.
How to Apply: Go to this page and fill out the Google form to be added as a writer.
Likely Owner: Steve Campbell
6. The Happy Startup School
Followers: 83,000
Topics: All about happiness and startup life.
How to Apply: Although not explicitly stating they accept new writers, they do have a lot and it can never hurt to try. I would send an email with a draft and some previous related examples, as well as a nice note and your username to [email protected].
Owners: Laurence McCahill and Carlos Saba
7. Slackjaw
Followers: 100,000
Topics: Anything funny or related to humor.
How to Apply: Go read this page here first, then send an email to [email protected] with your draft and username. Keep in mind they like most pieces to be within 300–750 words!
Owners: Alex Baia, sarah james, and tongue-in-cheek Matthew McConaughey
Next Layer and Other Tools
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Here are a few other top articles from there that have helped ten’s of thousands of Mediumites:
