Chosen for Further Distribution: Medium, We Found an Easy Way

You have to download this one.

Skip and go to the Update

If you are reading this article, it has been one of my most-read stories here on Medium.

Since I first posted it in October 2020, others have found a way to make it easy to see which topics your story has been Medium curated or chosen for further distribution.

I also wrote an accompanying post on Medium curation: “What You Need to Know About “Chosen for Further Distribution” in 3 Minutes.”

Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, I have found the answer.

I first submitted, The Next Time You Google Dunkin’ Near Me, It Will Show an Arby’s Nearby After Inspire Brands Acquires Dunkin’ for $8.8 Billion to a publication that has yet to publish any of my writing. It was rejected. ( Update: I did get published on The Startup)

If you haven’t experienced being rejected by editors, you will get used to it. It is never personal. Sometimes your story is not a good fit with the publication’s branding. It should serve as an inspiration for any writer to try harder.

I could have published it on my own, but it was an article on business. I want to see it published in a more significant publication. I submitted it to DataDriven Investor, and they accepted it. Big thanks to Justin Chan.

I was surprised that I saw “distributed” in the graph when checking the stat page.

I asked myself, does this mean it was Medium curated? The last time I got curated on Medium, I received an email, and it tells you that your article is curated on the following tags you used.

The article I got curated was, Love Is Blind but Let the Blind See Your Facebook Photos. It was curated on the following tags I used, Disability, Social Media, and Accessibility.

I was excited to share it with all the new writers out there about my article’s experience.

But with the new changes, as Medium is now moving toward a more relational Medium, curation rules have changed.

Out of curiosity

I want to find the article, The Next Time You Google Dunkin’ Near Me, It Will Show an Arby’s Nearby After Inspire Brands Acquires Dunkin’ for $8.8 Billion being distributed.

I checked each tag I used, and I didn’t find my article. I searched on Medium and found an article by Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, How to Find the Topics for Curated Stories.

While it is true, it doesn’t work anymore, and Dr. Mehmet Yildiz has a follow-up article about it, Correction for Curation Instructions.

I have this idea that it must be under Medium Topics.

I went exploring the Medium topics page. With a little sleuthing, I checked the business topic, and there it was, my article chosen for further distribution.

All I can say is, “Hallelujah, Jesus.”

Even if I didn’t use business as a tag on my article, The Next Time You Google Dunkin’ Near Me, It Will Show an Arby’s Nearby After Inspire Brands Acquires Dunkin’ for $8.8 Billion or any of the related topics /tags to business, it was curated under the Business topic.

The article is a business story. It is about Dunkin being acquired by Inspire Brands. It is a relatively new story. It is only a few days ago when the news came out.

Takeaway

Before you submit your article to any Medium publication, my takeaway is choosing a publication that is a good fit based on the topic of your article and the publication’s branding.

My article got published at Data Driven Investor, which is an excellent publication for stories on business.

But, again, as writers, let’s focus on our writing. Let us be grateful for the little blessings that come our way. Being curated doesn’t necessarily translate to more views, ore more reads.

But, it gives new writers like me enough reasons to stay and not quit. Especially when the inner critic in our heads tells us we are not making any progress.

Whenever we publish a new article, it is progress, and as writers, we would always be a work in progress.

Update:

This Chrome Extension makes it all easy. Thank you, Mariana V.

The hack works. As you can see on the video, without the Chrome extension, the topic isn’t displayed. The article, “How Does Spotify Know You so Well? Meet Hey, Spotify Voice Assistant,” was Chosen for further distribution. Still, with the Chrome extension, the topic where the article was Medium curated is now displayed and it is “technology.”

Disclaimer: If you don’t want to install the Chrome extension, the old ways of finding where your articles are curated still work! Enjoy.

If you want to read the original article, here is the link on my google site.