Summary

Andrey Pilipets shares his insights on selecting Medium publications to publish articles, based on his experience as a new writer and editor at New Writers Welcome, emphasizing audience size, relevance, and predictability.

Abstract

Andrey Pilipets, a newcomer to Medium with a growing following and earnings, reflects on his editorial experience at New Writers Welcome and its impact on his expectations from other publications. He outlines key factors to consider when choosing a publication: the size of the audience, the relevance of the audience to the writer's topic, and the publication's predictability in terms of review and publication processes. Pilipets also provides practical tips for identifying the best publications, such as checking follower counts and submission guidelines, and shares his personal decision to leave certain publications due to a lack of predictability, despite their follower numbers. He concludes by recommending specific publications that align with his fitness and productivity niche and emphasizes the importance of educational support for new writers.

Opinions

Pilipets values the editorial team at New Writers Welcome and compares the experience to refereeing in sports, enhancing his understanding of the writing and editing process.
He believes that publications should maintain a high standard and professional attitude, which has become his expectation after serving as an editor.
The author suggests that writers should aim for publications with a large number of followers to increase the visibility of their work.
He emphasizes the importance of audience relevance, stating that readers follow publications for specific topics and quality content.
Predictability in the publication process is crucial for Pilipets; he expects publications to adhere to their guidelines, provide timely feedback, and communicate reasons for article rejections.
Pilipets appreciates the distribution power of publications like Better Humans, which automatically distributes articles across multiple topics, potentially increasing exposure.
He praises ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications for its quick response time and acceptance of diverse topics.
New Writers Welcome is highlighted for its educational focus and support for new writers, which Pilipets finds invaluable.
The author has made strategic decisions to leave publications that did not meet his expectations in terms of predictability and communication, despite their large follower base.
He encourages other writers to use his approach to curate a list of ideal publications that suit their content and provide a supportive environment for growth and learning.

Christmas Cleanup: My Publication Experience I Want You to Know

Why I left The Shortform, In Fitness and In Health, and several other publications.

I’m still a newbie here on Medium. 2 months, 20 published articles, 400+ followers. I got to double-digit monthly earnings this month.

I’m also an editor at the New Writers Welcome publication. It gave me an interesting experience I’d like to share with you today. It comes from being an editor for a month.

We have an amazing editorial team here at New Writers Welcome. Robert Ralph, Dazzling Shene, Francesca Dallaglio, Marilyn Glover, Sally Prag. I can compare it to my previous experience of being a referee for my sport, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. You start to understand the rules better. You see more people doing the same thing. You know what to expect from your own fights. You develop an outside look at the fighting game.

What has being an editor changed? My expectations from other publications I write for. I expect a certain standard and attitude now.

Why do I write for publications?

To get more eyeballs on my writing.

What if I’d have enough people reading my work? I’d self-publish. Or create my own publication. Example: Euphoria by Dr Mehmet Yildiz.

Who are publications run by? Volunteers. Does that mean they can do whatever they want? Well… they still have to play by the rules.

What do I need to focus on choosing a publication?

Audience size. The bigger the better.

How do you see a publication’s audience size?

It’s the number of followers. Some publications display it on the main page, some don’t. You can check the biggest publications list here. Or you can open a publication page and add '/latest' to the web address. It shows the current number of followers.

Aim for publications with biggest number of followers.

2. Audience relevance.

Why do readers follow publications? Two main reasons:

Readers want certain topics. Why would Hackernoon.com readers care about my fitness tips?
Readers expect quality content. That’s where editors act. They do the quality check. Sometimes they edit, too.

Choose publications that focus on your topic or allow it.

3. Predictability

You expect predictability.

If you follow a publication’s rules, they publish you. Or edit a little and publish. They have deadlines. They can reject your article, too. In this case, they send you a note with the reason. You know what to expect and when to expect it.

Submit to publications that are predictable.

It’s that simple. Open the top publication list. Make a list of publications that match your topic or allow it. Submit your writing to them to understand how predictable they are.

You got your ideal publication list! (check the picture below).

How to pick your ideal publication. Image by the author.

My Christmas Cleanup

I finished my research. How did I use it? First, I left a few publications with less than 1K followers. It’s hard to recall why I joined them back then.

I left 2 publications that you might hear about before. Why? Predictability:

In Fitness and In Health. Close to 20K followers.

I got one article published with them. Something strange happened afterward. I submitted my articles several times. They froze in the ‘Submitted’ condition for a week until I removed them. Never got a note or even rejection. The publication has a 24 hours reaction time set in the 'Write for us' section:

We review submissions promptly. Please allow up to 24 hours for review… If a submission has been rejected, we will ALWAYS add a private note to the story as to why. — Submission guidelines

The Shortform. 2.9K followers, constant advertisement from Kristina God.

I joined this publication because of Kristina. I respect her work a lot. Yet, my relationship with The Shortform has been difficult. I sent them a join request 3 times. They only accepted the last one. My last submission got rejected twice without a note. In fact, it was a surprise to see my article back in the drafts. I thought ‘OK, maybe I forgot to submit it’ and did it again. Just to find my article in the drafts again the following day.

Publications I want to focus on

Better Humans 383K followers. Fitness and Productivity are good topics for them. I have published several articles with them. A friendly top publication with a great attitude and editorial standards.

The best thing about Better Humans? All my published articles got distributed.

This is a powerful feature. All my pieces were distributed in 2–4 topics. This happened straight upon publishing. Do Better Humans have a right to choose for further distribution? Or are their standards considered sufficient to auto-distribute?

2. ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications

135K followers total. 46K followers for the main ILLUMINATION publication. This is one of the best universal publications. Every topic and length are fine. The reaction time is 24 hours. They stuck to it every time I submitted.

What’s best about ILLUMINATION? 24 hours reaction, all topics are fine.

3. New Writers Welcome (NWW).

4.3K followers. New Writers Welcome is one of the few publications that focus on, surprise, new writers. What does that mean? The editors have to do a lot of corrections. There’s a lot of emphasis on new writer education. Every length and almost every topic are welcome. 48 hours reaction rule.

What’s best about New Writers Welcome? Education for new writers.

This article tells about my experience with publications. How my expectations changed after working as an editor. My advice for choosing your list of best publications. How I used this approach to stop writing for certain publications. My list of publications I want to focus on.

What was your experience with publications so far?

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Andrey Pilipets - Medium

Read writing from Andrey Pilipets on Medium. I'm a passionate online personal trainer for 10+ years. I love to create…

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