Dear Editors, Requests on Behalf of All Writers

Help us grow and it will help your flow!

When I started writing on Medium, editors of big publications were as good as Gods. I’d submit this story that in my mind was my new masterpiece, and then pray sincerely for the Gods to accept and publish my work.

These Gods had different religions and shrines — if writing, business, self-improvement, and relationships were religions, The Writing Cooperative, The Startup, The Ascent, P.S. I love you, would be the shrines.

And being the secular person (read jack-of-all-trade writer) that I am, I visited each shrine when I so desired. And then, all I had to do was to pray for the Gods aka editors to accept my little offering to the shrine.

I’ll admit I had some good fortune with some of the best publications — I’ve been published multiple times with all of the above publications and many many more. I’ve also had the good fortune of being welcomed to join the editorial team of Illumination, one of the fastest-growing and democratic publications on Medium.

I’ve also, within the span of a bit over four months, tasted the joys of Medium curation over 30 times. Yet, I have my frustrations as a writer, when basic consideration is missing.

Here are some basic tips and requests for editors to make the Medium publishing process an exciting and not an agonizing process for writers.

1. Writers make your publication — not the other way round Most of the major publications have supportive and modest editors, who are all doing a big service to the writers by volunteering their time to edit and publish stories. Yet, one thing some editors or publications forget is that they got to where they are thanks to the contributors of the many writers that elevated the quality of their offering. So when editing stories, or leaving comments, one thing that’s easy to do is to leave out any condescending undertones or “I am above thee” feelings towards writers.
2. Rejection is your right — but giving a reason is basic courtesy I absolutely understand when my story is rejected by an editor for a variety of different reasons — it doesn’t fit their editorial or content goals for the month, they have published a similar piece recently or addressed the topic often enough, or simply because it doesn’t meet their own criteria. But it is extremely frustrating when a story is rejected without providing even the courtesy of a single line of justified or unjustified explanation.
3. Work With Us to Align Our Stories, Where Possible If a story is absolutely far from the mark or the objective of your publication, rejection is very understandable. A self-improvement story in a True Crime publication, or a discrimination piece in a fitness publication, surely makes sense to be rejected on the grounds of mismatch. But, oftentimes when a writer writes a story with a specific publication in mind, and is close, but not yet there, being an editor makes it your responsibility to help align them and get there. For example, Illumination offers a Slack group for writers and editors to combine and grow together — and provides support of a variety of different kinds. Other editors at The Startup, P.S. I Love You and many other publications are also helpful in working with writers to work on stories that have potential. So, please, help writers understand your “goals” rather than making them an opaque mystery box that no one can figure out.
4. Medium Curation Isn’t the Be-All & End-All Even Medium agrees to this now — so it is high time we all do. I’ve had stories rejected at first, and then Medium-curated. This is when the editors often come back and say “well, maybe we were wrong.” Really? Your conviction in rejection was subject to a “Chosen for further distribution” tag given by Medium that suddenly overturns your decision? Let’s not just chase one goal and make sure this is a platform for the writers, by the writers and hence provide readers the best content possible.
5. Not Everyone is a Native English Speaker I get it, you want writers to proof-read and edit thoroughly before a story is submitted. But, remember, good writing is not always subject to language proficiency, especially when Medium boasts of having writers from possibly over a hundred countries that contribute. Good content shouldn’t be subject to restrictions around a perfect grasp of the English language. If the writer has great content, why not help them work towards perfect or near-perfect English — isn’t that part of the job of an editor?
6. Help Us Become Better Writers, and You’ll Benefit Too! In the end, the better the writers become, the easier the editors’ job gets. So why not help writers be a better version of themselves, and leave them with an experience that makes them want to come back and work with you? I have publications and editors I LOVE working with, and others that I promise myself NEVER to submit again to after a sour experience. Try and be in that former bucket, and you’ll see the joy you get from the gratitude that writers can often shower in return.

I am sure there are other things that I missed — so tagging others to provide any perspective missed. I’ll separately do a story with some advice for writers to make editors’ life easier too — because there’s always the other side of the story!

Dr Mehmet Yildiz Haimish Mead Lynn Dorman, Ph.D.; J.D. Tree Langdon Britni Pepper Dew Langrial Geetika Sethi Ntathu Allen Paul Myers MBA Dr John Rose Desiree Driesenaar EP McKnight, MEd Joe Luca Sumera Rizwan Thewriteyard Agnes Laurens CR Mandler MAT