Guidelines For Writers Of Sista Publications

Spread the Ripple, Rooted, The Point of View, and Bitchy

We are Sista Publications

Sista Publications is a collective of independently run, women-led publications across Medium.

Why Sista? Because the three women editors running these pubs work as closely together, as sisters should. We frequently communicate to support, encourage, and inspire each other.

Note that “Sista” refers to the women editors, not the writers. We accept writers of any gender identity.

Our niches may be different and distinct, but we work with the same formatting and editorial guidelines to make your submission process as frictionless as possible.

We’d like to thank Debra G. Harman, MEd. from Parasol Publications for her mentorship and guidance. This guide is inspired by her.

Here are our editorial guidelines — as of February 2024 — for the four publications under the Sista Publications umbrella:

• Spread The Ripple — kindness, positivity, and happiness.
• Rooted — dives into food and drink culture.
• Bitchy — gender, identity, and culture through the feminist lens.
• The Point of View — opinions and op-eds on culture, society, politics, and everything in between.

These guidelines are for writers and editors for Sista Publications. They consist of three sections:

1. Writer specific guidelines
2. Publication specific guidelines
3. Editor-specific guidelines (included here for transparency)

This is a living document and will be updated when required.

Please use this as a reference tool for formatting stories you would like published within any Sista Publications publications.

Writer guidelines

Here at Sista Publications, we have streamlined our editorial guidelines. This means all our publications adhere to the same guidelines to make it easy for you, the writer.

Here’s what we need from you.

Formatting

All stories must have a Title (in big T and title case) and a subtitle (in little t and in sentence case).

Use big T and sentence case for subheadings. The font shrinks when published.

Subheadings are encouraged to help break up text and draw readers who skim articles. The three-dot divider is fine in some cases for instance personal essays.

All stories must have an image directly below the subtitle, which writers have permission to use and show attribution in the caption. Even if you use your own image, specify this in the caption. Please complete the “Alt T” for all images.

Screenshots are not allowed unless you have permission and it’s your own work. If you want to capture something from social media, use embeds.

Images interspersed throughout the story are permitted but discouraged in large amounts because they often detract from the story.

We recommend breaking large chunks of text up to help draw readers down through your article. No more than four lines of text in one paragraph, but they should be a combination of short and long sentences. One, two and three-lined paragraphs are encouraged. Make use of white space to help readers navigate through your story.

Numbers — one to nine are in written format, and 10+ are in numerical.

When using numbers at the start of the sentence, use letters — E.g. Fifty-nine percent instead of 59%.

Put period inside the quotes like so. “We’re going home, she said.” (not “We’re going home, she said”.)

Grammar

All stories must be high quality with no spelling, punctuation or structuring errors. We recommend you use a checker such as Grammarly.

We accept all versions of English — American, British, or other. For example, color / colour or personalize / personalise — both are fine.

Use contractions as they sound more conversational. “We’re” as opposed to “we are.”

We don’t allow comma splices (two complete sentences) to be separated by a comma. Separate comma splices with a semi-colon or full-stop.

No need to be trigger-happy with the exclamation mark (!) If you scatter them like confetti, they will lose their effectiveness. One or two per story is plenty(!!)

Citing and quotations

Pull quotes are allowed for additional text, but we discourage them for large chunks of text.

Please use block quotes when quoting from other articles.

Any claims or references to external sources are required to be linked. When linking, highlight no more than four words so it doesn’t look messy.

Sources should be linked within the sentences, not at the end of an article like in an academic paper.

Content

Absolutely no AI, ever. Sista Publications are about human stories.

We are looking for content with a personal touch or experience.

We allow non-gratuitous swearing.

Publication specific guidelines

While our guidelines apply to all four publications, there are a couple of areas where we deviate slightly.

We recommend you visit each publication to get a feel for what they are about.

Publication-specific guidelines include:

Read time

For Bitchy, The Point of View, and Rooted, stories must be between 4 and 8 minutes in read time.

At Spread the Ripple, your story can be any length.

Topic tags

Each of our publications require a specific topic to be tagged:

• For Bitchy, use the “Bitchy” tag. We also recommend “feminism” or “women.”
• For Spread the Ripple, use the “Spread the Ripple” tag as well as either “positivity,” “kindness,” or “happiness.”
• For The Point of View, use the “Thepov” tag.
• For Rooted, use the “Rooted” tag. We also recommend using “food.”

What each publication accepts or rejects

You can find the full submission guidelines below, but these are the headlines:

• For Bitchy, we don’t accept listicles, generic self-growth, or on a whole different genre or topic. All our submissions must be through the feminist lens.
• For The Point of View, all submissions must be opinions about a potentially controversial topic — no generic self-growth or advice.
• For Rooted, all stories must have a food and drink theme ideally based on personal experience. No generic recipes.
• For Spread the Ripple, all stories must have a prominent theme of kindness, positivity, or happiness.

Find the full submission guidelines here

Spread the Ripple by Ali Hall. A place for stories that spread kindness, positivity, and happiness.

Rooted by Charlie Brown. A place for stories that dive into food and drink culture.

The Point of View by June Kirri. A place for opinions or Op-Eds on culture, society, politics, and everything in between.

Bitchy by June Kirri. A place for stories about gender, identity, and culture through the feminist lens. Join their Discord channel to get support for your writing and chat with fellow writers and Bitchy editors.

Editor specific guidelines

For transparency, we are publishing our editor-specific guidelines that each of our editors must adhere to.

The chief editors for each publication are as follows:

• Spread the Ripple — Ali Hall
• Rooted — Charlie Brown
• The Point of View — June Kirri
• Bitchy — June Kirri

General advice

As editors, the first rule of thumb is to be kind and tactful.

We always greet writers in a helpful tone rather than show frustration. We get a variety of submissions. For some, it’s their first article; some are non-native speakers, and others have a great point to make but have difficulty bringing it to paper.

Our reaction will make or break the writer. Think of editors as guides who nudge writers toward the right direction.

Editors will communicate with each other on Discord in a supportive way so we can uplift each other.

If you’re upset about a team member, address them kindly and tactfully. If you can’t, speak with the chief editor of the publication you edit for, and we can figure it out together.

Editors are the face of the publications.

Whatever you say or do reflects on the publication. Therefore, we don’t write scathing articles about Medium or the boost program on or outside of Medium. It’s okay to talk about it within the editor’s circle, not outside.

Some editors can’t give as much time as others, and that’s okay.

But we expect our editors to edit weekly and follow up with your writers. Aim to edit at least two articles a week.

If you can’t consistently edit for us or stop being active on Discord, you will be removed (nothing personal. This is so it’s fair to the other editors).

If you’re going on a holiday or need a longer break, let the chief editor of your publication know.

We don’t allow stories that have already been published on the writer’s Medium page or another pub on Medium.

Medium doesn’t allow duplicate content on its platform.

We do allow articles that have been refurbished (but the writers have to delete the original first). Communicate this with the writer. Then go to the draft, go to “Manage Submission” and “Don’t Accept”.

We like to think our editors are some of the best writers on Medium. They know what good writing is and may know who the good writers are on Medium.

But sometimes, superior writers give poorly written articles, so don’t go by who is sending you the draft. Go by the quality of the article.

Keep an eye out for AI articles.

You’ll know it’s written by AI when it’s generic with little — if any — personal touch. Another way to see that is if the title has a colon. For example: “A Man’s Perspective: Why Can’t a Woman Share Mow the Lawn?”

We tell the writer that the piece is too generic and needs a personal touch. For now, speak with the chief editor of the relevant publication before addressing this with the writer.

Some writers ask if they’ve been nominated. We prefer not to answer that question because it has many headaches. Any issues with writers pushing back on this, speak with the chief editor of the relevant publication.

Remember, we accept all versions of English — American or British or other. For example, “color” vs. “colour” or “personalize” vs. “personalise.” Be aware that some writers use vocabulary that you may not know, but are common in their country. If you’re not sure, ask them to clarify.

Don’t change the words or move the sentences of the article, although you can suggest that. You can fix misspelled words, commas, and periods without telling them, but you’re probably overcorrecting if you’re correcting more than seven items (but feel free to do so if time permits).

If a story contains many spelling, punctuation, and story structuring errors, then it’s an automatic no. Ask them to resubmit when they’ve corrected the errors. For now, speak to the chief editor of the relevant publication before you do this.

All images should have a caption, even if the writer took them. Images taken from a publication are not allowed unless the writer has permission to use them, even if the image is credited. Screenshots are not allowed, either.

If the writer has more than four sentences in a paragraph, ensure they’re easy to read and separated by long and short sentences.

On mobile phones, long paragraphs take a lot of work to read. When there are many chunks of big paragraphs, don’t cut them off yourself. Tell them to break apart the paragraphs and to let you know when they’re done so you can start editing.

If the title and/or subtitle need work, let the writer know or suggest a better title/subtitle.

Writers can promote their services at the end of the article, but if the article looks like an advertorial (advertisement disguised as an article), it’s a hard no.

If you’re unsure about a certain article, speak with the chief editor of the relevant publication.

Technical advice

At Bitchy and The POV we only allow articles that are four minutes or longer. If the article is less than that, write something like:

“Hi [name of writer], thank you for your submission. We only allow stories that are four minutes or longer. Feel free to add and resubmit. Thanks.”

Then go to the draft, go to “Manage Submission” and “Don’t Accept.” You can do this without notifying June.

When rejecting an article, write a little note to tell them why you’re rejecting it. If it’s not fit, it may be relevant to recommend one of the other Sista Publications and ask the chief editor to add the writer so they can submit it if the writer gives permission.

You can also link to our editing guidelines (this story) and encourage writers to edit their stories and resubmit.

Sometimes, the article is not a good fit for a specific publication. See the Specific Publication Guidelines section above, for further information as to what is accepted.

You can go back to them with,

“Hi, thank you for your submission. The article is not a good fit for [name of publication] because [insert reason]. Here’s our submission guideline to help you write articles that fit our pub [insert guidelines of specific publication]. For now, message the chief editor of the relevant publication before you “Don’t Accept’ the writer.

Make sure all images have an “Alt T.” This is where we describe the picture for those who are blind. If it doesn’t have one, place them.

You can comment on the story or not comment after it’s published, but always give 50 claps to support the writer.

When you go into the essay and see an asterisk with a message that one of your fellow editors claimed the article, move on to the next article.

Before you start editing, write something at the top in a private message. E.g.

“Hi XXXX, I’m [editor's name]; thank you for your submission. I’ll edit now. In the meantime, please don’t edit or comment since it bumps me out.

Also, please don’t delete any of the comments until your piece is published. Our process is twofold: I’ll be your first editor. Once we’ve finalized our edits, our chief editor will take a look, and you’ll work with her to complete your piece.

She’ll be your last line of communication before publishing your story. Thanks :-)”

In areas where the writer talks about something that needs linking, let them know this part should be linked with a source. Most likely, these are parts that are not an opinion but a fact that need to be backed up.

Scheduling articles

Make sure you’ve received permission from the writer to publish the article before you message me.

The chief editors will read and publish every article that comes into their respective publications, even those you edited.

Please advise the chief editor of any articles that may be time-sensitive or if you have a piece that you want published today/tomorrow, we will do our best to accommodate this.

Read each publication's Write for Us section to gain more insight into what we tell our writers.

• Bitchy’s Write for Us
• The Point of View’s Write for Us
• Rooted’s Write for Us
• Spread the Ripple’s Write for Us