Helicopter Editor

How I look after ILLUMINATION-Curated

One of the most genuinely exciting things I’ve seen on Medium has been the recent appearance of the publication ILLUMINATION-Curated.

Not that ILLUMINATION itself isn’t a grand reading ride. The sheer number of articles, the variety of topics, the diversity of the writers, the energy of the editorial team headed by the indefatigable Dr Mehmet Yildiz, all make for a sizzling buffet feast of articles, stories, and poems.

I liken the energy and creativity to being at a non-stop writer’s conference: inspiring, informative, illuminating.

It was an honour to be invited onto the editorial team, and I enjoy working with writers on getting their submissions into the best possible shape for publication.

And now, the top tier of reading

In what has turned out to be a stroke of brilliance, the curated articles from ILLUMINATION were gathered into a new publication: ILLUMINATION-Curated. Here was Medium’s own selected pick of the crop, collected into one place: a guaranteed good read drawn from ILLUMINATION’s rich diversity.

Better yet, writers were invited to submit their very best stories for selection to sit alongside the officially curated stories.

If a story missed out on Medium’s own processes, then here was a second chance. We drew up our own curation guidelines, to ensure that writers and editors were literally on the same page.

ILLUMINATION-Curated has turned out to be a personally satisfying and rewarding exercise for me. I submitted a couple of my own curated stories, and they received a new wave of readers, earning me an astonishing $435 in two weeks. For stories originally published in early June, with readers and income slowing to a trickle by September. They came alive in the new publication.

With great pleasure, great responsibility

I won’t say that ILLUMINATION’s editorial procedures are slapdash or unprofessional. We aim to give every writer their best chance, and the diverse backgrounds of our writers mean that new writers, or writers whose first language is not English, or those who use unconventional techniques find that their voice is heard on ILLUMINATION.

If ILLUMINATION is an ongoing writer’s convention, then it follows that some writers are finding their feet or experimenting with technique, submitting pieces to test the water, gain feedback, and learn from experience, rather than pretend that they are producing a commercial and professional success every time. We all have to start somewhere.

I personally find these pieces add to the charm of the publication, and our editors enjoy working with novice writers. It is rare that we reject a submission, preferring to guide the writer into improving their work in the expectation that future submissions will be better and better.

There are few greater editorial pleasures for me than seeing a story rejected by other publications lifted not only into publishable status, but curated by Medium. Writer and editor alike are uplifted by this.

ILLUMINATION-Curated requires a different approach. Sure, we give everyone a chance, but we demand that higher standards, in line with Medium’s own curation algorithms and our editorial oversight.

Call me gatekeeper

I have two particular pet hates:

1. Plagiarism
2. Poor readability

Sadly, Medium is often home to people who copy the creative work of others and try to pass it off as their own. I have written about this at some length.

If a story seems too good to be true, I’ll look carefully at its originality. We use plagiarism-checking tools, and if I suspect that a piece is copied, I’ll do my best to find out where it came from.

One recent trick I’ve spotted: an article will be copied from a foreign-language source, run through an auto-translater such as Babelfish, and then presented as an original creation. Because the English text does not appear anywhere on the web, it will not be picked up by a plagiarism checker.

The inevitable outcome of robot translation is that the text produced comes across as stilted and unnatural. You want to slip that sort of guff past me, put some effort into polishing the prose. And if you go to that effort, why bother to copy the work of others in the first place?

Which leads to my second specialist skill

That is, checking for readability.

I have been a reader for almost all my life. I read in several languages, but obviously English is the one where I have the greatest familiarity. If the language does not flow, it jumps out at me. Mispellings, quirks in grammar, punctuation catastrophe’s: these all make me wince.

In a site paid for by readers rather than advertisers, readability is crucial. If your text sounds like it was written by a preschooler, or it is full of jargon, or you have sentences lasting half a page with words to match, then it’s not going to get past me, and most likely I won’t even bother to guide you through the process of fixing the defects. ILLUMINATION-Curated aims for the best work, the highest standards of Medium, and a story should already be polished and professional before submission.

I do other stuff as well

I look for stories that will not satisfy. Click-bait, spam, chestnuts. You won't find a story titled “How to Earn a Thousand Dollars on Medium in Your First Month” on ILLUMINATION-Curated. Not unless it can deliver the promise of the headline.

I look for submissions that shouldn’t be there. Stories that haven’t been curated. Writers who haven’t been invited. The sore thumbs that stick out, I hammer them down.

And you know what? I have an absolute whale of a time! I get to read some of the best writing on Medium. I love it!

Britni