How Not to Get Your Writing Rejected. 8 Tips From an Editor
Most common writer mistakes
Imagine reading 300 - 500 stories a day. Or more.
That’s what publication editors deal with. Every. Single. Day. Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?
I am an editor at Illumination and we see the same mistakes, over and over. Every day. Same mistakes.
Those mistakes slow down the process for everyone, not just editors. If an editor has to stop and send you a message, it delays getting your post out. And while we’re doing that, other submissions are sitting in the queue. We juggle the best we can. And we don’t mind. It’s what we do.
But here’s the kicker.
Often, frustrated writers head to a FB group to lament their frustration. — Why didn’t I get curated (I thought it was good, did you?) — Why is it taking so long? (How long should I wait?) — Omg, they edited my post! (How dare they?!!)
Here’s what writers don’t think about.
Everything that gets published reflects on the publication.
A publication full of low quality writing, typos, and spelling errors would not live long. Maybe short term, but not long term. People get to know, and no publisher wants that. Publications are a lot of work — and a labor of love.
So, when stories have issues, editors have to choose. Should they make small edits, reach out to the writer for corrections… or just reject it?
Many publications reject the article if it’s too much work to correct. We don’t like doing that. Editors are also writers. We know it sucks to get rejected.
Here’s eight tips to help your stories get accepted quickly and happily.
1. Credit your images correctly.
Crediting an image isn’t just about saying where you got it. It’s about confirming you have the legal right to use that image.
This is the number one mistake. Every day.
Saying “image from Pinterest” isn’t enough. Sorry. Not even if you link. Why? Because you must have the legal right to use that image.
Many artists have to pay lawyers to defend the rights of their own work because people saved it to Pinterest (ooh, pretty!) and then writers helped themselves like it’s an all you can eat buffet over there.
If they don’t pay lawyers, they lose the legal right to defend their copyright.
Creatives shouldn’t have to do that. Doesn’t matter how much you like the image you saw. If you don’t have the legal right to use it — don’t.
As writers, we’d be mad if someone took our writing and used it commercially and just said ‘story from Medium’ with no link. Right? Same thing. You need the legal right to use every image. End of story.
Image rights are in Medium’s guide…
Writers/pubs should use images they have the rights for and cite their sources.
Easiest way is to use images that have CC0 designation. That means the image has zero creative copyright attached. You can find CC0 images at many sites, including Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels, Piqsels, or FreeImages
It’s okay to use Google images. But — after you search, you need to click Tools>Image Rights>Labeled for re-use.
You’ll find images that are okay to reuse. But you’re not done yet. You still need to find the correct copyright holder and use proper credit.
P.S. Credit and link go in the caption... Pedantic, maybe. The editor can just paste the source into the image caption, if you provided it. But it’s simple to do — just click on the photo. You’ll see the caption area under the photo. That’s where the credit goes. Like so:
2. Strive for quality
This is a hard one, because when it comes to writing, “good” is subjective and a matter of taste, but bad writing is pretty easy to spot.
Bad writing often rambles and has no real point.
Good writing does one of three things. It teaches, entertains, or makes a point. Even better if it does two of those.
Think storytelling, not writing in a diary or journal. You know?
Here’s how Medium describes good writing…
Does the story meet a high editorial standard? — Is it well-written, easy to follow, free of errors, appropriately sourced, narratively strong, and compelling?
Writing is a skill, and we all learn as we go, but at the same time, if people find your stories to be rambling and incoherent, eventually they stop reading. That’s not good for anyone. You or the publication.
Three tips to improve quality…
— The first way is to read it out loud. Not in your head. Out loud. There will be parts where you stumble. Fix those.
— Second way is to read the story to yourself. Then ask yourself — is that how you’d tell the story to a friend over coffee? You want to aim for storytelling.
— Third way is to find someone to read your drafts and give you feedback. It can be a friend, or post a request on one of the FB groups. Just ask if there’s anyone who would read your draft. Someone will. Writers are good to each other that way. Someone will always offer to give feedback.
Editors don’t like having to reject articles, but they also have to keep in mind that everything published reflects on the publication in the long run.
3. Read and know the curation guide
Medium created the curation guide for a reason. It’s not just the guidelines for curation, but also a quality indicator.
I cannot tell you how many people I’ve seen posting to FB asking why their story didn’t get curated, only to discover they didn’t follow the curation guide. They didn’t even know. Oops!
True story. I opened an article submission, and at the top of the story was a giant ad type graphic of a book cover and review made into one big banner, and linked to where to buy the book.
I was typing a response to the writer to suggest moving that big advertorial to the bottom so people could see the story before the ad, when another editor hit publish. Oops.
That piece would not likely get curated with that big old ad at the top. And maybe the writer doesn’t care about getting curated. But the writer might care if people click the story, take one look at the ad, and then leave.
Editors want writers to succeed. Publications love when people read their writers. So we try to use the curation guide as a model for what to accept, what to publish, and what changes to suggest.
It would be very helpful if writers were familiar with those guidelines.
Read the curation guide. Trust me, it will make it much easier for editors to hit publish on your stories.
4. Cite your sources.
Writers, this is not rocket surgery. If you’re claiming something is a fact, if you’re repeating something you heard elsewhere — cite. With a link.
If you look at the popular posts, you’ll notice they link to sources. Top writers here always cite their sources. Citing your sources has a benefit. Credibility. Credible links make you credible.
When should you cite?
Easy. If it’s a fact or statistic, you cite. If you heard it elsewhere, you cite. If it’s an opinion, you don’t.
Writers have opinions. Most of what we write is opinion.
People read because they want your opinion. Your perspective. But — people won’t want your opinion unless they first know you’re credible. Citing sources is how you earn credibility.
Even Medium says so… twice!
Does the story meet a high editorial standard? — Is it well-written, easy to follow, free of errors, appropriately sourced, narratively strong, and compelling?
and here;
Are claims supported? Sources cited alongside stated facts? Does the story hold up to scrutiny?
Yes, it takes a little time. The credibility is worth it.
5. Pay attention to formatting!
Have you ever read a great big long paragraph that goes on and on for so many lines your eyes get tired and there’s no white space and it doesn’t even break when you talk about a different topic, which we should all know because teacher drilled that into us during our school years — a new topic means a new paragraph, but to heck with the rules. Like now I’m going to talk about my cat, which should be a new paragraph but it’s not because my enter key is broken or maybe I think writing on the internet is like writing a book and people won’t mind a great big block of text that goes on and on and never gives the poor reader’s eyes a break, no formatting just a wall of words. So anyway, back to the cat. Sorry, I forgot what I was talking about I’m just writing a wall of text. See how hard this is to read? lol.
Don’t do that. Okay? It’s real hard to read.
Even worse if the reader is reading on their phone. Then it is, literally, a wall of words. Unless you want them to leave. Then go ahead.
There are some people who can write a 9 minute read with no formatting, no subtitles, just words and more words. And? Their writing is so crazy compelling no one cares that it’s not formatted for ease of reading.
I can count those people on one hand.
I am not one of them. You probably aren’t either. You and me, we should format.
Here’s what Medium says about it:
Does it offer a good reading experience? — Is it properly formatted for the web/mobile?
6. Strive for compelling titles.
Full credit — this suggestion comes from Ryan Fan. Too many people use titles that are more like book titles than like compelling headlines. (Link below)
Poets do this a lot. When the homepage is full of enticing titles, you can’t be disappointed when people don’t click to read a one or two word title. Yes, I know poems need to be named what they need to be named. I get that. Lucky thing there’s a subtitle field. Make good use of it.
No matter what you write, essays or poetry, if people aren’t clicking, the title is almost always to blame. If they’re clicking but not reading, then it’s the writing. If they’re not even clicking, it’s probably the title.
Go here and read Ryan’s post about writing great titles. I promise, it’s 3 minutes well spent!
Also? A few more. Here’s what Medium says about titles…
Don’t use all caps in the headline. No typos in the headline. No links in the headline, no profanity and no clickbait.
7. Understand that editors are doing their best…
Let me paint a picture for you. I’m sitting in front of the submissions screen. I open a story and read it to check for image credits and obvious errors. I hit submit. Then I clap and leave a comment or share it to Twitter.
When I go back to the submissions screen, there’s 10 new submissions. Me and every other editor. That’s how it goes — for all editors. The morning people get whacked most. Less so in the evening.
Know what that editor doesn’t need?
That editor does not need to be bombed by 7 private messages in a row from the same writer who is mad because the editor changed the all-caps title to title case. Or asked for an image credit.
Because the last editor didn’t care. The last editor didn’t ask. It was always fine before, why are you asking now. Etc.
Editors do not always agree. We are human. One editor might let it slide that you don’t have the proper rights to an image. Another might not. One editor might not mind that your post has no line breaks. Another might.
We are human. We are not the Borg.
All editors want your stories to do well. All editors want to do the best job they can for both the publication and the writers. Don’t sweat the details.
And speaking honestly? The most exacting editors are the ones that will help you improve most as a writer. Letting mistakes slide does you no favors. Especially if it costs you curation.
8. It helps if we can reach you…
Not to state the obvious, but if you have notifications turned off, how would you like editors to respond to your submission if they need to?
When we read a submission, we don’t know your notifications are turned off. How would we? So, if we send a message asking for corrections or an image credit or citation and don’t hear back, then what?
Then your piece sits there at the bottom of the queue like diaper droppings in the pool and we don’t know what’s happening. Are you away? Sick? Family emergency? Or are notifications off?
When we don’t hear back, the only options left are to accept or reject.