How to Bypass Newbie Mistakes on Medium and Jump Straight to Publishing Success

Helpful tips for new writers

I’m relatively new here on Medium but after countless hours digging through submission guidelines, and ‘how to’ articles I am going to put all early days essentials in one convenient place!

So, let’s break down the basics.

Your Profile

Your ‘About’ space is crucial to utilize properly. It is the easiest way for editors and readers to get a feel for who you are and what they will see if they follow you or accept you onto their publication. What do you write about? Have you been published in any of the bigger Medium publications, or in other noteworthy non-Medium ways? It’s okay to say so, it’s not bragging but it does stay loud and clear, ‘others have read, trusted, and enjoyed my work, you will too.’

In addition, don’t forget to add a link to your website, blog, or favorite social media. Most publications will not accept advertising and personal promotion, so keep it here where the curious will find it.

How to become a writer.

Yes, I know, you thought you already were one, and a sincere congratulations on passing the first hurdle to this job… being confident enough in yourself to say that out loud.

Your next job is to read, read, read. Search quite widely for stories that interest you and follow them back to the publications that have published them. Follow those you feel resonate with you and get to know their individual styles and preferences.

Now it’s time to get on the staff of the publications that you hope will be a home to your work.

Each publication does it slightly differently but essentially there are two ways.

1. Request to be added as a writer, either by leaving a response to the ‘write for us’ article on their site.
2. By sending a draft of your article either by email or by form.

An important note here is that all publications will want you to give them your medium handle, that is not your name it is your @username, found if you click your avatar icon in the top left of your screen.

To send a draft of an article once you have the piece open on the top right corner of your screen you’ll see three dots. If you click this you’ll see the second option down is ‘Share draft link’. Clicking on this gives you a link to copy and paste into your email to the editor or onto the form the publication provides.

How to submit your work

Once you have been accepted as a writer it is time to start submitting, but please read each publication’s guidelines very carefully and make sure your piece is well suited to them.

When you hit ‘publish’ you will be given the option to add up to 5 tags. These tags are how readers will find your work, but whereas on other social media platforms you need to be as specific as possible, that is not the case here. Medium’s tagging works alongside its topics. Refamiliarise yourself with them here and place your article in the rights groupings so the algorithm can place your article in front of the readers who have already requested content on that topic, for example, ‘race’, ‘podcasts’, or ‘bio tech’.

Formatting Helpers

The rules can seem long, confusing, and more than a little overwhelming at times, especially for the bigger Medium publications. Don’t let this put you off submitting your work, if it means something to you, then it’s worth the effort.

The most important thing you can do is check and double-check the guidelines for the publication you are hoping to reach. They are very clear and detailed but to begin with, here are the best time saver tools.

Most obvious… Grammarly. It’s free and you’d be surprised at how many little things you unwittingly miss. And bear in mind, most editors have Grammarly installed, so even if their eyes may have missed things, the moment they receive your article, they have a little icon telling them how many mistakes are present. There is no more silly reason to have your work rejected than punctuation errors.

Titles and subtitles

When I started I had no idea about the rules of ‘title case’ or ‘sentence case’. This tool is a simple lifesaver which you just copy and paste into and put your mind at ease. Remember your title and subtitle are the carrots to enough your readers closer.

In addition to this is the brilliant Headline Studio.

This tool is amazing. It works with you to create the best title for your article and in the process, you end up learning a lot more about what catches the reader’s attention and interest. It offers each headline a score based on the type of words you’ve used, sentiment, clarity, and other factors, and aiming for 75 or above will keep your articles getting noticed.

In all honesty as someone more familiar with fiction writing, article headlines are an entirely different ballgame and this free resource has been a game-changer for me.

An important tip for subtitles is once you’ve written one into your article, go back to it and highlight the words. You will see a small toolbox pop up, click on the small ‘T’ and it will move the sentence into the correct position for you.

Photographs

Medium is an affiliate of Unsplash but there are other sites that offer free images, such as Pixabay. Take the time to find good images. Edit them to be landscape if they aren’t already and always, always credit the creator and source you found them on.

Use of Bold, Italics, and Spacing

Most publications do not approve of unnecessary use of bold, italic, or spacing which breaks up the flow of the piece in an attempt to hold the reader’s attention. Keep your paragraphs on the shorter side but let your writing do the work of holding interest.

How to build community

We all love to receive feedback on our work and once you get past the daunting nature of it, posting into a huge platform like Medium, can feel quite lonely.

Are you being read?

Are people liking your work?

Is there anybody out there?

It’s pretty much a given that if you feel that way then others do too. Creating a network of writers and a real sense of community on Medium is actually really easy. Just like on other social media platforms you can ‘like’ things, the only difference being on Medium, we clap and clap generously.

In addition to this, you can highlight phrases, sentences, or whole paragraphs of other people’s work. Things that you resonate with, or jumps out at you and that you really enjoy. Don’t do it just for the sake of it, but when done with sincerity it means a lot to the writer.

Finally, you can go that little bit further and offer a response at the bottom of the article. This is a great way to ask a question, offer feedback, or show your appreciation for the contents of the piece.

A different but just as important way to build your network is how you approach joining publications. It is good etiquette not to just join and submit straight away but join and actually be a part of the community first. That includes reading other people’s articles, interacting with them, following the editor and any writers whose work you would like to read more of, and generally treating it as a community rather than just another destination for your work.

Most of all never forget that to be a good writer, you need to be a good reader, and to be courteous and respectful with others and you hope they will be with you and your work. Writing is a vulnerable pass time, supportive communities help.

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