How to Place Your Stories in Top Medium Publications

These 7 steps will improve your success rate

I started writing on Medium in April. I’m a professional freelance writer, and my work was drying up during the pandemic. I figured with my background and experience, it would be easy for me to get started on Medium. So, I set up my Stripe account and started writing.

Let me start by saying it hasn’t been as easy as I expected. To start, I wrote two stories and published them on my own, to my audience of maybe a dozen people. (And who were these people, who were somehow following me before I had written anything?!)

I shared those stories with my friends and connections on Facebook and LinkedIn, but still, they went nowhere. I did a little research and decided that if I wanted my work to reach an audience, I should try writing for publications.

Since then I’ve had stories published in the Ascent, The Writing Cooperative, Better Marketing, Tenderly, In Fitness and In Health, Curiosity Never Killed the Writer, and Feedium.

It hasn’t been all success, though. Stories I sent to The Startup, The Ascent, Better Humans, Mind Cafe, Post-Grad Survival Guide, Forge, Elemental, The Writing Cooperative, Better Marketing, and Heated all got shot down.

Here’s what worked for me.

Step 1: I Joined the Medium Partner Program

I was already a member of the partner program — I had been reading stories on the site for a few months before I started writing there.

If you want to write for Medium publications, I think you’ll want to invest in the Medium Partner Program. Many publications will only accept submissions that are behind Medium’s paywall.

It will help you as a writer, too. How are you going to learn more about the content, tone, and writers that resonate with Medium readers if you aren’t reading what’s out there?

Plus, if you hope to earn money from your writing on Medium you need to be part of the partner program.

Step 2: I Wrote Stronger Headlines

I’ve never been great at writing headlines, and I’ve always had editors who could make them better for me. Not with Medium, though. My first headlines were weak, and when someone is scrolling through a list of articles, deciding what to read, I can see why they would just keep scrolling.

Now I run my headlines through CoScheduler’s Headline Analyzer. It gives me a score that shows me how strong (or weak) my headlines are and tips on what I can do to make them better.

Most publications can edit your headlines, but I’ve only had one make a minor change in one story. I suspect if the headline isn’t strong enough, they might just reject the story altogether. If you aren’t drawing the editor in with your headline, how will you draw in readers?

Step 3: I Learned to Position My Article for Success

Once you have a strong headline, make sure it carries through wherever people might see your story.

Display title and subtitle. I discovered that when I edit my title and subtitle, those changes don’t always come through to the display title and subtitle. Now I check: I click on those three little dots in the upper right (on a computer) and then on change display title/subtitle to make sure that’s the title and subtitle I want. If not, I can edit it there.

SEO title and description. I didn’t always edit my SEO title and SEO description either. (This text is what will show up in search engine results like Google.) Sometimes I want my story title and my SEO title to be the same. But I usually want to customize my SEO description, since by default Medium uses the first few lines of the story. I usually write an expanded version of my subtitle for the SEO description.

To change the SEO info, click on More settings under the three dots. Scroll down and you’ll see options for SEO Title and SEO Description.

Tags. With my first articles, I don’t think I even added any tags. Now I use all five tags, every time. I choose the most popular ones that make sense for my topic. If I submit a story to a publication and it doesn’t get accepted there, I might change one or two tags so it’s a better match for the audience of the next publication I target.

Links to my other stories. If the publication you’re targeting allows it (check the submission guidelines) add one or two of your other stories to articles. I’ll usually put two stories at the end, with a note that says, “If you liked this story you may also like…” You just need to cut and paste the links for your other stories and hit return. Medium will make them pretty.

Step 4: I Looked for a Good Home for Each Story

I’ve spent a lot of time researching Medium publications. There’s a lot to consider. First, there are so many publications out there.

There are Medium-owned publications. You’ll see them in the tabs across the top (Momentum, OneZero, Elemental, Gen, Zora, Forge, Human Parts, Marker) if you look at the main Medium page on a computer.

And there are probably thousands of publications that aren’t owned by Medium. The publications are all unique, both in content and in submission guidelines. Some take pitches, while most want full drafts. A few will commission articles. Some are closed to new writers. Sometimes you have to request to be added as a writer. In others, once you get a story accepted you’re automatically added as a writer.

You want to look into:

What publications cover your topic?

After I wrote an article on pandemic victory gardens I looked for a publication where it might fit. I searched Medium for the topic Food, and I filtered those search results for Publications. That brought up Elemental, Mother Jones, Heated, Tenderly, and Serious Eats.

Searching for the Food tag instead, I could see where recent stories got published: Heated, Elemental, Age of Awareness, and One Table, One World.

Under tags, I also sorted by top writers, where I could click through to their profiles, and scroll through their articles to see where they’ve published.

Not all publications are still active, even though the content is still there on Medium. Serious Eats, for example, has 20,000 followers, but it folded in 2016.

And some are private — people or companies start publications to showcase their own work and don’t accept outside writers. All the stories on the Mother Jones publication, for example, are authored by Mother Jones.

How big is their audience?

There’s no guarantee that landing your story in a big publication will reach a big audience. Still, you’re playing the odds. If you’re a newer writer just starting out, targeting the big publications might be disappointing. You’ll build confidence as you see your stories find homes with some of the smaller publications.

More experienced writers might want to target the bigger publications. I like to aim for some of the top publications and if I don’t get accepted I move down my list.

It can be tricky to figure out how big an audience is for a publication:

• On the main Medium page on the desktop, if you hover over the name of a publication near a story (not the names at the top) you’ll see the number of followers.
• Some publications include the number of followers in their “about” section.
• Smedian shares details, including audience size, for lots of Medium publications

How many stories do they publish?

Some publications post a lot of stories every day. Others only post a few. That means in some publications your article might be at the top of their page for a day or two, but in others, it might only be highly visible for a couple of hours.

Your story might reach more readers if you target a smaller publication that posts less frequently, compared to a bigger publication where your story might get bumped out of its prime position quickly.

(If you’re wondering, I sent my article on pandemic victory gardens to Heated but I never got a reply, so I tried Tenderly and it got published there.)

Step 5: I Made Sure I Met the Submission Guidelines

I missed the mark with a few of my earliest submissions. They got turned down because I didn’t meet all of their guidelines. Luckily, in some cases, I got a second chance to fix my mistakes and resubmit the stories.

Most publications have submission guidelines. Look at the top of their page for contribute, write for us, or submission guidelines. Read them carefully. These are crucial and they are tricky.

Some publications want substantive paragraphs. Some want lots of white space. Some want subheads in title case and some want them in sentence case. Some want three dots breaking up the copy in certain places. They all have their own rules about links and embeds. If you submit an article to a publication and it doesn’t get accepted, you might need to do some refreshing and formatting before you submit it someplace else.

Make sure all of your images have credits. I didn’t realize at first that if I supplied an image myself it still needed to be credited. Now I know to add “Courtesy of the author” so it’s clear that no one else deserves credit. For outside images, I need to make sure I’m giving the artist or photographer credit for their work. Otherwise, the story might not get accepted.

Step 6: I Submitted My Stories

This step is relatively easy. So far, all of the publications I’ve submitted stories to either have:

• A form on their page for online submission.
• A way to request to be added as a writer.
• An email address where you can send a link of your story draft.

To send a link, you just click on those three dots at the top right and click on share draft link. You can copy that link and send it to your publication.

If you’re added as a writer to a publication, go to the same three dots, click on add to publication, and choose the publication you want.

Being accepted as a writer for a publication doesn’t guarantee your stories will be accepted — it just means you’re approved to submit articles.

Step 7: I Tried Again

I’m always disappointed when my stories don’t get accepted at my first-choice publications, but I’m not usually surprised. There are a lot of talented writers out there submitting a lot of quality stories. I’ve had stories that land on the first or second try. I have one that’s out for the eighth time and I’m waiting to hear back.

If my story doesn’t get accepted and I want to submit it to another publication I don’t just resend it. It’s an opportunity to strengthen it:

• I read it again. Is my intro compelling? Is my copy tight? I usually see places I can be more concise once I’ve stepped away from the story for a while.
• I check their submission guidelines to make sure I’m on target. Do I need to break up my copy more? Am I using drop quotes and pull quotes properly? Should I add or remove images or links?
• I look at the latest headlines for the stories the publication is running. Do they have a lot of listicles? A lot of first-person testimonials? A lot of how-to stories? I’ll tweak the headline to match what I see.
• I read five or six of their new or most popular stories and I’ll revamp my article if I see style or tone changes I can make that might put my story in a better position.

A Publication Accepted My Article. Now What?

When a publication accepts your article an editor will let you know, and you’ll get an email from Medium as well. They might request edits, or lightly edit the article themselves.

Editors who have requested edits from me have left them as a series of notes in the article, and they like me to leave the notes there so they can see what edits I made.

The editors will decide when your article goes live on their site. Once it does, you can share it on your social media sites and with your friends. You can use your “friend link” (found under “More settings”) so people who aren’t paying Medium members can still read it.

Publications might make it more likely that an article gets curated. I’ve found that my stories that landed in bigger publications — the Ascent, Better Marketing, The Writing Cooperative, and Tenderly — almost always got curated right away. And sometimes my stories get curated in topics I didn’t expect, like “Self” for a story on kitchen hacks and “Media” for a story on PR mistakes.

Staying Organized Is Critical

I’m a pretty organized person, but to keep track of my stories I need to be really organized. I created a chart so I know where and when I’ve sent my stories. I don’t want to accidentally resubmit a story to a publication that has already rejected it. And I don’t want to forget about a story that’s out for review with a publication.

For stories that are submitted through Medium, I know to expect to hear back at some point.

But for stories where I share a link, either through the publication’s page or through email, I need to know when it’s time to assume it didn’t make the cut and resubmit it somewhere else. I keep track with my chart, and I also put reminders on my calendar for when I should try to find another home for a story.

I Have to Be Brave

I didn’t expect the emotional highs and lows I’ve experienced writing for Medium publications.

My skin isn’t as thick as I thought. I’ve been writing for a long time and I’ve faced plenty of rejection. So I figured I would roll with the ups and downs of submitting to publications.

But when I get that email that tells me my story wasn’t accepted into a publication, it stings. Even if I wasn’t sure it was a solid match when I submitted it. Even if I discover they just published a similar article. Even if I was reaching for a top publication.

On the flip side, successes send my heart soaring. Somebody likes my story! They want to publish it! Yay!

Despite the lows (because I don’t mind the highs so much!) I’ll stick with my strategy of submitting my stories to Medium publications. While I’m growing my followers, I think that’s the best way to get my stories out in front of a lot of people.