How to Submit a Story to Invisible Illness
An FAQ for writers new and old
I’ve had a couple of people write to tell me they’re confused about how to submit their work to Invisible Illness. I’m creating this FAQ to address the questions I’ve received the past few weeks and to help everyone with similar questions in the future.
What’s covered below (all come from real questions)
- I am a first-time writer who wants to submit draft essay…
- I am an approved writer wants to submit draft essay…
- How do I submit on mobile?
- Do I have to sign up for Medium to write for Invisible Illness?
- Can I move imagery after publishing?
- Can I post anonymously?
- What is proper photo attribution?
- Can I submit an already published story?
1. I wrote an essay. It’s in draft form and I think it would be good for Invisible Illness. I’ve never written for Invisible Illness before. What should I do?
Answer
If you are a writer who has never written for Invisible Illness before, please use this Google Form to submit your idea, and one of us will get back to you. Notice that this form exists only to be added as a writer. You’ll still have to submit your essay once you’re accepted (see how to on the question below).
2. Once I’m writer for Invisible Illness, how do I submit a story to the publication?
Answer
If you’ve been accepted as a writer for Invisible Illness before, you can:
- Hit the three little buttons at the top of your screen.
- Choose “add to publication” for your post.
- When you do, you’ll see this screen:
- Choose Invisible Illness from the list and hit “Add draft”
- Once you’ve chosen Invisible Illness, one of us will get notified about your submission and we can take a look at it straightaway!
3. I’m trying to add to my draft to the publication on mobile, but it’s not working. I can’t figure out how to do submissions this way. What’s wrong?
Answer
Take a look at this Medium iOS FAQ for the answer about how to submit on mobile.
4. Do I need to be on Medium to submit a post?
Answer
Yes. Before we can accept your story and publish it, you need to sign up for Medium and create your post on the platform.
5. I published my post without adding an image / with an image above the title /with an image below the title. Is it too late to fix it?
Answer
Not at all. Playing with how imagery works in the story will help you understand how to make it work.
You click where you want the image to be, and then choose the camera icon to upload an image from your computer. You can also click on the search icon to find fantastic images from Unsplash. If you want to delete an image, you just click it and then hit the delete button when it is outlined in green.
6. I would be happy to share my experience with mental illness on Invisible Illness, with the hope of helping others that may be in my same situation. But, I would like to do it anonymously; and that’s an important reason why I would not publish it on my own Medium account, even though I have one. I am really not comfortable enough to talk about this under my name for everyone to see. Do you accept and publish anonymous pieces?
Answer
You can absolutely publish anonymously. You do, though, need to set up an anonymous Medium account to do it. Once you set up the account, just send me the link to the post and I’ll take a look at the piece. Sound good?
7. How do you properly attribute photos on Medium articles?
Answer
To properly attribute a photo, you have to make sure you have the rights to a photo. If it is a copyrighted image, ask the photographer or company for permission, and document the fact that you were granted permission.
If it is your personal photo, you have the rights. Caption under your photo “photo by the author” to claim the rights to your photo.
Stock photos are free to use — the most common sites are Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels, and Wikipedia Commons. In the caption, cite the author and the site. Hyperlink where you found the photo. The magnifying glass option on Medium does this for you for Unsplash photos. Your attribution should look like this:
8. Can I submit an already published story?
Answer
Unfortunately, we are only accepting draft submissions at this time.
Thank you everyone!
Invisible Illness team (Ryan Fan, Marie Raven, Juliette Roanoke, elizabeth tobey)
