Writing Success

In The Pursuit of Success on Medium

Illuminating a path to the top

Last week I came across an article by Daniel Hopper about which Medium publications are the best for maximising a writer's potential. And although I was very happy that Daniel had included Illumination and Illumination Curated, I was less than happy with Daniel's conclusions about where you have the best chances to get on on Medium.

I cannot speak for other writers about their experience of submitting articles to the so-called upper echelons such as Ascent and Startup, etc. I can only relate to my own personal experience. Having said that, I do know of quite a few other writers who have had a very similar experience.

The biggest problem with Daniel's conclusion is that it only holds true IF you get published. If you don't get published you get zero, zilch, nada. You might as well whistle in the wind. That is exactly how I felt after submitting more than once to both of the publications mentioned above. I waited and waited and waited... not even so much as an email informing me of rejection. As Daniel himself pointed out, with all the automation we have these days it would take no more than a few seconds to politely decline an article with a short note to the writer.

In the end, I simply gave up submitting to the Ascent and Startup to concentrate my efforts on Illumination and its sister publications. I have to say it was the best move I ever made. My progress on this platform has been as meteoric as has been the phenomenal exponential growth of the publication itself.

What Illumination has achieved in the past year has been nothing short of amazing. The platform now has a collection of other pubs under its belt which includes:

Illumination Curated Illumination Mirror Synergy Technology Hits Illumination Book Chapters

These pubs have a combined readership well in excess of 130,000. In addition, Illumination has somewhere in the region of 9500 writers and seventy editors.

Let's carry on with statistics a moment here since it is statistics which form the basis of Daniel's conclusions. In the last ninety days, Illumination pubs have attracted 3,312,123 minutes of reads. This equates to $55,200 dollars in income for our contributors, from just one of the Illumination publications. So much for being the poor boys of Medium.

To give you a more holistic view of what Illumination is all about our editors actively engage with all of our contributors and offer help and guidance to allow them to improve and grow. If we can correct a few little errors, we'll do it and publish. We also offer mentorship on a one-to-one basis, with an editor dedicated to helping a writer to get better at writing and at marketing his or her writing. We do all of this for the very simple reason that we love writing and we love writers. What more could an aspiring or accomplished writer ask for?

Ok, let me move on and tell you a little more about my own experience here. Soon after its launch I became a writer for Illumination and I have never looked back. In a short time I was invited to be a senior editor, which I am across all Illumination pubs, and at about the same time I was made top writer in short stories, poetry and writing. I now have a handful short of 1000 followers (986) and almost always get to see my work curated. Curation of course, means my stories get distributed across the Medium platform, allowing me to engage with an even wider audience. And to top all this off, Medium recently paid me A 500 dollar bonus for being amongst the top 1000 writers on the platform. This has all been achieved through Illumination and its sister publications. I'm sure you will agree, it's a darn sight more than the zero, zilch, nada I was getting from the so-called top pubs that I gave up on.

Now I'd like to make it clear, I do not have any issues with those 'Top Pubs', as indeed neither does Illumination. On the contrary, Dr Mehmet Yildiz openly encourages our writers to submit to other publications. Yes, we say, aim high, as Daniel says, but do not make the mistake of dismissing Illumination as something of a non runner and therefore less worthy of your efforts. I will so far as to say that contrary to what Daniel claims, you stand a much better chance of getting on with a pub like Illumination than you do with those at the top of Daniel's table. And it all comes down to what I mentioned earlier, that one little word 'If'. If you submit to one of those top pubs and your work gets accepted and published, then yes you can do okay. But that is a really big if.

Comparing publications like Illumination with Better Humans is like comparing apples with oranges. Even Medium superstar writers do not get a look in at many of those pubs at the top of Daniel's table of statistics. At Illumination, everybody gets the same opportunity to be published and to start earning from it. We have from complete beginners, right up to such well-known and highly respected writers like Tim Denning, gracing our platform with their writings.

My personal advice is yes by all means submit to those guys at the top, just do not bet your house on it. For me, Illumination is where all the action is at and that my friends and fellow writers, is where you should hang your hat if you really want to get on Medium.

Dr Mehmet Yildiz Dew Langrial Aldric Chen Tree Langdon Stuart Englander Britni Pepper Thewriteyard Esther George Maria Rattray Holly Kellums Terry L. Cooper Terry Mansfield Desiree Driesenaar Dr. Preeti Singh Sabana Grande Agnes Laurens Geetika Sethi Marcus