100 Days Writing Challenge
Mastering These 7 Skills Will Let You Have Your Own Publication
Focus these critical areas but look for more — Episode 46
Have you ever thought of creating your own publication?
Whether or not you want to have one, you should at least know the basics.
Having the knowledge will give you the advantage to prepare yourself to go for it when the time is right for you. Having those attributes will anyway give you an edge to become a better writer and will help you shine on Medium.
Here are the main pre-requisites for creating and running a publication.
1. Expertise in the relevant field
This is the foremost quality you need to have before you even think of creating a publication. If you are passionate about a field, it will show with your academics, professional journey, life experiences, articles, and so on. Having a strong liking for a subject helps you engage with the subject, come up with newer ideas, and make your move on in the right direction permanently.
2. Editorial experience
This is an essential quality that you need unless you don’t want to invite writers to submit stories. But if you want to run your publication ultimately on a big scale and wish to have a big fan following then you would probably open your publication for writing submissions and this is where your editorial skills will come to play an important role.
3. Business skills
You need multiple business skills as you would have to run the publication like an organization. Time management, people skills, sales and marketing, financial side, business strategies, and so on are some attributes you need to make it up and running.
4. Your core team
You need a talented team to run the publication. The key areas where you would require excellence are editing and social media. Besides that, you would also need a business partner to run the publication parrel with you unless you can do it all yourself. But remember that it is a tall order.
5. Standing on Medium
If you have an excellent reputation on Medium, it will give you the advantage to have a solid start and an excellent base to support your work as you move along. Being a loner with a low follower base or someone who is just starting off on the platform will take much more time to establish him/herself as a writer and then convince others to follow and contribute to the publication to make it a success.
6. Social media presence
It is the age of social media. So, you need to have a powerful presence on different platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. Decide which ones are suitable for you. To implement this, you will need a team to make it happen if you want to do it the right way.
7. Devising a business plan
If you want to start your own publication just for the fun of it — it is another story. But if you want to run it like a business, then you need a plan to support your ambitions. You should know well in advance that how you are going to make numbers work for you and how the stories will start bringing money into your kitty.
Final thought
Just as writers require a niche for their stories, publications also need to follow the same principle. See the pros and cons as discussed in the above points and more. Weigh your ideas and come up with a winning strategy but make sure it is unique and catches the attention of readers and writers alike.
I hope you like today’s episode. See you tomorrow!
