Quick Facts For New Writers

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As a new writer on Medium, I confess I floundered around a bit. There was a lot to figure out and things were in flux here. I met a few very helpful writers and made some great friends who helped me out.

I wanted to share some of these tips with you.

Here are answers to some of my many questions.

Why Is It Taking So Long For My Story To Be Published?

First of all, editors are volunteers. They have lives, families, and jobs. They’re doing the best they can and sometimes the volume of submissions gets overwhelming. That’s when we call in the reinforcements and fly at the queue until it clears.

We love writers who submit clean, well-written stories with properly accredited images.

• We remember your names. We know we can quickly open your article and it’s not going to be a pile of random thoughts or something plagiarized from another writer.
• In short, we love you and keep an eye out for your articles in the queue.

Here are a few items to consider. When the editor reads your article, they look for a couple of important things. If you’ve nailed these, your article has a better chance of being published quickly.

Image Accreditation

• First, it’s important that you have the right to use the image. Credit the author of the image with a caption underneath.
• If you took the photo or created the image say “image by author” or something similar.
• Even though it might say optional under the image, it’s not.

Grammar and Spelling

• Submit your best work. Proofread and edit mercilessly. It’s worth the time it takes. Use Grammarly, a free editing tool that you can install.

Follow The Guidelines

• The publication has its own guidelines, but so does Medium.

Don’t Cheat

• If it’s someone else’s work, don’t copy it, and try to pass it off as your own. If you do, we’ll eventually catch you. You will be reported to Medium and will likely lose your account privileges. We remember your names. We no longer respect you and don’t consider you as a writer.

Don’t Argue With Your Editor

• If we ask you to attribute your image, do it. Don’t try and argue that you’re right and we aren’t. Why would you even think it’s a smart thing to do? We hold the keys to publication.

Other Stuff I Wondered About

How do I put the image credit right below the image?

• Click on the image. A line appears below it and you can cut and paste the image credits there. Neat, right?

How do I tag my own profile in my article?

• Type your Medium ID with the @sign before it. As you type, your profile will come up and you can link it. My ID is @treelangdon and when I type it, my profile comes up. When I click on my profile it changes like this:
• Tree Langdon

How do I get the sideways ellipse or three-dot page break?

• When you begin a new line, the + symbol comes up. Click on that and choose the double dash on the far right.

How do I prevent myself from accidentally publishing when I’m not ready?

• If you type the two capitals TK somewhere in your story and then you hit publish, you will be asked if you want to publish. That’s a reminder that you weren’t ready.

How do I single space after a line of text?

• This one took me a bit to figure out. When you’re at the end of the line of text, press shift and enter at the same time.

What's the difference between Subscribing and Following?

This one’s important.

When you follow someone, you might see their stories in your feed on Medium’s main page.

When you subscribe to their content, you will get an email when they publish an article. To subscribe, click on the little envelope on their story or profile.

• Subscribe to writers you admire. Read their work and learn how to present a polished story.
• Subscribe to writers you want to encourage. Support them by reading their work.
• Subscribe to writers that have something important to say.
• Subscribe to me and I’ll help you get started.

How Do I Get Boosted?

Here are a few things that can make a difference. It’s not a complete list.

• Go for quality instead of quantity.
• Friend links in your article may affect your curation possibilities.
• Don’t ask for claps or likes or shares.
• Stories about Medium aren’t likely to be considered. Stories about your experience on Medium might be.
• Break your text up into shorter chunks so it’s easier to read.

Read Medium’s article about Top Story Boosting for more details.

I hope this short list of tips was helpful to you as a new writer on Medium. Comment on this story if you have any other questions.