Self-published Stories Can Still Be Chosen for Further Distribution
This is good news for writers who worry about curation
Medium stories that meet the criteria to receive extra distribution on the platform are marked Chosen for further distribution on the stats page. This label is coveted by Medium writers because it means that their stories are being curated and promoted throughout the platform and/or in the Medium Daily Digest sent out via email to Medium members.
What does it take to have your stories curated?
Medium looks for quality content that includes new ideas, unique perspectives on a topic, value-added writing, and stories without a bunch of grammatical errors and typos, among other criteria.
Be sure your story is cleaned up sufficiently to make curation. Proofread and write to engage the readers while giving readers something of value in your writing.
These must-haves along with taking care to write relevant titles and subtitles that draw readers’ attention and including eye-catching images are good basic guidelines to follow to get stories curated. But, it has also helped many writers to be accepted to publications and posting their stories with these publications to gain more exposure.
But, do not fret if you have been rejected time and time again by publications because fortunately, Medium gives writers the option of self-publishing their stories.
Self-publishing and Curation
To self-publish a story all you need to do is click the green Publish button at the top of the page, add tags if you haven’t already done so, and hit Submit.
That’s it!
Now, your story is visible on the platform for readers to find and see. Self-published stories are still picked up by the Medium algorithm, they still come up in searches, and they still come up in the feed under the tags you’ve chosen or in the feeds of people who follow you.
The best news though is that the curation team (or curation algorithm if that’s the way it’s done, nobody knows) still considers self-published stories as well as those published with publications.
I have published stories myself when they have been rejected by publications, especially when I first started writing on Medium, and I’ve had some of them chosen for further distribution.
But then I got an idea to start my own publication, Nova Thinker, as a place to publish my rejected stories from other publications because I wanted to have them in a centralized place. And, I have had plenty of my stories self-published in my own publication curated. So that is an option as well. You can start your own publication.
The Takeaway
The bottom line is to not be upset if you submit your story to a publication and it is not accepted. Go ahead and just hit publish and get it posted yourself. An advantage of this is that you do not have to wait days or a week or two to get a post active and you don’t have to wait that long to even see if it will be accepted.
Oftentimes, self-published stories are eventually picked up by publications anyway. Here’s proof of a major Medium publication, Human Parts, that proactively searches on Medium for stories that have been self-published.
Due to an overwhelming number of submissions, we’re currently pausing on accepting new pitches. While we catch up on reviewing our submissions archive, we’ll continue to scour Medium for great self-published stories and reach out to writers whose work fits the description below. The best way to contribute, then? Self-publish your story on Medium, and if it’s a fit for us, trust that we’ll find it.
So, go ahead and self-publish some stories. You may be surprised by them getting picked up by publications.
Self-publishing your stories is nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be ashamed of and it doesn’t dictate success or failure on the platform. It’s just one of the ways that Medium offers for writers to make their work public, get chosen for further distribution, and earn money.