Should You Submit Your Medium Stories to a Publication?

Here are my honest thoughts on the matter.

One of the coolest things about writing and reading stories on Medium is that there are so many great independent (not run by Medium) publications. You might think of these indie publications as smaller communities within the Medium platform. Most have a specific mission. The Writing Cooperative wants to help you write better. P.S. I Love You covers virtually all aspects of love.

There’s pretty much a publication for everyone on Medium, but if you do find something lacking, you are also welcome to start your own. (More on that in a minute.)

Some publications are more highly curated by the independent editors, while others pretty much accept everyone and everything. Certain publications have an enormous following, so it can take a while to get approved as a writer, or to get your stories reviewed and published.

This is not a how-to guide about submitting to publications. Instead, I wanted to answer a question that people often ask — what’s my take on submitting your stories to publications? Is it better to go with a publication, or to publish alone on Medium?

My honest answer is that it depends. It depends upon what results you actually consider better. It depends upon your goals and purpose for writing in the first place.

Personally, I find that there are benefits and drawbacks for whatever you choose to do. Such is life.

Submitting a story to a specific publication won’t necessarily help your work go viral.

I mean, it might. Never say never. I’ve got writer friends here who’ve had some incredible results with certain pubs. Some of their stories have seriously blown up on Medium. But it’s hard to say how much each publication actually had to do with that.

Most of my stories with publications don’t garner an enormous number of fans. A handful of my stories in publications have gotten more than 300 fans.

Compare that to more than 65 of my stories which have at least 300 fans, and you’ll see that submitting to another publication is not a surefire way to publish a popular story.

But submitting a story to a publication will make sure it’s seen by more people, right?

Maybe, maybe not. Some publications do enjoy more engaged readers than others. Just like some writers on Medium have more engaged followers than others.

But it’s not all about the follower count if most of those people are ignoring their notifications and not actually reading the new stories.

Plus, each publication varies when it comes to featuring your story on their home page, sending out emails, and sharing your work on social media. And even if they do promote it, their influence will vary.

Let’s not forget that none of us knows the ins and outs of the Medium algorithms that determine which stories members see — whether they’re in a publication or not. We know that distribution by the Medium curators helps a lot, but even that isn’t necessarily a ticket to Medium fame.

If you’re new to Medium, should you submit to publications?

If you are very new to Medium, or you currently have a small number of followers and readers, submitting to publications can be a great way to let more people see your work. I don’t want people to think that’s impossible, but I also don’t want anyone to bank on that idea alone.

When I was still new to Medium, I went through a period where I wrote for a publication at least once a week. But to be perfectly honest, I quit following that schedule once my stories began to pick up more traction and enjoy frequent curation without any publications.

There are reasons why I’ve been hesitant to submit my stories to other publications.

And they’re personal. For one thing, I’m pretty impatient about getting my stories out there. Lately, I simply don’t want to wait a week (or even a few days) wondering when — or if — my stories will go live. Part of that rationale is simply how hard I’ve been working to establish myself on Medium. What’s worked for me may not work for everyone, and vice versa. But I tend to stick with whatever works for me.

Along the way, my writing changed, and I’m not always confident that a certain piece fits well with any particular pub. Or I worry that some pubs don't take me seriously because I write a lot and often cover awkward issues.

Sure, it’s a little bit like imposter syndrome — I’m not sure that the 15+ plus publications I have written for actually want another story from me.

Silly, right? But I think every writer has their own silly insecurities.

What’s the BEST reason to submit your stories to a publication?

In my honest opinion, the best thing about utilizing different publications is all about the community. It’s a wonderful thing to join other writers in a shared mission. It’s a nice way to participate in something bigger than yourself, so to speak.

Ideally, I’d say that the stories you submit to any given publication should mesh well with that particular publication’s mission. Perhaps instead of writing a piece and then debating which publication to submit it to, you’d do better to write certain pieces for a specific publication. When more writers do that, and editors uphold high standards, it allows for a better experience for the readers. They get to read a better quality publication. And you as a writer get to connect with more great people too.

At the end of the day, I think it’s important to recognize that the value of publications isn’t necessarily what they can do for you. It’s more about what you can do for them to maintain or build a more active readership.

That’s not to downplay what a publication can do for you. Some pubs, like Publishious, have websites with plenty of traction. Frank McKinley had one of his stories on the publication catch the attention of NBC News. Per Frank:

The post that got NBC’s attention was published by Publishous, right here on Medium. They have 1.5 million eyes a month looking at what’s published here and on their website.

You can read more about Frank’s experience here, but it just goes to show that a publication really can do good for a writer seeking greater exposure.

I’m of the mind that every earnest writer on Medium should publish through a few publications to at least see how it feels, and learn more about the Medium community.

Also? You should consider putting some of your writing into YOUR OWN publications.

Shaunta Grimes convinced me this year to finally start my own pubs, and I wish I'd done it a long time ago.

Right now, I have 3 publications for the bulk of my work:

What I really like about having my own publications is that I can organize my stories however I want. I can have a publication just for my Medium tips along with another pub that contains my most popular stories.

If you plan on sticking with Medium for a long time, I definitely recommend you start your own publication, even just for better name recognition.

Whether or not you choose to write for publications on Medium is entirely up to you but I hope you'll at least give it a shot.

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