Submission Guidelines for “Thirty over Fifty”

You must be 50 years of age or over at the time of applying to be a Writer for “Thirty over Fifty.” This Publication is for older people to share their learned wisdom to uplift and support and inform others with lived experiences and in ways that add to our spiritual growth.

This Publication’s title “Thirty over Fifty” refers to around 30% of writers on Medium being aged 50 and over.

You don’t have to write about ageing just because you’re an older person! The aim of 30 o 50 is to accommodate the experiences & knowledge of people at least 50 years of age, to inform, advise, and uplift or engage readers of ALL ages simply and pleasantly.

Please note that the following topics are not accepted:

• Politics (about your views on political parties and strategies)
• Sex
• Violence (in terms of graphic violent content in either fiction or non-fiction)
• Anything that is clearly or heavily prejudiced or discriminatory
• Limit your use of swearing in your articles to one, if you have to use a swear word. You can disguise a word too, e.g. sh** but consider using alternative words.
• Graphic details of illnesses, medical treatment and health conditions are not accepted. It’s okay to give general overview information that supports your story content and theme, but we don’t need to know the gory or upsetting details. Highly technical content should be submitted to more suitable Publications (such as Wise & Well or In Fitness and in Health).
• No pushing of religious viewpoints/God, meaning that 30 O 50 is not the place to persuade readers to become religious, i.e. to rely upon “God” for answers to their problems. Letting readers know that your belief in God helps you is okay, but not telling people that they must believe in God to get ahead. Obviously this means no stories completely about God. People need to find their own way, not by following a religion or a God because they are told to do so (which may not work out for them).
• Thirty over Fifty is NOT for rants. So no rambling or venting commentaries or personal journal type stories or diary entries with no widespread appeal or take-away, and no opinion pieces stated as facts.
• Do not be overly biased, i.e. do not submit a social commentary or other article that is not supported by facts. You can give your opinions calmly and factually while also uplifting and supporting readers. No sweeping statements or generalizations that put someone or something in a bad light without backing up your opinion with relevant researchable facts.
• Limit your articles on making money or about diversifying income streams and the focus should not be completely on getting clicks on your affiliate links or driving people to sign up with or purchase something from you. These articles need to actually have real help, with a personal touch from the writer, for the average reader. Not many people will read regurgitated or run-of-the-mill generic stuff on how to make quick bucks.
• NO STORIES COMPLETELY AI GENERATED ALLOWED

The goal of 30 O 50 is to enrich readers’ experiences or provide helpful factual information to readers or information from the writers’ lived experiences.

If you don’t like something or disagree with something, your article must have relevant factual information and must quote the relevant researchable sources.

Sorry but there are hundreds of other Medium Publications in which you can share your political views or writing on these topics or are accepting content or styles above. For example, you could try applying as a writer for one of the following:

• Crow’s Feet
• Middle Pause
• Rome (for political stories)
• Invisible Illness
• Black Bear
• On Reflection
• The Wind Phone (for stories about loss & grief)

PLUS Below is a link to Medium’s official directory of Publications accepting new writers! Please refer to the List below for hundreds of possible Publications to write for, if the rules of “Thirty over Fifty” don’t suit your stories!

Please read this entire page about the criteria to be added as a writer and about what happens when you submit your stories to 30 O 50 once you are a writer. To be informed is to be equipped to make a decision.

Your reading comprehension or understanding of every element of these guidelines will be demonstrated by your actions. If you don’t adhere to the guidelines, don’t expect a response.

General information

• Your Medium Stories can be “locked” behind the Medium paywall or unlocked. They should level up or deepen our understanding of ourselves or simply offer enjoyable lived experiences or advice.
• Your Medium Stories can be of any length but keep your long form articles a reasonable length if you want people likely to read them right to the end, i.e. a maximum of 15 minutes reading time — on average.
• Please don’t rush the submission of your Stories but spend time reviewing and refining grammar and spelling and meaning and word redundancies of your Stories. Keep in mind that Stories which need a lot of corrections to the spelling and / or grammar or to their meaning will not be accepted.
• Please ensure that any images that you use in your Stories are correctly attributed to the source and that any copyright clearance is obtained. Note: you can get great photos free from the following- Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash.
• Choose an appealing image, preferably landscape orientation (wider than long) for the first element of your Medium Story, that will introduce your Story nicely and will appear as the Featured image for your Story. This image must be placed underneath your story title. All images in your story must have CREDITS in the captions.
• To remain an active writer for 30 O 50 please submit a story once every 3 months and please DO NOT submit more than 1 story over a 24 hour period.
• Submit TWO stories maximum in any one week, no more (to allow for all to have exposure).
• When applying to be a Writer for “Thirty over Fifty” you must agree that you will abide by the terms and conditions.
• Any Stories submitted covering a forbidden topic will automatically be rejected.
• Note that the Page titles on “Thirty over Fifty” will link to Stories which have Tags (or Topics) matching one or more of the page titles. 😃 Using one of these Tags will ensure that your story appears on the relevant Page.

Submitting stories to “Thirty Over Fifty”

Please do not submit rants or vents about medical systems or any other thing or skew information or focus upon illnesses and sad things. Your focus needs to be on solutions if you cover challenges. Thirty Over Fifty is for stories that HELP others (not makes them sad or angry or distressed).

• You must have Private Notes enabled so that as the Editor I can contact you about possible changes or notes regarding your draft stories!
• Once you are a writer for 30 O 50 please follow the Publication (so you can see posts/stories related to 30 O 50 changes or updates). You don’t need to follow the Editor of the Publication, but you must follow the Publication by clicking on the “Follow” button at the top of the Publication!
• Once you are a writer for 30 O 50 please subscribe to the Publication’s Newsletters (so you can receive email newsletters related to 30 O 50 changes or updates). You can do this by clicking here.
• You should allocate 5 topic names (tags) for each of your Stories on Medium, choose wisely, selecting at least one Topic matching one of the 7 page names if possible. Page names are tabbed at the top, e.g. Life Lessons / Family / Relationships. This will place your story under the relevant Page name that matches a Tag on your story! Think about what keywords readers might search upon and use a topic name from Medium’s directory of Topic names here.
• Copyright remains with you but if you want to remove your Story after it has been published in “Thirty over Fifty” to submit it to elsewhere, please do not do that until it has been in “Thirty Over Fifty” for 3 days after its publication in “Thirty over Fifty.”
• Keep in mind, Medium does NOT permit you to re-publish any of your Stories in full (on your own Timeline or your own Medium Publication or in another Medium Publication). This means you can’t have the same story appear twice on Medium, at the same time or at different times.
• Your story must have a clear Title with the first letters of each main word capitalized. It should describe the content and purpose of your article and be between 8 and 12 words long. Sub-titles, if used should not be a continuation of a sentence in the Main Title because sub-titles do NOT appear on Medium’s homepage!
• Your story MUST have a suitable image BELOW the Title with credit to the source given. All images MUST have credits to the sources given.
• The image at the top of your story should NOT be full screen or full width. If it is it looks huge and takes up too much room on some readers monitors, thereby putting people off from even reading your story. Click on the image & choose the first or second image size, shown in the screenshot below.

Submitting your story to “Thirty Over Fifty”

The Help Centre articles below give information about writing & editing your story and ADDING your draft story to a Publication once you have been accepted as a writer.

Please comment below to request to be a writer, providing the info below AND a link to a suitable DRAFT story:

A statement that you agree to the terms of submitting content to Thirty Over Fifty (as per the Rules above).

Your Medium Username which is the @yourusername part in your profile web address:

https://medium.com/@yourusername

and a link to a Draft story (NOT a published story) on Medium, to assess whether you are a suitable writer for this publication. A draft means an unpublished story that is YET to be published.

Please be patient and wait for up to 3 days from applying to be a writer for 30 0 50 for an answer about acceptance or otherwise.

• You will only be considered as a writer if you have a DRAFT story ready to submit to Thirty over Fifty, which you can then submit if you are accepted as a writer. A link to a story already published in another Publication to show your writing is not sufficient.
• I no longer will accept people signing up and then never submitting a story. This is fair because I have had so many people asking to be writers and then NEVER contributing.
• Once you are accepted as a Writer, submissions will be read and assessed within 3 days and your Story will be either accepted or rejected. Inquiries about acceptance made before 3 days have passed will be not responded to.
• Once you have been accepted as a writer, stories which have been published on your own Medium profile page can only be submitted to “Thirty over Fifty” if they were published no longer than 4 days before submission (for currency of Stories). If you are new to Medium and added as a writer to “Thirty over Fifty,” understand that you need to use “Add to Publication” to submit an already published story to this Publication. (I can’t press a button and publish it: see the link for “add a draft or post to Publication” above).
• If you get no response to your Comment asking to be a writer for “Thirty over Fifty” within 7 days after your request, that means that you are not considered suitable as a writer for “Thirty over Fifty.”