SUBMISSION GUIDELINES | ILLUMINATION | EDITORIAL
ILLUMINATION: New Submission Guidelines, 2023
Big changes ahead for everyone’s favorite publication, Illumination!
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Illumination’s philosophy is simple.
Every writer deserves to feel seen — no matter how many followers they have. And over the years, that’s what we’ve tried to do — make every single person who submits a story to Illumination feel like their words matter.
We’ve been so proud to watch so many gifted, hardworking writers build an audience for themselves by posting in Illumination. And every day, we see new writers starting that same journey.
Illumination is a place where established writers sit next to up-and-coming wordsmiths to tell their stories. Status is not a defining factor at Illumination — everyone has a fair chance here.
But we can’t say it's been all candy and roses.
In trying to give every single article a place in our publication, we’ve not lived up to the standards that both our readers and writers deserve. Instead, we’ve seen an increase in poorly written content whose sole purpose is to try and gain fame and money from Medium without providing any substance or value to readers.
It’s not fair to our readers, nor is it fair to the writers who work so hard to produce quality content for Illumination.
That changes now.
After weeks of collaboration between the senior editors here at Illumination, we’ve come up with some new submission guidelines to bring our publication back to the standard you all deserve.
Here’s what you need to know.
Table of Contents
- How Medium’s new guidelines will affect Illumination
- What does this mean for Illumination?
- Technical submission guidelines
- Content submission guidelines
- What happens if your article gets returned from Illumination?
- What should I do if my country isn’t supported by MPP at the moment?
- How to get your next article “Boosted”
How Medium’s new guidelines will affect Illumination
Medium has released one of the biggest updates to the way this platform works in years. An update that focuses on prioritizing quality over quantity. Human-created articles over AI. It’s something we’ve all been asking for as both writers and readers and from August 1st, it’s becoming a reality.
As such, we’ve decided to move our submission guidelines to better reflect these updates and to bring the best experience to both our 70K readers and thousands of talented writers.
Firstly, we will stop accepting articles with clickbait headlines that do not deliver. Just as Medium says, the best headlines are the ones that clearly let readers know what your article is about and what to expect from it.
Secondly, we will be prioritizing articles submitted by Medium members. This has always been our policy, but we will be doubling down on this point after the update.
Finally, we’ve devised new guidelines for our editors to help the best stories get into Illumination and heavily reduce the number of low-quality stories we publish. It’s these guideline changes that we’re going to focus on today.
What does this mean for Illumination submissions?
In line with both our editorial style and Medium’s new update, we’ve decided to change the way we work here at Illumination.
From now on, our editors will choose only well-written, thought-provoking pieces to publish in Illumination. If we deem your piece doesn’t suit the standards of our publication, we will return it to you with feedback on why and how you can improve it next time.
But don’t worry, we still want to keep you in the family.
If we return your piece, we will direct you to submit your article either to Illumination’s Mirror or one of our specialist publications. To reduce the time it takes to get your article published, make sure you've applied to be a writer in all our publications.
To determine which articles we publish in Illumination, we’ve split our guidelines into two parts — technical submission guidelines and content submission guidelines.
For your article to be published in Illumination, you’ll need to ensure you follow both the technical and content guidelines provided below.
Technical Submission Guidelines
Technical guidelines refer to how your article is structured.
Image attribution
At least 35% of the submissions we receive do not have the correct photo attribution, causing delays in publishing not just that story but other people’s stories. From now on, if images are not attributed properly, we will return your submission so you can correct this.
If you’re unsure how to attribute your images properly or you don’t know which images are acceptable, check out our guide here.
Sentence and paragraph structure
We’ve found that most times when an article isn’t structured well, it’s reflected in the standard of content.
To clarify, a well-structured article has the following:
- Varying sentence lengths
- Various paragraph lengths
- A clear flow of thoughts
- Headings and subheadings
There are some clear exceptions to this, such as personal essays and poems.
While we don’t expect articles to have perfect structure (honestly, what’s “perfect” anyway?), we do expect you to take care in how you structure your writing to help your content shine.
Grammar and Spelling
A few typos are okay — we’re all human, and typos can easily slip through the net. But when your piece is filled with spelling errors, it probably means you didn’t spend enough time editing your work.
From now on, if there are a lot of mistakes, we will send your article back to you to correct.
Installing the free version of Grammarly should help you fix this problem, but it’s not foolproof, so make sure you do a human scan, too!
All affiliate links must be disclosed
Affiliate links must always be clearly declared somewhere in your piece. If you consistently submit pieces with affiliate links without declaring them, you will be removed as a writer. Please review our bulletin on how to declare affiliate links on Medium.
One submission a day
Writers are only permitted to submit one story every 24 hours. This will help our incredible editors get the best articles in front of their readers as quickly as possible.
Any writers who submit multiple articles in a day will have their submissions returned to them. Repeat offenders will be removed from Illumination publications.
Content Submission Guidelines
Here are the new content guidelines for Illumination.
No AI-written articles
As writers, we want to support human voices. We’re just as fed up with the regurgitated AI content as you are. That’s why we have a zero-tolerance policy on AI writing.
With that said, if you do want to post AI content, you should do so in our newest publication, The Lampshade of Illumination. It is our dedicated AI publication where creators can transparently post AI content, and readers can decide for themselves if they want to read it. You may find the publishing guidelines for this unique publication.
Before posting your stories to our other publications, please check our generative AI content policy.
We want to read stories only YOU could write
Every writer has a unique voice with brilliant insights. So when we read your article, we want to know why YOU should be the person to tell the story.
Are you adding your own take? Is it a personal essay? Are you an expert sharing the latest research in your field?
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to create interesting content in your own voice. We just want to see your fresh take, not a regurgitated opinion aimed at getting views.
Plus, the more you write from your own point of view, the better your writing gets, and the more people will be racing to read your next article!
Stories with clear messages
The best writers offer great value to their readers through their articles. They answer questions, give advice and teach life lessons.
When looking for stories to publish in Illumination, we want stories that have a clear message in them that readers can take away and use in their own lives. Whether it’s a nugget of wisdom, a new fact they never knew, or practical tips to improve their own lives, make sure your article provides a clear message for your readers.
We’re cutting down on CTAs
CTAs (Calls To Action) are a great way to build your audience. You can build your newsletter or link to your personal off-site project. We love a good CTA when it's done well.
What we don’t love is people writing entire articles that serve as one giant CTA with multiple links. And neither do our readers.
To combat this, we’re limiting CTAs to two per article to help cut down articles that feel over-salesy. One CTA is allocated to growing your email list and the other is your choice.
Speaking of which…
We no longer accept CTAs for the Medium Membership Referral Program
From September 1st, 2023, the Medium Membership Referral Program is being sunsetted and you will no longer be able to sign people up. As such, we’re stopping membership referral CTAs from August 1st, 2023.
We also recommend you start the process of going back through your old pieces and remove your Medium Membership Referral links as they make your articles look untidy and will no longer add value.
Duplicate content from your personal website
We’re happy to accept duplicate content from your website or Substack.
However, it must be very clear that this content belongs to you or we will reject it. This is to prevent potential plagiarism, which is a BIG no-no!
No meta Medium articles
We’re no longer accepting meta Medium articles on Illumination (yes, even if they’re really good!). We want Illumination writers to focus more on readers, and stories that they are passionate about.
If you choose to write an article about Medium, you should submit it to Illumination’s Mirror.
Cite your sources
We’re clamping down on health and science article standards. Any scientific claim, including nutrition, mental health, and exercise research, should be sourced correctly with the relevant links. Alternatively, if you are talking about what you think, you will need to clearly state that it is your opinion and not a scientific fact.
Short-form content
We love it when writers are able to condense their work into short, digestible articles. So please, keep sending us your short-form pieces. We accept any article length as long as it provides readers with value.
Non-negotiable items
Please also review the following policies before submitting your stories. We are open-minded, but these are non-negotiable rules to keep you, our readers and the general platform safe.
What happens if your story is returned to you from Illumination?
Please don’t be discouraged if your story is returned to you. Sometimes stories just don't fit what we’re looking for, and other times stories just need more work done on them.
We’ll let you know via private notes whether we want you to correct something and resubmit or whether we think your article would fit better in one of our other awesome publications.
For stories that need correction, while we used to simply put your articles on hold, we have decided to return them while you correct them. This is to reduce the number of articles left sitting in our queue (we have literally hundreds of submissions every day!) and make sure other articles are not lost in the mix. We want to ensure everyone gets their articles out in front of avid readers as quickly as possible and this step will help us do so.
For specialist stories that don’t get accepted, we will likely send you to one of our dedicated publications, such as Synergy, Technology Hits, or Illumination Gaming. If it doesn’t fit our current specialist publications, we’ll send you to Illumination’s Mirror — a growing publication where writers can explore their writing style while still reaching a big audience.
For beginners or those who need help to improve their stories, Reader’s Hope is a great starting point and will help you practice in public. Our Reader’s Hope editors are always on hand with writing tips for new writers looking to hone their craft.
No matter if your piece is returned or not, we look forward to reading your next submission — we know you have awesome stories inside of you, and we can’t wait to see them!
If you are a new writer you may review this comprehensive checklist and understand the distribution and new boosting requirements.
What should I do if my country isn’t supported by MPP at the moment?
We understand that many aspiring writers on Medium don’t have the privilege of access to the Medium Partnership Program — although we are confident Medium is working hard to change that over the upcoming weeks and months.
We don’t want to stop great writers from being published in Illumination because they don’t have access, and we are working behind the scenes to come up with policies that help support these writers. For great pieces of writing that fulfill the rest of our submission guidelines, we will make discretionary calls to include these pieces — after all, we love championing great writing!
In the meantime, if you submit a piece to us and you currently cannot join the MPP because of your location, let us know via private note so our editors can take this into consideration. You may also directly contact our owner and chief editor, Dr Mehmet Yildiz, on our Slack workspace to discuss your situation. He will help guide you on what to do.
We want to showcase the best articles on this platform
Illumination is a publication run by volunteer writers for writers. We want everyone that submits their work to us to succeed.
That’s why we’re making this step to improve the quality of submissions here at Illumination. Not only will it give readers a better experience, but it will help budding writers across the platform hone their craft and become better storytellers.
By following these updated submission guidelines, not only will you have great success here at Illumination, but you’ll also grow as a writer and find more success in building an authentic audience that loves your work.
Don’t forget to check in regularly for any updates to the submission guidelines, as we will be updating them regularly over the next few months. And please feel free to ask any questions in the comments. We’ll do our best to get back to you as quickly as possible.
Our strategic focus is on helping you get boosted.
Following many meetings and considerations, we’re now shifting our editorial focus to boosting. This is because Medium now offers rewards to writers who produce high-quality writing, and we want our publication to reflect the same. I’ve experienced firsthand how powerful the boost can be for viewership and audience growth.
For example, my recent boosted stories, How Finland Opened Its Doors to Help 14 Lucky Tourists Find Happiness, and Your Peanuts Are NOT More Important Than Someone Else’s Life, helped me reach hundreds of new readers and start an important conversation about sensitive and vital topics.
Many writers feel like getting a boost is out of reach, or it only happens to a select few writers. But that’s not true. By applying the submission guidelines in this article and producing high-quality work, you’ll be in with a great chance to get boosted, too.
To educate and inspire you, our writers, on how you can get boosted, we will be compiling a list of all boosted stories and creating collections as advised by our chief editor. This way, you can see what it takes to be boosted and learn some great writing tips to help you do the same.
In the meantime, check out some of the boosted stories of chief editor Dr Mehmet Yildiz to get some ideas on the type of stories Medium boosts.
How Writers Can Attract More Readers by Using Design Thinking Principles
Here’s How to Make the Nervous System More Flexible and Functional
Here’s How I Train My Brain Daily for Mental Clarity and Intellectual Productivity.
You may also check this recently boosted story on ILLUMINATION as a sample personal narrative from Clayton Moulynox.
How Illumination can help you get boosted today
We are pleased to announce that our unique publication, Illumination-Curated, designed for experienced writers, was selected for the boost program.
From now on, when we identify boostable stories on Illumination, we’ll ask you to submit them to Illumination-Curated to increase your chances of further distribution. We will do this through private notes on your piece.
Our chief editor will provide an update on our boost program focus in the first week of October. In the meantime, please review the updated guidelines for our ILLUMINATION-Curated publication.
If you are writing about niche topics, you may also check our updated submission guidelines for those publications.
ILLUMINATION Videos and Podcasts: Submission Guidelines 2023
If you are an absolute beginner, we have a unique and supportive publication for you. Please review our new submission guidelines for the Readers Hope publication on Medium.
We also updated guidelines for ILLUMINATION’S Mirror
It’s an exciting time to be a writer on Medium and we can’t wait to work collaboratively with you to ensure we fill Illumination with high-quality stories that make a real impact on our readers.
Now there’s only one thing left to do… get creating, writers!