WRITERS’ BLOKKE

The Writers’ Blokke Publication Will Be Going Through Some Changes In 2022

As the platform evolves, so must we

This year will see the Writers’ Blokke (WB) publication coming into its 3rd year of existing on Medium. In the last couple of years, it’s grown from literally an unknown publication to having over 12,000 followers that comprise of readers and writers alike.

As I’ve always said, I would never have imagined it to come this far, but it did, and it’s all thanks to each and every one of you who have made it possible.

I’m truly humbled and thankful for the support that the publication has been receiving and I hope that it will continue to be a place that also supports other writers in return.

That being said, because the publication has grown to be larger than I ever imagined it would be, I can no longer keep it running the way it has been all this while.

Therefore, just like how the platform has evolved over the years, so too, will WB be evolving and undergoing some changes from time to time throughout this year.

Waiting time

This was probably the highest selling point of the publication when I first started it — that you didn’t have to wait a long time for your articles to be reviewed, edited, and accepted/rejected. The longest before would only be about 24 hours.

However, due to the sheer size that the publication has grown to and the submissions that we get on a daily basis, that time is now no longer realistic nor do-able.

I’ve mentioned before how we have been getting between 20–30 submissions a day before. Well, that number has now doubled to almost 60 submissions a day. Despite having some really awesome editors to help me out, it’s still a really big task to go through all those submissions within a day, and sometimes there will be a backlog.

Therefore, please do expect anything between 24 hours to about 4 days (sometimes, it can be longer) for your submissions to be reviewed, edited, and accepted/rejected.

If you feel it’s too long for you, you can always publish first and submit it for review later on. We will still accept published drafts for the time being but there is a chance that this too will change in the future.

But now, published drafts are still OK.

Article format

For future submissions, please ensure that all your articles have a proper title, and sub-title. If you would like to add a kicker, that’s great but if not, that’s fine too. However, at the very least, a title is a must.

This is to also ensure that your articles look nicer and attract readers to read on. A messy article will only make you lose readers.

And I can’t stress this out enough but please, ensure all images used are CREDITED to their rightful owner — even if that owner is you.

For example, if you took the picture, captioned it something along the lines of ‘image taken by author’ or something like that. If you’re using images from Unsplash or Pexels or anywhere else, please at the very least, say where the images are from and the photographer.

Even if the images you use have no copyright issues, it doesn’t hurt to credit them properly.

When your articles are formatted properly and have gone through edits of your own, it helps the editors on WB to do their rounds quicker and thus, shortens the waiting time for your article to get published.

Topics

As has been mentioned before, we accept most any topic but please do stay clear from submitting articles about politics, religion, sex, or anything that can be a sensitive topic for others.

We want to create a safe and good environment on here and while there are articles or ways to write about those topics in a good and positive way, more often than not, it just becomes too sensitive and things can get out of hand.

Any other topic should be OK, again, providing the article isn’t a negative one that bashes other writers/publications on the platform.

Guide

To help you better understand how you can apply to be a writer here, understand the rules a little bitter or just general info about the publication, you can read all about them from the articles below:

This publication will continue to try to be a place where any writer can feel welcome and grow on the platform. And for as long as myself and the other editors are able to, we will try our best to help.

However, I will not rule out a day when we may not be able to sustain running the publication anymore. We’ve seen it happen to other publications and it can possibly happen here too.

But for now, WB will still be around.

If you like this article and want to read more such articles without any restrictions, why not consider becoming a Medium member (if you are not one already) by using my referral link below?

I get a portion from your monthly fee at no extra cost to you and it will go a long way in supporting me as a writer.

You can also buy me a ‘coffee’ if you’d like.