What It’s Really Like To Start Your Own Publication
My practical guide for starting your own publication from the ground up
Within days of joining Medium, I knew I wanted to start my own publication.
My main motivation was that I actually didn’t find the right kind of publication for most of my stories. It encouraged me to create my own.
So began the journey of Modern Women:
It’s been exactly one month since I started this publication so I wanted to give you a practical guide for how it’s gone. If you’re contemplating starting your own publication then this is for you.
One caveat: My guide primarily talks about creating a publication where you are inviting others to write with you, not a publication that you use solely for your own stories.
Week 1: Laying the Foundation
The first week is all about the basics:
- Decide on your publication branding — your colours, imagery, name, description, look & feel
- Create your homepage — it’ll be barren to begin but you can start by adding some of your stories
- Write the first post — this will be all about how to write for your publication. Outline your submission process and what you’re looking for. It helps to check out other publications for examples.
Invite other writers
Next, I started inviting writers. I primarily focused on new writers with 300 or less followers like myself. I would read their articles and share a comment inviting them to join my new publication.
Secret tip: I went to some of my favourite publications and scanned through their comment section for writers wanting to join their publications. I looked for writers who may fit and invited them to write for Modern Women.
It was a little nerve-wracking putting myself out there after just starting the publication. But I’m happy with the results. The vast majority of writers that I invited said yes to joining the publication.
I literally squealed for joy (my partner can confirm this) when I saw the first writer submission to Modern Women. Now the real fun began and the publication started to become more than just me. It also meant that others found value in it too.
Fun fact: The person who submitted the first story ever to Modern Women is also the person who became our first Co-Editor. Thank you E.S. Yates!
Week 1 Results:
25 writers joined
1 submitted story — excluding my own stories
Week 2 & 3: All about growth
My initial approach as an editor was extremely light. I would only share private notes with small suggestions for improvement or fixing spelling/grammatical errors. Note that some editors for publications won’t even do this, they will reject the article outright.
My goal was growing publication content so I wanted to nurture, recognize and appreciate every single submission. I would clap, highlight and comment once I published their article too.
I also moderated how much I personally submitted. Once submissions started rolling in, I wanted to sprinkle my stories throughout and not dominate. This meant that I submitted to other publications in the meantime even though I could’ve published them in Modern Women. After all, it’s about building community.
Week 2 Results:
23 new writers joined (48 total)
9 submitted stories (10 total) — excluding my own stories
By Week 3, requests for new writers to join started to slow but submissions started to pick up tenfold. The new writers to the publication had a chance to start writing and now I started to receive multiple submissions per day. Hooray! It felt like a real publication now.
Week 3 Results:
4 new writers joined (52 total)
7 submitted stories (17 total) — excluding my own stories
Week 4: Hitting the ground running
Although story submissions were still manageable by one person, I wanted to invite a Co-Editor to join me. I felt it was important to have someone to bounce ideas around with and share the load, especially if anything came up in life where I needed back-up. E.S. Yates answered my call and joined me as Co-Editor.
This is where things start to get really exciting. We more than doubled the number of story submissions and organic growth was starting to happen.
The community aspect started to take off too. A fellow writer Delia Pena-Gay reached out to me about wanting to create a virtual Zoom mixer for writers and readers to meet each other. How fantastic!
Week 4 Results:
12 new writers joined (64 total)
23 submitted stories (40 total) — excluding my own stories
Aside: You may notice that I haven’t added the results of followers who joined. The number of followers generally corresponds to the number of writers— we have 77 followers and 64 writers. We haven’t gotten to the rolling momentum of having a lot of readers-only who found our publication. I know this is just the beginning though.
Final Thoughts
There were many moments throughout this journey where I questioned whether anyone would care or if I was doing the right thing. I would stare longingly at giant publications wondering if I could get there someday.
Now I just feel content. I’m happy to create a place that’s inclusive, supportive and unique.
I don’t actually want to grow into a massive publication as it may lose its true community feel at that point.
I want to spend my time growing friendships with the writers who believed in my publication from Day 1 and support their writing careers to flourish. This is what truly matters.
Summary of my tips:
- Invite writers — find them through other publications (check out the comment sections of their “write for us” posts)
- Nurture your writers — celebrate them for choosing to share their precious work through your publication
- Trust in the process — your publication will grow, it will just take time. Before you know it, you’ll be inviting another editor to join you!
I do hope you take the leap to create your own publication if your heart is calling you that way. It’s definitely made my Medium experience worthwhile.
With love, Megan