What I’ve Learned From Publishing in Small, Medium and Big Pubs on Medium

I am 7 months and some 60 articles old on Medium. I started out with some of the pubs most are familiar with — Be Yourself, Illumination and Writer’s Blokke. Then as I became more familiar with the platform, I realized there were numerous pubs out there catering to a variety of genres.

Over the last few months I have sort of narrowed down the pubs I love working with primarily because of 4 important factors:

I feel they are a good fit for my articles.

I have a great working relationship with the editors.

Their publishing time is fast.

In order to better reach my niche specific audience.

I write about a variety of topics including mental health, toxic relationships, racism, self awareness, my experience as an empath and also about my Medium journey — which many new writers have found to be helpful.

When other writers talk about my success on this platform, I would credit it primarily to the small pubs who were quick to encourage and publish me as a newbie. The majority of my core audience, many of whom I’m honored to call my friends, I have met on the small pub circuit. Winston, editor of Coffee Times is one of them.

It took me a while to find my author’s voice but then again going with the small pubs, some of whom have exceptional editors, helped me along the way.

Once my initial hesitancy and uncertainty as a new writer had worked itself out as a result of consistent writing, I submitted drafts to bigger pubs like Invisible Illness which is a good fit for my articles on mental health and An Injustice for my articles relating to culture and racism.

And finally, in September I felt like my article titled “Why I Can’t Be the ‘Nice Girl Writer’ My Family Wants Me To Be” would be a good fit for The Start Up. I submitted it on a Sunday and by Monday I received a private note from Elizabeth Dawber ( Editor at The Start Up and Curious) saying that she thought my story had a very interesting angle and that she was going to schedule it for publishing.

10 Things I’ve Learned from publishing in small, medium, big pubs and from self publishing:

Know who your audience is. If you are writing an article about Medium try to find a pub that caters to that topic in order to gain maximum exposure. The same goes with whatever topic you are writing about. That is how you build your niche specific audience. These are the stats of an article from my go to pub for relationship/empath articles where I have a good niche specific audience.2. Do your due diligence: Read the submission guidelines carefully. Many small pubs have specific submission guidelines be it with regards to Grammarly, formatting, tags or the image used. As you progress to bigger pubs, I have noticed that the guidelines become more stringent.

3. Different perspective: Most of the topics have been covered to death so whatever you are writing, it works better if you offer a new angle or a fresh perspective. I especially like articles with a personal touch like those images taken by the writers themselves or those that tell stories with the aid of such images.

4. Put yourself out there: If your goal is to get noticed, then barring overnight success, it is up to you to do the legwork. Comment and clap on other people’s articles as well as interact and build friendships with other writers.

Do make an effort to acknowledge readers who take the time to leave a comment. I have come across many new writers who publish article after article but ignore the comments of readers. I don’t know if this is some sort of new marketing strategy but I don’t think I would want to read someone who is not interested in investing in their readers with a clap or a response. Remember, Medium is not a one way street.

5. I started self publishing after I established a reader base: Some, like myself, prefer the self publishing route because of the freedom and control it provides with regards to publishing time but the downside is it may not reach many eyeballs if you don’t have a reader base in place first.

6. Writing need not be a solo endeavor: Writing doesn’t need to be all about you, all the time. You can include pieces that also feature your peers or tag your writer friends (please don’t go overboard) to participate in a prompt or challenge. I have built some great relationships that way for example with Kristina God.

7. Experiment with different niches: This is the sage advice my mentor gave me. Had it not been for that piece of valuable advice, I would have stuck with my forte which is personal essays. Once you have tried out different niches and gained some insights, you can always niche down to those you are most comfortable with.

8. Don’t waste your reader’s time: Given that everyone is busy, offer something of value to your reader, some new insights, a personal perspective or something that would make the reader want to come back for more. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?

9. Don’t worry about earnings when starting out: I hate to break it to you but barring viral articles, only 7% of Medium writers break $100 in monthly earnings. Medium pays its writers based on member reading time. So it helps if you gain not just followers (for number’s sake) but followers who read your articles. I didn’t join the MPP for the first three months after joining Medium because I wanted to focus on learning about the platform and how to write good articles.

10. Dial a mentor: Last but not least, Medium has amazing writers with tons of experience. If you are new to writing, it doesn’t hurt to reach out to your favorite writers and ask them for suggestions or a quick once over before you hit publish. Trust me, it makes a difference.

As I mentioned earlier, I rely mainly on internal traffic for my views. At the same time I understand the potential of external views (from SEO and social media sites) though it does not translate into earnings at this point.

Having a presence on LinkedIn, Twitter and FB is that it not only helps in promoting articles outside of Medium but also boosts new Medium memberships and thereby translates into earnings when they sign up with the referral links. It’s a win-win.

Originally published on Medium