Why Your Success on Medium Depends on Getting to Know the Publication Editors

Follow editors, read their stories, leave thoughtful comments, and tailor your submissions to their expectations

Hello Everyone!

First of all, thank you to all the new subscribers and the paid subscribers. I’ve been kind of tinkering around with the settings since I enabled paid subscriptions a couple weeks ago. For the time being, I feel better about having everything on this newsletter be free, with the option that you can support me if you are financially able to do so—that just feels better to me.

There’s a chance I might change that in the future. I’ve been toying with the idea of publishing the fairy book series I wrote for my kids on Substack, and I think I might put that behind a paywall so I could maybe still land a traditional publisher. We’ll see though.

I’m still running a discount subscription fee on annual plans until the 15^th (if you want to pay full price, use the buttons below):

Thanks! Now let’s get into my latest Medium hack.

Make connections with Medium editors

If you want to succeed on Medium, you need to work the publications. There’s no way around this. I don’t think I’ve self-published a story on Medium in YEARS.

Publications offer a built in community. Community means eyeballs on your work.

But you need to find the RIGHT community and INTERACT with the other writers there or you won’t gain any traction.

A good place to start is to READ the articles to see if your work is a good fit. After that, click on the “About” button in the navigation bar and get to know the editors.

Sometimes publications don’t link to an “About” page on their navigation bar, but you can usually find that page by typing in medium.com/publicationname/about.

Alternatively, simply navigate to the publication homepage and add in “/about.”

Then I suggest that you follow all the editors involved with a publication and read their work.

Don’t submit until you know the expectations of the publication

I realize that everyone is excited to get their work seen, but I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to make sure you’re sending your work to the right place.

We often talk about how disappointing it is to receive a rejection. I know that pain better than anyone. But at the same time, it doesn’t make sense to have an emotional response from the opinion of a writer you’ve never read.

I’ve had a lot of emails throughout the years from people who I’m certain have never read any of my work. Perhaps if they’d read my stuff they’d have found they didn’t like it and they could have saved me some time.

A good writer should be able to anticipate the comments of any editor after reading the work of that editor. It’s pretty obvious that the editor is going to coach you to write like them. If you’re sending your work to an editor with zero followers, it’s possible that editor won’t have advice that’s useful to you.

Before you submit, READ! READ! READ! READ! READ!

Leave thoughtful comments

There are quite a few writers on Medium that I have really come to rely on. I’m tempted to start listing them, but there are too many.

Quite often I’ll get about halfway through an article by one of my favorite writers and I’ll find myself inspired to go and write something of my own.

When that happens, don’t wait! Do it!

Your objective as a writer is to write (obviously), but the secondary objectives of interaction and community building are like the sea you float in while you wait for inspiration to strike.

But if you are inspired by an article and you go off to write something, make sure to come back and tell that story in a comment.

Even better, SUBMIT the story you were inspired to write to the publication that featured the work that INSPIRED you. Chances are it will be a fit!

Your end goal

I think a lot of writers don’t know what it means to develop a community. If you’re going at it from the perspective of “I need to do this as quickly as possible so I can make money” you’re going to fail.

Think of it as making friends… not work friends, REAL friends.

Again folks remember, this is writing. It’s not real life. The people in writing are AWESOME! You need to approach your interactions differently. Put aside the small talk, writers DELETE small talk.

Instead, do this:

• Be sincere

• Leave vulnerable, thoughtful, gracious comments

• Be inspired

• Understand a publication’s needs

• Listen to edits

• Work to become a valuable asset to a publication

Once a publication has accepted 4 or 5 of your articles, you can probably send the editor a short message thanking them.

What you really need is to develop a professional, respectful, working relationship where you aren’t afraid to ask the editor what you can do to serve them better.

Editors are on the lookout for writers like this. It makes their lives easier because it assures them they have dedicated, talented writers who will provide quality work.

So, again, it’s not “HURRY UP AND PUBLISH THIS SO I CAN MAKE $200!”

It is, “Dear editor, thank you for supporting me. Please don’t hesitate to advise me on how I can be of better service to you.”

Medium’s publications are unique

There is nothing else like Medium’s publications anywhere else in the writing sphere. The editors are willing to offer you excellent writing advice for FREE!

Take advantage of this.

But you have to be polite and you have to recognize that writing is a long term game. Sometimes they’re going to demand extreme edits that might feel harsh. My advice is to not burn bridges. Work through the article, but feel free to publish the next article elsewhere.

Editors understand that’s the way this relationship works. When I work as an editor, I’m perfectly happy when a writer declines to make the changes I suggest. However, I also reserve the right not to publish stories that don’t meet the expectations that have been set for the publication.

Slow down. Get to know editors. Ask them if they’re willing to nominate your stories for a boost.

It’s by developing these relationships that you can find the greatest success on Medium!

Other things

I recently did a fun interview with

Kristina God

. You can watch that here:

Also, here’s some work that I’ve enjoyed lately (keeping with the theme of this newsletter… these are writers you should get to know):

Ossiana Tepfenhart

who I know from reading her work on Medium: So, Lauren Southern Is Realizing She’s In A Trad Nightmare…

Michelle Brown

who is the wonderful editor of Heart Affairs on Medium: To All The Stepmoms In The Trenches

Alison Acheson

who I met in my first couple months on Medium (we’ve helped each other a LOT throughout the years): Housekeeping! How Does This Substack Thing WORK?

David McIlroy

who shared the tip that notes is a wonderful tool for growth on this platform (and I’ve just started reading his book): The 1 Thing That Could Absolutely Make or Break Your Writing Career

My CoSchedule referral link

Here’s my referral link to my my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).

Thanks as always, see you next time!