“Sometimes one of the behind-the-curtain wizards at Medium stumbles across your story and recommends that it be featured. Without a publication. Its merit stands on its own.”
What an amazing honor for a newbie! I wrote more about it and what it means in this Medium story here:
https://womaninwriting.medium.com/my-story-was-distributed-by-medium-curators-a3cace27836
Woohoo! After 3 attempts, I finally got an article published in my favorite Medium publication The Writing Cooperative! It’s also one of the largest remaining publications since Medium. I’ve been trying for months to get accepted and I think I’ve finally cracked the code on the type of content they’re looking for.
This Medium publication is written by writers and is intended for writers. The article accepted is called “The Paris Review Unleashed an Amazing Archive of Writer Interviews” and it’s about a treasure trove of author interviews on The Paris Review’s website.
Progress! 🥳
I’ve lit a fire under my butt and have been dusting off medium drafts that I started last year but never polished and finished. I’ve also done more thorough research into Medium publications with the hope of getting curated. With the recent shake-up at Medium regarding publications, I figured this might be a good opportunity to find new publications.
Luckily, I’ve gotten a couple of things right. I’m now an accepted author for 7 different publications and working on a couple more. It’s hard to say if the process of being a contributor is harder or easier than a year ago. I have several more pieces to submit as examples, plus I’ve been curated by one publication now. I’ve also gotten a better handle on the vast number of publications out there, as well as common rules that I’ve seen across multiple sets of guidelines.
But…I’m also stumbling on curation. I understand that the larger publications are getting an insane amount of submissions every day. I also understand that there are guidelines and rules to help publication articles feel consistent. However, it’s been frustrating when I feel like I’m following the rules and am rejected for subjectivity reasons (“this doesn’t feel right for our publication”). Or, it’s stated that I’ve violated a rule that’s not very black and white, yet other recently published authors are flagrantly violating those same rules (and others).
It’s a conundrum. But I won’t give up. I’m feeling very appreciative that the 2 latest rejections came with feedback. I can’t imagine how many times the reviewers have to send out rejections, so even a few sentences of feedback is amazing. One reviewer even took the time to point out every rule I violated, which I’m super grateful for. Last year I was rejected for curation with zero response, which sucked.
If I’ve learned nothing else by this decade of life, persistence is key. Oh, and to keep writing. There’s always the self-publishing route, too. 😉
Woman In Writing 