Publication Hunt — Glory or Despair
Writers always hunt for publications but for what?
I have written at Medium in January 2019 — two weeks ago. I know what readers mean to us writers. So, I try to figure out how to get readers, and the best way I learn is getting published in publication.
Looking for publications is hard. I spent a FEW DAYS to find what is suitable for my work, and where I should belong to. These are what I learn:
- Searching for publications through Medium is a bad idea. The search result will show all publications for your keyword, but most of them are empty shells. In other words, those publications are dead. And some of them were dead before they were born, their homepage was still under construction without a single post.
- Most publications are personal blogs. Some publications are still alive. But they build publications for themselves. Thus you cannot join them.
- The owners of publications are inactive. When you find the publication you can join, you will be happy at first but sad later. The owners are inactive, and thus you cannot catch them.
- Find publications from what you read. Publications publish articles you read. It will show next to the author’s name. For example, Chris Winfield in The Startup. You can try to submit your work there.
- Get ideas from SMedian. Once I did not find publications though Medium’s search, I googling and found SMedian, which give me ideas about publications I should check out at Medium. SMedian is a good place to promote your own publication. Although your publication was just born, You might get one more writer within a week.
- Check publications at TopPub. This website has a list of publications sorting by numbers of followers. It also displays editors and latest posts in publication detail. If you want to join any publications, check this site. By the way, you cannot contact owners of publication directly like SMedian.
What Do You Expect From Joining Publications?
What do you want from getting published? Yes, it’s readers. Readers are the reason we are writers. If we are right hands, readers are the left hand. When they run into each other, it is a clap. And you can see that you cannot clap to yourself in Medium. Therefore…
You NEED readers.
You may think you are a reader too and thus you are writing for yourself. Yes, you can do that but what do you feel when you clap with one hand. You can make a sound, but it is not a clap — It is a SLAP!
Readers are very important. Just one response from them can bring a writer back from death. When writers keep writing and have no view, that comment is the holy power to keep writers alive in their path.
But what to do if you have no readers?
I have learned there is a publication feature in Medium. Publications have followers. If you get published, they will receive notification somehow. People will know what you write. You will feel your existence in Medium for the first time.
The more followers give more views. The stats will skyrocket if you get published by Top 100 publications. Your life will change overnight, and thus you can wake up with glory as your dream comes true.
In contrast, if publications reject you. It’s despair.
I started my publication once because I have two writing styles: the lite version and the dept version. The dept version will take time to write. So, I plan to write once a week. The lite version is only 2 minutes read and I plan to publish them in my publication.
But I might be wrong. What publications love to publish is quality contents. If I create a publication to be my safe zone, it will be a trash bin collecting my crap articles.
How can I improve with that?
I should give my all and do my best to get published by those publications. If my 100% gets rejected, I have to improve to 120%. If my 120% is not enough, I have to make it 150%. If the maximum of the current me cannot get published, I will find a smaller publication that accepts my work. I cannot move backward, and thus I have to get rid of that path.
Then I deleted my publication.
After I deleted my publication for a few days, someone requested to join me through SMedian. Oh, I forgot to remove my advertisement there. Yes, that’s what I told you earlier that you might get a writer within a week.
I am sorry, Ja’Kari. My publication is gone.
For my style, Better Humans publication is my goal.
I want to write for them one day.
Anyone may dream. Rejection is not the end of the world. Thus you can try as much as you want. I do not fear it as I think the rejection chance could be 99 percents. If they reject my work. Fine, there is no despair because I do not expect it to succeed. I may have some emotional but I can move on.
To start, I have to read their guide, write and submit an article. The rest is the editor’s duty. I want to see how many publications would reject my work, then pick one of the top 100 publications — Better Humans.
I checked how to submit, but I got a reward for my bravery instead. That writing guide is a real gem, and this is my precious one:
How to do X to achieve Y
First, these articles need to be based on the idea that a lot of people want to achieve Y. The best version of these articles come from someone who knows the subtleties of how and where the reader will struggle. You can write the tutorial you would give your client — but please make sure to back up your own advice with expert citations.
If you want to be the top, you should prepare to be there. They are already at the place you aim for, and thus their writing guide is a good thing to learn because — it is a path of their glory.
I am also a reader.
I know what I want to read.
I know what kind of writer I want to be.
Thus I should think about what readers can get from me.
Money can exchange for many things but heart. The heart is special; you have to exchange it with the same thing. Thus if you want readers’ heart, pay yours through your writing.
I engrave this in my heart.
Hunt to improve and satisfy my readers.
That’s the way I hunt publications for glory.
