What I’ve Learned From Publishing in Small, Medium and Big Pubs
Tips for new writers
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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.
