How to Grow Your Publication

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash

Publications might be the smartest way on Medium to earn a passive income. If you want to grow your publication, you’ll need to do some advertising. Reach out to writers you like, and don’t wait for them to come to you.

It’s a lot easier for writers to send you their work once you add them to your publication. Send writers notes about what you like about them, what you would like submitted, and any posts in particular that you would like.

As the gatekeeper, you don’t have to wait for submissions to come to you. Start looking around on Medium and find the talent you want to promote. There are a lot of places seeking writers and a lot of submission guidelines and rules in the way — writers can get bogged down by these things.

There are some hurdles Medium writers have to face if they want to be featured on a publication. You have to click on the publication, look for the rules, write an email, and hope that you’ve sent something into the correct void. It can be time-consuming, and sometimes it’s near impossible to navigate.

Some people are on Medium and not paying for the full subscription, and they probably won’t unless they eventually make a decent chunk of change. It’s hard for those on the free version to navigate your publication. My suggestion: add writers to your publication. Make it easier for them to send you stuff to review.

Make sure your guidelines are clear:

• Specify word limits.
• Make the purpose of your publication clear.
• Direct people to samples of exemplary works.
• Make it clear what won’t be accepted.
• Briefly mention any pet peeves.
• Make sure you read over your guidelines. You want your copy to be clean. It sends the right message when you can nail grammar and spelling.

You’re not required to give any feedback. If you like something, but it’s not up to par, you could politely tell the person your suggestions. Sometimes people just need to read their stuff again and spot-check it for errors. Other times, people send their writing to the wrong place (that’s in part because submission guidelines aren’t always clear.)