Writing
Should You Submit to Publications?
I think not
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I wrote this in response to John Welford asking if he should submit to publications.
I’m going to give a very different answer than most. Some of you may not like what I have to say, but hear me out.
You don’t need publications — John proved that by gaining 150 followers within a week! — and you may not want publications.
Why not?
Visibility
When a reader gets to the bottom of your post that is not in a publication, they will see more of your work — all of your work if they keep scrolling.
If you put your work in your own publication (perhaps because you want to separate genres), the reader will see more stories from your publication.
YOUR stories. Not someone else’s.
Publications mix your work in with other people. When you are in a publication, other people’s posts are at the end of yours. Maybe they are really good stories, maybe very poor. Maybe they are strongly related to your post, maybe vaguely related, or they may be completely off the wall. The publication decides what to accept and some are less fussy than others.
Timeliness
When you don’t use pubs, your stories get published when you want, no waiting for approval. Pubs can put you off for hours, days, even weeks.
Editing
Some pubs will make editorial suggestions. Some make demands.
If you need an editor, hire one. If you don’t, publication suggestions can be annoying and their demands can change your writing in ways you may not like at all.
A failed experiment
Publications are something Medium tried, but Medium is NOT emphasizing publications now. They used to give financial support to some pubs, but they have stopped doing that because they realized that AUTHORS ARE MORE…
