Mastering Medium’s Manuscript Maze
How to keep track of every publication’s guidelines
Writing for Medium’s publications can be a great way to reach more readers and gain a gazillion followers. But as you find yourself being added to more and more publications, how do you remember which publication wants photos immediately beneath the title and subtitle, which ones want a kicker, and which ones want you to use certain tags?
As I’ve found myself writing for more publications, I’ve been looking for a quicker way of reminding myself of a publication’s guidelines. The way that works best for me is to use Reading Lists.
Reading Lists are a fantastic way of saving articles for future reference. We can make these lists public, so readers can explore them further, like so:
Or, we can make them private.
A private list is a great place to store publication guidelines, which is how I keep track of all the publications I write for.
Step 1 — Create Your Private List
If you’ve never created a list before, it’s quite straightforward. Click on the bookmark icon near the top of the story beside the Listen, Share, and Three Dots More buttons.
A pop-up window appears, and you need to click on Create New List.
A new window asks you to:
- Give your list a name. (I use Medium Publication Guidelines.
- Tick the Make It Private checkbox.
- Click on Create.
Step 2 — Add Your First Publication Guidelines
Now, whenever you’re browsing a new publication and come across its Writer’s Guidelines or Submission Guidelines, you can save them to your list. This time, when you click on the List Bookmark icon near the top of the screen, your new private list will appear. (The padlock on the right of your list name is a reminder that this list is private.)
Tick the checkbox next to your private Publication Guidelines list and the page will be bookmarked.
Step 3 — Access Your List
So, picture the scene, you’re writing an article and have a publication in mind, but before you submit the story, you want to check that it meets the publication’s guidelines.
Go to your avatar in the top right of the screen, and click on it, to reveal the pop-up window.
Click Library. This brings up all of your lists. (Note, you can also click on the green New List button to create a new list via here.)
Select your Medium Publication List and scroll through all of your bookmarks to find the publication you’re looking for.
Step 4 — Add A Note
You’ll see that Medium gives us the option to add a note above the article title that we’ve bookmarked. This can be really useful when a publication doesn’t include its name in the article title. Occasionally, an article title simply says Our Publication’s Submission Guidelines. The publication name and icon appear above the title, but it’s a much smaller font, and not quite as easy to see. So in these situations, I write the publication’s name in capitals in the Add A Note box. It makes it much easier when scrolling through the list.
To view the guidelines, just click on the article title, and you’ll be taken straight to the page.
Having all the guidelines for publications I write for in one place makes writing on Medium so much easier. And it’s a sensible step to check your submission meets their guidelines before you hit the Submit button.
