Nov 20, 2021
Dear Writers at Coffee Times
From the editing team — Important
Dear Coffee Times Writers,
Let me begin by saying that our editing team thoroughly enjoys reading your submissions, making minor grammar corrections, and publishing your posts for the world to read and enjoy.
The purpose of this letter is to simply reiterate what has been said several times regarding the submission guidelines because we are receiving a lot of drafts that ignore these. This leads to an unnecessary delay in publishing.
There are specific reasons why these exist.
For example
Including the mandatory shoutout
With the mandatory shoutout to another writer with a link to one of their articles, you add value to your own post. You build relationships with other writers who will, in turn, promote you in their posts. Therefore, more traffic to your own posts. It is a win-win!
Tip: Tag the writer's name with @ followed by their name so that they know when you publish your post.
Winston tirelessly writes about this with tips to help you succeed on Medium. Here are two of his posts in the series relevant to this post — please read them.
Adding the Coffee Times Movement tag
By adding the Coffee Times Movement tag, you give your publication and your posts in it special status. Readers from the publication can find your posts easily with this tag.
Did you know Medium now recognizes Coffee Times Movement as an official tag? Yes. And we have a Top Writer list under this. Go take a look. Here’s the link.
Although we have clear submission guidelines that are simple and easy to follow, it still breaks our heart to see that many writers ignore these. Of course, we do take care of the tag (we replace one of your tags) and add a gentle private note requesting you to comply with the shoutout requirement. But this means a delay in getting your posts published, based on how quickly you respond.
If you comply with the submission guidelines, your posts get published right away.
So here’s our message to you
Use this checklist to ensure your post is ready to publish (Also read Medium’s official guidelines)
Submit your post only after you have answered “YES” to the following questions.
- Did I add the tag Coffee Times Movement to my post?
- In addition to the Coffee Times Movement tag,
For book prompts: add tags: Books or Book Prompt
For Travel prompts: add tags: Travel or Travel Prompt
For “Know Thyself” column: add the tag: Know Thyself Heal Thyself - Did I credit all the images I used in my post?
- Did I add a shoutout to another writer on Medium, tagging them and adding a link to one of their posts?
- Do I agree to Coffee Times’ distribution policy to further distribute my articles on social media — Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn?
- Have I checked my post for grammar/formatting errors?
- Am I submitting a draft?
- Have I enabled private messages?
- Does my article meet Medium Rules and follow Medium’s Member Content Guidelines?
Did you say yes to all that? Great! Go forth and submit!
In spite of all of the above, if you do receive a private note, please respond as soon as you can, no later than 24 hours.
We are here to help you.
We appreciate you very much.
Thank you for reading, dear writers at Coffee Times!
Help us to help you.
From Winston, Yana Bostongirl, Dr. Preeti Singh, Drashti Shroff, Marrisa W., Sharing Randomly, and Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles ❤
We would love to see a comment from you here.
Have questions? Please ask — we’ll be happy to respond.
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