Harbor Guidelines
How To Participate in Medium’s Open Book Club
Why?
Read to find out more about Harbor’s mission and why you may want to get involved:
Who?
Everybody is allowed to submit to Harbor. All you need is a Medium account.
What?
Writers can use Harbor as a platform to discuss their thoughts about their reading.
Submit reviews and insights on books, papers, videos or podcasts you come across. We have zero criteria (as long as it doesn’t break the law).
When?
Anytime, there are no deadlines whatsoever.
How?
There are two ways to write for Harbour: reviews and essays. Choose anything from your personal reading list to write about.
Reviews
The simplest way to contribute to Harbor is to, in your own words, summarize the main elements or points of any piece of work. This not only becomes a handy resource for yourself, but a useful utility for others.
Try keeping these concise.
Essays
While a review is an easier option for most, an essay is the perfect blend of listening and expression.
An essay is not simply a summary of the plot or contents of the work. An essay requires the listener to draw their own thesis of reality and use the work to back-up the argument being made.
The format of an essay is usually longer than a review, and has a clear introduction, thesis statment and conclusion.
Formatting
Length: Any length, but recommendations are 2–5 minutes long for reviews, 5–7 minutes for essays.
Titles: Be creative, especially if you’re submitting a unique essay.
Sub-Title: ALWAYS attribute the author and/or title of the book.
For reviews, a good format is ‘Review of: *Book Title* by *Author Name*’
For essays, go with ‘Insights on: *Book Title* by *Author Name*’
This will be the only enforcement made on any submission.
Submissions
First time writers for Harbour need to be added, so you can email harbor@ramiaidy.com with your Medium account and we’ll add you right away.
Once you’re added as a writer, you can immediately choose Harbor from your list of publications every other time in the future.
To submit a draft of your post to us, select Harbor from the set of publications when you’re publishing a work (after you’ve been added as a writer) and you will be good to go. Again, everyone’s invited.
Get Started
Want to get started today? Share your reading list below, start a dialogue.
Questions?
Leave any questions or comments about Harbor below.
