FAQ
Tips and Tricks for Formatting and Publishing Poetry on Medium
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Poets starting out on Medium have a lot to learn. This will be a living document, updated frequently, to house answers to the technical questions many new (and some old) Medium writers have. If you have an idea for a question we should add, feel free to make that suggestion in the comments. If this page helps you at all, let me know that by clapping.
Last Edit: June 24, 2024
How do I get rid of the spaces between the lines of my poem?
If you’re writing on the Medium site or app, every time you hit enter, it assumes you want a new paragraph, and it leaves a space. If you want to go to a new line with no space, hold the SHIFT key while you hit enter. Obviously, if you want a new stanza, no shift, Sherlock.
If you have written your poem somewhere else, like a word processor, and it’s already formatted the way you want it, copy it to the clipboard as usual, and then paste it into Medium using CTRL+SHIFT+V, which is “paste without formatting.” This will preserve the line breaks you had intended.
How do I do those cool dots you just did right there?
A section break is inserted by holding CTRL while hitting Enter. It’s a nice way to separate the body of your work from any notes or copyright notices at the bottom. You can also do this from the plus sign. The last option, which looks like three dots between two horizontal lines, is Add a Section. Click that.
What are the title, subtitle and kicker all about, and how do I make them?
Title is pretty obvious. Most poems have titles. If yours doesn’t, that’s fine, but the story still must have one. The first line you type in the Medium editor will become the title. If it’s not for some reason, highlight your title, and click the big T.
A subtitle is optional for Iceberg’s Poetry, but it is recommended. Most publications require them. On the line after the title, type what you like, and then highlight it. You make it a subtitle by clicking the small T. Otherwise, it’s just body text. If I’m writing in a known form (free verse is a form), I often put that in the subtitle. Otherwise, if I’m doing a nonce form, I try to describe the poem in 2–6 words or so.
The kicker is used by a very small percentage of writers on Medium and in a wide variety of ways. My most commonly used kicker is just Poetry. To add a kicker, put the cursor right before the first letter of your title, and hit enter. Then, above that, type your text. Then highlight it, and click the small T. If the text is below the title, that makes a subtitle, but above the title, it makes a kicker.
How do I submit a story to a publication?
When you’re on the Medium writing interface, click the three dots at the top right, and choose Add to Publication BEFORE you click publish. Choose the publication to which you wish to submit that piece. If it worked, the Publish button will change to a Submit button. You can then submit the story, and publication is at the discretion of the publisher.
I’m writing concrete poetry or an acrostic, and I need a monospace font. How do I do that?
When you click on the plus sign to add a section, the fifth option, which looks like a pair of curly brackets, is Add a Code Block. Click it. At the top left of the new block, where it says Auto, change it to None. It looks like this.
This is a code block. Every character is the same width.
It's not pretty, but it works.What if I want to format my poetry on my phone?
Don’t. The app is garbage. The mobile web interface is slightly different garbage.
What tags should I use on my story?
That’s very much up to you, but not all tags are created equal. If you’re writing poetry or about poetry, you should definitely use the Poetry tag (and it is an Iceberg’s requirement). I also often use the name of the form I’m writing in, though sometimes I’m the first to do so. This will work much better for those writing Haiku and Sonnets. Tags with over 100K uses award “Top Writer” spots, so it’s good to use one or two of those aside from Poetry if they apply
Why do most publications (including Iceberg’s Poetry) require draft submissions?
There are multiple reasons for this, but I’ll focus on the one that’s of most interest to you as the writer. The date of publication is the date you first publish it, whether or not it is in a publication at that point. So, if you submit an older, self-published story, and we publish it, it’s going to start way down the list where it won’t be seen as easily. Medium has a short enough memory as it is. It’s much more effective if it shows up in the publication immediately.
Do I really need a subtitle?
Subtitles definitely help get your story noticed, and that increases readership, but we’re not requiring them at present. If you have a subtitle allergy, it’s ok with us.
Do I really need a picture?
Yes. A thousand times yes. The image is critical in getting your piece attention, and it offers uniformity of appearance in publications. Just make sure you have permission to use whatever you’ve selected.
Where can I get pictures?
Unsplash isn’t the only game in town when it comes to free stock photos. Pexels and Pixabay are also great resources. Beyond that, you can specify in a Google image search that you want images using Creative Commons licenses under Tools. Of course, you can take your own pictures or make your own art, with or without the help of AI.
How do I become a writer for Iceberg’s Poetry?
Everything you need is on the Submission Guidelines page.
You suck at explaining things, and I don’t understand any of this.
Well, for one thing, that’s just rude. If you’re going to be nicer about it than that, you can ask Thomas James your question in the comments.
