Success Tip: Don’t Write for Big Publications
Don’t fall into this trap!
Let me break it to you; you will not have the tremendous success that you dream of when your piece gets published by a big publication.
That is the fact that many writers know. Big publications are not the key to success. They will only waste your time by sending you tens of notes in return for seven claps after you get published.
If you want to become a successful writer, do not write for big publications, and here is why.
1. Time-consuming
Submitting a story to a big publication is a nightmare. It is an experience that I hate to go through.
It is time-consuming. Some publications can make you wait for ten days until they publish your article or return to you with an upsetting note.
When your article gets published after a long week of waiting, you will mostly lose interest in it. It is not as exciting as publishing the piece in less than 48 hours or less.
The process takes a long time because they receive hundreds of submissions. Some publications have thousands of writers. Thus, you have to wait in line.
2. Does not worth it
I can wait in the line; I have been doing this for my whole life. I do not complain about it. But if I will wait for two weeks, it should be worth it.
Alas, it does not. Publishing your articles in big publications is like New Year’s day; you expect something exciting to happen after the countdown, but nothing happens.
You do not need to write for big publications. Your article could perform better if you published it directly on your blog.
Writing for big publications is a disappointment. Check these stats of articles published recently on The Startup; a +746K followers publication.
Visit one of those big publications and do your investigations by yourself. You will be surprised by the number of claps and interactions the articles get.
Is there a reason behind the failure of articles published in big publications? I cannot provide a sure answer to this question. But -I suppose- the reason behind that failure is the immense amount of articles published every day. It is hard for your piece to sand out when it gets published besides tens of other stories at the same time.
2.2 My experience
I have been through this frustrating experience. As a human rights activist, I wrote an article about the death of 6,500 workers from many countries like India and Pakistan in Qatar.
I wanted this article to go viral for its importance. Therefore, I published it on a big publication that has 19K followers. Sadly, the outcome was disappointing.
I want to seize this opportunity and invite you to read and interact with the article. The way Qatar is enslaving Asian and African workers is shocking. It is a story that is worth going viral.
3. Write for small publications
Instead of wasting your time and effort on big publications, write for the small ones. Publications with less than 5K followers are undervalued.
Contrary to big publications, small publications accept your submitted article in less than an average of 12 hours.
The editors are more humble and understanding. Most of the time, they will publish your article immediately without sending you any notes.
The submission rules are basic. The submission process itself is simple. Instead of the irritating procedure that you have to follow in big publications, which is more complex than applying for a visa, you only need to write a response to some article (like the one below) expressing your desire to join the publication.
3.2 My experience
My favorite publication on Medium is New Writers Welcome. I had many successful experiences with this 3.5K followers publication.
My most successful with New Writers Welcome is this article that reached 7.9K readers and had 22K views.
You can also check these articles that made considerable success in this publication.
