How-To | Tutorial
Submitting Drafts and Citing Images
A How-To tutorial
Greetings writers of Promptly Written. Sorry to do this, but I must put on my Editor hat and be one of those nagging editors.
Since many of you are new Medium writers and new to Promptly Written, I am getting many submissions that are pre-published (often on the author’s own page) and not being sent as drafts.
I am also receiving submissions either without images (which is fine if you intend your story to be shortform — if so, you need to BOLD the first sentence and your post should be 150 words or under. It does not need an image, but it can have an image and the image must be cited) or with images that have no citings or citings without links to the original images.
This newsletter is to explain how to submit drafts and cite images.
SUBMITTING DRAFTS
- Why is it important to submit in draft form? Medium only allows you to post stories in ONE publication at a time. You can post to your own page and then submit it to a publication if it allows this. Most publications on Medium ONLY accept DRAFTS. I have been publishing pre-published stories if I can verify that they come only from the Author’s own page; however, this creates extra work for me, Alyse Rowe, and Katrina D., time that could be spent publishing others’ stories, writing our own stories or creating prompts. Promptly Written will ONLY accept DRAFTS going forward (as I mentioned in my last newsletter). Please do not force me to reject your story because you pre-published it (even to your page) before submitting it to PW.
- This is a step by step method for submitting drafts:
Ok, so you’ve written a story. In the top left, it should say Draft in ___(your own page). In the top right of the page you will see the following:
Publish in green, three dots (…), your notification bell, and your account icon.
If you are posting to your OWN page, you would immediately click the PUBLISH in green.
However, if you want to submit to a publication, instead of clicking publish, you will click on the THREE DOTS. That will bring down a MENU. The very first option is Add to Publication. When you click on that, it will show all of the publications where you are listed as a writer. Choose the publication you want to submit your work to. Then at the bottom of that list, it will say Select and Continue. Click that. The pull-down menu will close and you will now see Submit in green. Click Submit and it will take you to the screen where you can check your image, title, subtitle, and add tags.
Once everything looks ok on this page, click on Submit to Publication. Another screen will come up saying that you’ve submitted to the publication of choice. Click ok.
At the top right, it should now say Draft in (Publication). You can then close that window or go on about whatever else you want to do on Medium. You draft will then be in the Publication’s queue and the Editor will review and publish it.
ADDING IMAGES TO YOUR STORY AND CITING THEM
- Do I need to add an image to my story? The short and dirty answer — No. And if you are writing shortform as I suggested above, you do not have to use an image. However, we are a visual species with a limited reading focus. Images not only give us a clue what to expect in the story but can also be used to break up large portions of text. Most publishers on Medium will not publish a story without an image (unless it is specifically a shortform).
- Why is it important to cite an image? Medium, due to copyright rules, demands that all images be cited. If this is your own image, a simple “Image by the Author” will suffice. However, if you add an image from any other location, it MUST be a) copyright-free (Unsplash or Pexels are the two best sites for copyright-free images) and b) you must include the creator’s name of the image with their link and where you found it with that locations link. Sounds complicated? It can be. This is why Medium has provided its own preferred copyright-free image site — Unsplash. If you do not cite your images, there is a good chance that Medium WILL pull your stories. This is a violation of their terms and services and could even get you removed from Medium altogether.
- How do I add an image and cite it? I am going to let Medium teach you this because its guide is well-detailed. Please follow this guide. Any stories with images that are uncited will result in a message from one of our editors. Here is the guide:
I hope this newsletter answers some of your questions. I do not want to reject anyone’s stories, but I must insist on these two issues specifically. If you still do not understand either how to submit drafts or citing images, then please contact me personally — ravynehawke@gmail.com
Thank you all. Now, go forth and promptly write!
~Ravyne Hawke, EIC~
