Become a verified book author
Have you published a book? Would you like to feature it on your Medium profile? Here’s how!
Hello, writers of Medium! Today we’re launching a new program that invites published authors to verify their identity by claiming their books. When verified, your book(s) will be featured on your profile page, alongside your stories, and a new book badge will appear next to your name everywhere on Medium — in the For You homepage feed, in search, on topic pages, in your replies to other stories, etc.
Medium is different from other places where writing happens, and we’ve designed author verification to work differently from how verification happens on other platforms. These differences are based on close feedback loops from a diverse range of authors and Medium users that we worked with while developing this feature (read more on their thoughts below).
Here are answers to some questions we anticipate you might have right away:
- Who can apply for verification? Anyone can! You also don’t have to be a member, or need to be in the Partner Program. All you need is a Medium account with your name, a photo, and your bio filled in… and a published book with an ISBN (International Standard Book Number).
- Does it cost money? Nope!
- Will my stories get distributed more if I’m verified? No, there will not be any special treatment given to stories from verified authors. This is meant primarily as a way to present helpful context to stories and profiles. Logic for distributing stories beyond your followership will continue to be tied directly to the quality of the stories and relevance to reader interests.
- Why is this restricted to books with ISBNs? We need a way to verify the existence of a book in the world, and the International Standard Book Number is a system that allows us to do just that. Obviously, authors can create their own books that don’t have ISBNs, but for now we’re limiting verification to those who do.
- Will you open up verification to more categories over time? Maybe! We’re starting with book authors to introduce the concept of verification on Medium, and to invite the community to share their thoughts about verification in general. We welcome any and all constructive feedback here, along with ideas for where we might take verification on Medium next.
We worked with book authors on Medium along the way, and they gave us lots of helpful feedback as we were building this. Here are some of their thoughts on how publishing books connects to their writing on Medium:
“In showcasing my book, I really hope that I gain more authority and also trust from my readers. I think it shows that I think about my content and work for quality, rather than quantity.” — Marco Peixeiro, author of “Time Series Forecasting in Python”
“I love talking and writing about psychology, because of its relevance to things we all care about — happiness, and health, and well-being. My Medium page gives me a chance to share the latest findings from empirical research on these topics — and to provide practical strategies readers can use to live happier, healthier lives. Readers who share my own enthusiasm for these topics and want to learn even more can also check out my books. As I often say, more happiness in the world is good for us all.” — Catherine A. Sanderson, author of “The Positive Shift: Mastering Mindset to Improve Happiness, Health, and Longevity”
“It’s awesome that Medium is now letting authors spotlight their books alongside their blogs. Anyone interested in an author’s writing will benefit from seeing a fuller picture of that author’s work and it also provides additional visibility for the authors.” — Bill Franks, author of “Winning the Room: Creating and Delivering an Effective Data-Driven Presentation”
“My Medium blog is like a living companion to our book on hybrid and remote work: I use it to address the latest questions and challenges I hear about from readers, and to expand on the recommendations in our book. Featuring Remote, Inc. on my Medium page means it’s now much easier for readers to see my latest updates in the right context…as a continuation of our book!” — Alexandra Samuel, author of “Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work… Wherever You Are”
“Having the ability to display my books directly on my Medium profile removes any friction with readers. I don’t have to send Medium readers to my website or somewhere else to let them know about my books. Makes the lives of readers and authors a lot simpler!” — Darius Foroux, author of “Think Straight: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life”
Here’s a selection of the growing number of authors we’ve verified so far — browse their stories and check out their books:
- Brad Stulberg, author of The Practice of Groundedness
- Brandeis Marshall, author of Data Conscience: Algorithmic Siege on our Humanity
- Camille Fournier, author of The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
- Chaz Hutton, author of A Sticky Note Guide to Life
- Clive Thompson, author of Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World
- Cory Doctorow, author of Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We’ll Win Them Back
- Devon Price, author of Laziness Does Not Exist and Unmasking Autism
- Dmitry Zinoviev, author of Complex Network Analysis in Python; Pythonic Programming; and Resourceful Code Reuse
- Donald J. Robertson, author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius
- Douglas Rushkoff, author of Survival of the Richest; Life, Inc.; Present Shock; Program or Be Programmed; Team Human; and Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus
- Fabricio Teixeira, author of Introduction & Best Practices in UX Design
- George Kao, author of Joyful Productivity for Solopreneurs: Gentle Practices for Consistent Creativity, Wellbeing and Deep Meaning in Work
- James Stanier, author of Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager: How to Be the Leader Your Development Team Needs and Effective Remote Work: For Yourself, Your Team, and Your Company
- Madison Schott, author of The ABCs of Analytics Engineering: A Complete Guide to Getting Started on This Career Path
- Marianne Bellotti, author of Kill It With Fire: Manage Aging Computer Systems (and Future Proof Modern Ones) and Hiring Engineers
- Mark Humphries, author of The Spike: An Epic Journey Through the Brain in 2.1 Seconds
- Nir Eyal, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
- Sara Benincasa, author of Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom; DC Trip; Great; and Real Artists Have Day Jobs
- Scott Belsky, author of Making Things Happen and The Messy Middle
- Scott Galloway, author of Adrift: America in 100 Charts
- Sheri Byrne-Haber, CPACC, author of Giving a Damn About Accessibility
- Yevgeniy Brikman, author of Hello, Startup: A Programmer’s Guide to Building Products, Technologies, and Teams; and Terraform: Up and Running
Learn more about author verification and apply here. We will be reviewing and approving applications over the next few weeks, and look forward to your feedback!
