How to find Medium publications accepting submissions
Two methods that take ~3 minutes
Publications on Medium play a big role in helping find readers for your story. In this story, I’ll show you two ways to quickly find publications on Medium that are:
- Active
- Accepting submissions
If you prefer watching, you can check out the video version here:
What is a Medium publication?
A publication is a themed collection of stories. The theme can be just about anything you can imagine: product development, cooking, science, math, creative non-fiction. I’ve seen one about boba tea! They really run the gamut.
The reason publications are so varied is that they are all run by a member of our Medium community, not Medium staff. These writers are so passionate about a specific topic that they want to run a publication and curate stories about one thing that they love. (Like boba tea.)
Publications are a great tool for writers on Medium for a few different reasons.
First of all, they help you find your community — both fellow writers and avid readers. When you publish in a publication on Medium, you’re going to be virtually hanging out with a bunch of people who love to write about the same thing that you do, whatever that passion is that you all share.
It’s also a great way to find some regular readers, people who choose to follow a publication because they are interested in the same topic.
Secondly, it’s a good way to get feedback on your story before you hit that publish button. Every editor is a little different, so editing styles range from very hands-on to more hands-off, but many on Medium are proactive and involved in the editing. Personally, my writing has benefited from going through the editing process with Medium editors from countless publications.
There is the obviously good side of editing, like when an editor catches typos before you publish. But even if an editor rejects your story, that’s feedback. Yes, it’s negative feedback, which nobody likes, myself included, but even rejection can tell you something about your story — maybe it wasn’t quite the right fit for that audience, or needed slightly more editing than the editor was willing to provide. Take another look at the guidelines, read your story with fresh eyes, and try again.
How to find publications for your Medium story
Here are two quick ways (less than three minutes!) to find a Medium publication that is active and open to submissions.
Medium’s huge list of publications accepting stories
The first method is this list of publications open to submissions that we, Medium staff, maintain:
As I write this story, there are over 400 publications on this list!
On this list, we’ve linked to the submission guidelines page. We’ve also tagged the topic that this publication focuses on. For example: Wellness, menopause, life lessons, self-improvement, you name it, it’s on this list.
Scroll down the list until you find one that fits your story draft or story idea. Or, just let yourself get inspired by the publications you see before you and the rich breadth of topics they cover. Click on the pub’s submission guidelines and learn what they’re looking for.
Use Medium’s Explore Topics page
The second method is using Medium’s Explore Topics page. Scroll on the Explore Topics page until you find one that looks like the topic that you have in mind.
You can also use the search bar to look for a topic page.
Once you’ve found the topic that best suits your story, go to that page.
For instance, say you have a draft about your great-grandmother’s favorite cookie recipe. You can check out the Food topic page and look for publications that frequently show up on that page.
Each topic page shows a collection of stories that were published recently with that topic. If a publication is showing up here, that means that it is active.
Go ahead and click on a few publications on that topic page. Look for some kind of submission guidelines in the navigation bar. They might be called “Write for us,” “How to submit to [publication name],” “New writers click here,” and so on. For example, Tastyble has a tab called Write for Us.
These guidelines usually provide instructions on how to submit, some expectations for how quickly they’ll get back to you, and some guidance around what kind of stories the editors are looking for.
Remember, every publication is run uniquely because every editor has a unique way of doing things. Make sure to carefully read the submission guidelines for every new publication you’re considering. I also encourage you to read a few of the stories published in your target publication to get a sense of what the editor and readers of a publication might like.
Submit your story
Now you know two simple ways to find a good fit publication for your story.
Once you’ve found a publication you like the look of, follow their process to be added as a writer. When you’re added as a writer, you can go to your draft page, select the three dots at the top right, and hit “Add to publication.” There you’ll see a list of the publications where you’ve been accepted as a writer, and can submit your story. Read more info about that process here.
Just keep in mind that these methods will only provide possible contenders. You, the editor, and your story’s readers will determine if that publication is a good fit for your stories or not.
You may find you prefer to work with some editors more than others. You may find one publication’s readers are more receptive to your stories than others.
The only way to find out is to write, submit, publish, and try again.
Enjoy the process! If you have any questions, let me know in the comments.
