Publications Need to Stop Supporting Big Authors
They should give chances to small, new writers too.
For a beginner writer, publication plays a big role in bringing them into the limelight. When you are starting as a new writer on this platform and do not have any kind of audience, joining a large enough platform can give you exposure to a huge audience. It allows you to showcase your abilities in front of an already-existing audience. It not only makes you visible to so many readers right at the beginning but also makes it easy to grow on the platform.
Now, there are hundreds of publications available on the platform that accept new writers, which one can choose to join. But when it comes to publishing articles with them, there is an issue. Even though they accept you as a writer, they want you to meet certain criteria and quality levels in order to get published. But for obvious reasons, you can expect it to at least not match the quality.
Except for these two reasons, as a mature writer on Medium, I have seen a huge bias in publications, which I thought I needed to address. It is something most writers with a small audience might face with mostly large publications. Even when I was new, I faced the same
When publications are unfair towards writers
Let me describe the thing through my own story.
When I was in my early stage on this platform, maybe 6 months into writing here, and I had like 300–400 followers here, I was a writer for a large health publication (not exposing the name). I was pretty active in publishing with them. But then I saw how unfair they can be.
Once, I wrote an article on exercises, and instead of being a health publication, they do not usually accept articles on exercises. But still, I thought to submit it and see if they would accept it. But, as expected, they rejected it, saying the article did not fit their genre. I was like, "Ok," even though I expected the same response, and I published it in some other publication.
Now, until this, everything was “okay,” but when I saw the next day that they published an article on exercises that were kind of similar to mine, I was like, “WTF?"
I checked out the article and noticed it was written by a big writer on Medium, and as the writer was known, they accepted it. At that time, they did not care if it was in their genre or not. The audience they were getting from the writer was the only thing that mattered at that time.
And I am not the only one who is saying this; even Tom Krugler, a big writer here, say the same about how big writers here flood with the same type of articles daily in large, reputable publications.
And, this is where I gained more love for small publications.
Those big publications are not only hard to publish articles in but also tough to get into; which is why nowadays I prefer small publications more. They are not only easy to get into, but because they have a smaller audience, you can build a good relationship with the readers and the staff members.
As I stated in my previous blogs, I have seen some small publications get more engagement than larger publications. Even editors leave you with feedback to improve your writing, which you can never expect from a big publication. So, it is a win-win game. You publish with them, engage with others' articles, and grow together.
Now, finding the right publication is not easy, and a small publication is not always equal to a good publication or the opposite. So, to help you find a good publication, I have a guide for you, which you can read by clicking here.
If you ask me right now, the best publication in my eyes is The Hub Publication. I can be a little bit biased here as I post with them regularly, but I want to ask you to take a look. You might like it as well.
Join 60+ readers who receive weekly personalized content on life, health, and personal development directly to their inboxes.
