Why and how should I publish on Predict?
By: Eric Martin
Tags: Writing, Predict, Futurism, Future, About Predict

Dear Writer,

Now is the time to launch an open publication dedicated to the future. In fact, it’s overdue. What is an open publication? It’s one where anyone can submit an article, regardless of credentials, popularity, and writing experience.

The future is not written merely by an elite class of salaried journalists and Ivy League freelancers, it’s written by you. Gone are the days when money, prestige, or power are needed to change the world.

A reminder from “What is Predict?”:

We welcome common futurism topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), quantum computing, nanotechnology, self-driving cars, flying cars, robotics, automation, cryptocurrencies, computer-body interfaces, and living on Mars. We also try to answer how these and other technologies and innovations will impact our lives, our work, and our society.

You can change the world wielding only your phone or computer by writing out an idea. That idea about the future may become implemented by you or anyone else in the world, to change the world. Or your idea can spark another idea in someone’s mind and that idea goes on to change the world. Publishing an idea could spark another published idea that then sparks an idea that is implemented, and so on. Ideas spark new ideas, and by publishing your ideas you are making the great Earth-encompassing wildfire of ideas even stronger.

Putting your story on Predict is a way for all of us future thinkers to collectively increase the exposure of our ideas by joining forces in some way. We will not agree with everything written here, but we also accept that we might be wrong and they might be right. Whether it’s about tomorrow or the year 3000, we want your thoughts about the future.

Predict wants to publish ideas about the future. Even if you think your idea isn’t a great idea: please submit it, because the world might disagree.

To submit an article to Predict: email me at predictstories@gmail.com with your Medium username and the text of the well-written article you’d like to see published, or if it’s already published, the link to the article. If I like it, I’ll make you an author, help you get your story published, and going forward you can submit stories to Predict any time using the method shown here.

The stories I’m most interested in are written well and are 9 minute reads or longer. But I’ll accept anything if I like it, even something very short.

It’s up to you whether you want your story behind Medium’s paywall or not, and you can change that setting at any time. Any earnings are yours just like if the article weren’t part of a publication.

Feel free to have a call to action in your story, or more than one.

You can also remove a story from our publication at any time and even resubmit it later, I don’t mind.

You may edit your story if you need to: it always remains 100% your story.

I prefer that you use the Oxford Comma, even though some people feel it is optional. Using the Oxford Comma means that in lists of three or more, there should be a comma before the “and”. The following sentence is an example of this where I’ve bolded the comma that I hope you will include, and I’ve bolded the letters closest to it, all so that the comma will stand out to you: “I like horses, dog s, a nd cats.”

nd cats.” I generally like to avoid spiritual predictions on Predict (but spiritual commentary alongside a separate prediction can be fine). It may seem counterintuitive but the predictions here are more technological in nature, and Predict is more about logically thinking about the future, rather than trying to ascertain from something supernatural what the future is. I am sometimes flexible, though, so if you’re not sure feel free to submit it and we’ll see.

I recently went through and checked the top 100 non-paywalled articles across Medium at https://medium.com/topic/popular. Only 20 of the top 100 articles on Medium are not in publications, the other 80 are in a publication. Why not give yourself an 80% chance of top article success, instead of a 20% chance?

“The Best Way To Predict The Future Is To Create It.” This goes both ways. In some cases, by predicting the future you are creating it.

Sincerely,

Eric Martin, founder of Predict