Why It’s Important To Follow Publication Guidelines
By: Benny Lim
Tags: Writing Tips, Publication Guidelines, Writing On Medium, Publication, Ｍedium

I run 2 of my own publications and am an editor for 3 others. It’s both rewarding and frustrating at the same time. Of course, the majority of the editors on this platform are doing all of this for free. We don’t get paid to be editors. We’re doing it because we like it and find some kind of fulfilment.

For the publications that I own, I’m the sole editor and have to vet through all the submissions. At the moment, my publications are not that big so submissions are still manageable. It works well for me because I do have a full-time job and I’m only on Medium 2–3 hours a day at the most. That’s the time I use to go through submissions, read, as well as write my own articles.

My time on Medium is always used to its maximum and that’s why when I’m in editor mode, I prefer when things are made easier for me.

That’s why it’s important to follow publication guidelines that have already been set out beforehand.

You won’t annoy the editors

Most of the time, publications have their own way of requesting to be a writer for them. Some would require to email the editor personally with a draft article so that they can gauge your level as a writer and decide if you’re a good fit for their publication or not.

Others are a bit more simple (like mine) where you just leave a comment in the comments section and state that you’d like to be a writer.

But even so, I’ve had many writers who can’t even seem to follow that. Instead, they leave personal comments all of the place saying they want to be a writer and I’d have to look for where exactly they left the comment just to read it. That’s why the instructions were to leave a comment in the comments section, not a personal note.

Formating of articles and submissions of articles are also not consistently followed. A lot of publications prefer unpublished drafts and formatted in a certain way. Still, plenty of writers submit articles that are already published (some even months ago) and do not follow the formatting which has already been set out.

This is the reason why you’d get rejected. Editors just won’t have the time (or patience) if you can’t even follow simple instructions.

You either leave a good impression or a bad one of yourself

First impressions are everything they said and although I beg to differ, it does play a very important role in how you’re viewed after.

If you’re applying to be a new writer in a publication, it won’t hurt to give a nice introduction of yourself and why you’d like to write for them. A short one would suffice like your name, the topics that you write in and the reason why their publication attracts you as a writer.

Don’t be rude as you may just be ignored. I’ve received requests from writers that just says “Add me as a writer!” and nothing else. No username, no introduction, no ‘please’ or ‘thank you’. Depending on my mood when I received requests like those, I might still accept or just ignore it completely.

Just because you’re online, it doesn’t mean you don’t need to show any form of good ethics. Actually, because a lot of things are now online, your online persona/ethics are just as important as your real-life one. If anything, I would think that you’re just the same in real-life.

If you’re gonna leave an impression on others — especially a first impression — make sure it’s a good one.

You may just put yourself way down in the pecking order

When a publication grows, so will its readers, writers, and most importantly, its submissions. The bigger the publication, the more submissions it may receive. This in return will increase your wait time.

Some big publications like The Ascent and The Startup receive thousands of submissions EVERY SINGLE DAY. You can imagine the headache the editors get going through each and every one of them.

Whenever I submit to them, I’d give them at least 2 weeks to respond. If I’m lucky, I’d get a response earlier on whether my article is accepted or rejected. If I’m not so lucky, I won’t get a single word from them at all. And this is by following all of their submission guidelines and never getting on their bad side.

Imagine if you’ve gone against their guidelines a couple of times. Chances are, you may be on a list of ‘bad’ or ‘problematic’ writers. It’s not to say that you won’t get published anymore (although that could also happen) but you may be last on their list to be published. It’s the same with anything in life. The more you screw up, the fewer people will like you or want to do a favour for you.

So don’t screw up.

Publications have guidelines for a reason. It’s to help the process of application and submissions, and at the end of the day, it’s to help writers such as yourself to get published with them.

If you don’t or can’t follow these guidelines, don’t be surprised if you find it difficult to be published in the publications that you want to publish for.

Of course, you can always create your own publication and do whatever you want with it and no one will say anything. But if you want to get published in publications own by others, please follow all the guidelines that have already been set out.