Submission Guidelines
By: Jared A. Brock
Tags: Personal Development, Self Improvement, Writing, Authors, Writer

Want to reach a wider audience with your work?

We’re excited to announce the launch of a new personal development publication here on Medium: Improving Together. It’s a digital magazine for ordinary folks who want to live extraordinary lives. If you’re a great writer and want your articles to reach a wider audience (and potentially earn you some income through the Medium Partner Program), Improving Together might be a good home for you.

Here at Improving Together, we want to publish as many high-quality, thought-provoking, hope-inspiring evergreen articles as possible — stories that will matter today, next year, and for decades to come. Accordingly, we have a few well-trimmed editorial standards for the submissions we accept, and will only consider those that fit the criteria below.

[Many thanks to The Mission, The Startup, and The Writing Cooperative, from whom we cribbed much of this page.]

1. Align with our themes

Each story must align with one or more of our themes: health, wealth/stewardship/finance, practical wisdom, relationships, history. Think: PRACTICAL. We love promoting uplifting stories about people who are elevating humanity, creating a better world, and improving their lives in replicable ways.

2. Tell a story

Each submission should include a story to draw the readers into your article. At present we’re looking to publish stories between 300–3,000 words. The types and format of stories we publish include:

In-depth, practical how-to pieces (on health, money, relationships, etc)

Book reviews

Profiles of inspiring people past and present

Fascinating interviews with thought leaders

Essays about living intentionally in a consumerist world

Interesting and/or humorous musings about culture

High-quality listicles (top 10s/12s/50s/etc)

Journalistic pieces

Narrative nonfiction and testimony

Manifestos

NO POLITICS!

3. Make a point

Just one. Brevity is beautiful. Please don’t word-vomit. If you want to make another point, write another article. (People love a good series)

4. Entertain and educate

Improving Together seeks to explore, entertain, and spark conversation. Each story should try to tie into an important topic (whether its importance was lost in the past, exists now, or will be vital in the future).

5. Be architecturally, stylistically, and visually appealing

We’re looking for stories that have been carefully structured, and edited for grammar, spelling, readability, and cohesiveness. We highly suggest that writers download Hemingway and Grammarly, and find friends who can provide critical feedback (prior to submitting your piece.)

All submissions should have a featured image above or below the title. Bonus points for articles with beautiful, rich media (video, data, charts, or even GIFs) throughout the story. All images must be owned by you or include a cited source. We retain the right to remove images from submissions and replace them with those our editors pick.

Please make use of Medium’s elegant formatting features. Headers, quotes, italics, etc. A careful use of formatting is what helps make an article easy to read and share.

6. Things to remember

We Reserve the Right to Alter and Edit Your Story and Title

The Improving Together team can edit the content of your story if grammatical errors are found, along with adding logos, bylines, ads, images, etc. to your story. If you remove this content after your story is published, it will be removed from Improving Together, and you will be removed from our list of contributors.

We’re Looking For Long-Term Relationships

Once we’ve published your story on Improving Together, we ask that it remain in our publication. We will not be accepting articles from writers who publish with Improving Together and then publish the same stories elsewhere on Medium.

Don’t Be a Self Promoter

We will only publish author bylines that are 1–2 sentences long. Please feel free to include 1–2 links. Anything longer will be removed (including author photos, newsletter forms, excessive links, etc). These shorter bylines and a single sentence CTA to recommend and share will help increase the number of people your story reaches.

7. What to avoid

Clickbait headlines: e.g “These 5 things will make you insanely successful.” That said: We want titles that people absolutely have to click! Finding the proper balance is tricky.

e.g “These 5 things will make you insanely successful.” That said: We want titles that people absolutely have to click! Finding the proper balance is tricky. Already-published stories: Medium’s algorithm favors fresh stories, and our homepage is sorted by date of when the article was published (not when it was accepted into the publication). The longer it’s been since a story’s original publish date, the poorer it will usually perform. In the interest of getting your story as much visibility as possible, please submit unpublished drafts only.

Medium’s algorithm favors fresh stories, and our homepage is sorted by date of when the article was published (not when it was accepted into the publication). The longer it’s been since a story’s original publish date, the poorer it will usually perform. In the interest of getting your story as much visibility as possible, please submit Politics . We try to stay away from anything overtly political, and actively avoid anything partisan.

. We try to stay away from anything overtly political, and actively avoid anything partisan. Boring stock photography: which brings us to…

8. Use an interesting cover image

All submissions must include a featured image right below the title+subtitle. Try to find the perfect image that reflects the theme of your story and entices readers to click on the image.

This image, and any other images included, must be something you have the right to use and must include a cited source as the image caption. We reserve the right to remove questionable images from submissions. (For more information about Featured Image options, please read Medium’s help article.)

Looking for beautiful images you can use? Check out:

9. Don’t be boring!

Being dry is the cardinal sin around here. Get a few other people to read your piece and tell you where their interest flags. Cut every sentence that isn’t interesting. No fluff!

10. Share, but don’t spam

If Improving Together publishes one or more of your stories, you agree to market (but not spam) your article to your circle and beyond (ie Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Reddit/LinkedIn, link on your blog, email it to your list.) We ask that you do not copy-and-paste the story on your personal blog or elsewhere online, as Google can penalize both sites for hosting duplicate content.

11. Final notes

All submissions must comply with Medium’s Rules and Ad-Free Policy.

Submissions must be made through Medium using the process described below. Do not send us emails with links or attachments. They will be ignored.

They will be ignored. Once a story has been accepted and published by the Improving Together team on Medium we ask that it remain in our publication. We will cease to accept articles from people who habitually remove stories from our publication.

You may have no more than 5 articles in our submission queue at any given time. Please do not spam us with submissions.

Article Submission Form

Writers who have not been previously published by Improving Together will need to request to be a contributor by emailing Jared A. Brock through his website. (Please introduce yourself, link to your Medium profile and social media, and include some article titles.) By requesting to become a contributor, you agree to Improving Together’s Submission Requirements. New writers are added manually every few weeks. Notification will come from Medium confirming your addition to the Improving Together publication.

Due to a limitation on the number of writer slots available, writers who do not produce content within 90 days may be removed to provide space for new writers. Incorrectly typed usernames are ignored.

Submit a Draft

When your story is ready, email Jared A. Brock through his website. (Please introduce yourself, link to your Medium profile and social media, and include some article titles.)

(If you’re accepted as a writer by Improving Together, please follow Medium’s process for adding the draft to our publication.)

We can’t wait to read your work!