Hi,

Submitting your stories to Medium publications has always been the wisest move to increase your reach.

It's mandatory when you're just starting out. But most top writers still use publications.

When I started in 2022, I got accepted into the larger publications in my niche and always submitted to them.

But the Boost has changed this.

What's the relationship between the Boost and publications?

Publication editors can apply to become nominators. They can nominate any article published on Medium, but 99% of the time they focus on the submissions to their pub.

So, if you submit your stories to "Boost-enabled" publications, you drastically increase the chances to catch the attention of a nominator.

This has been true since the introduction of the Boost. But recently, a new recommendation started popping up with increasing frequency.

The revenge of the small

The Boosting process is opaque:

• a nominator sees your piece,
• she nominates it,
• a curator approves it or rejects it,
• the nominator gets notified both in case of rejection of acceptance,
• you get notified only in case of acceptance.

When I submit to large publications like The Writing Cooperative or Better Marketing, it feels like a lottery. I submit the piece, wait for several days, and hope to receive the "Congratulations! Your story has been Boosted" email.

The editors of large publications receive dozens of submissions every week. They don't have time to give you feedback or update you about the outcome of a nomination. So, you have zero information on how to improve. Especially if the article is rejected.

But smaller publications receive fewer submissions. The editors have time to go back and forth with you to improve your piece. They tell you when they nominate it and if it's rejected or accepted even before publishing it.

Unfortunately, they don't know the reasons behind the rejections. But at least you can refine your work thanks to these interactions and know that nominators appreciate your writing.

The new strategy

So, the best way to choose publications now is this:

• scan the official list of Boost-enabled publications,
• choose one or more talking about the topics of your articles,
• read the submission guidelines,
• write a story optimized for that publication,
• try to establish a relationship with the editor and ask for explicit feedback on making your article Boost-worthy (possibly before submitting),
• regularly go back to the list of publications, because they keep changing.

By the way, Medium recently invited authors editors of small, niche publications to apply for the Boost program. This tells us what Medium wants to amplify.

I hope this helped.

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See you next week!

Alberto Cabas Vidani ​