Day 18: Remember your target reader?

[Zulie @ Medium]

Time: 12 minutes​

Good morning writers,

Remember way back on Day 5 of this challenge, you defined who your reader was? Today, we’re going to make sure this story is still valuable for them.

Today’s assignment: Pick a publication and read the guidelines​

Publications on Medium are themed collections of stories — think data science, mental health, food. Any Medium member can create and run a pub, so they’re varied.

Editors of publications are very clear on who their target readers are. Even if you don’t plan to submit to a publication, you can piggyback on that expertise by checking out their submission guidelines and making sure your story is a good fit.

Today’s task: Find a publication that covers your story topic (here’s a video that covers how to do this) and read the publication submission guidelines. You don’t have to stick to them 100%, especially if you’re not submitting there, but re-read your piece with an eye to those guidelines.

Time: Take no more than five minutes to find a publication that seems like a good fit for your story. Read the submission guidelines and make any changes to your story in the final seven minutes of today’s challenge.

Why do this? Pub editors put a lot of effort into making their pub’s stories valuable for readers. By applying the guidelines they put together for writers, you can make extra sure your story is going to be meaningful for your reader. Bonus: many pub submission guidelines also cover formatting tips and tricks.

For example, my story is about work and writing. I head over to the Writing topic page, and I notice many stories are showing up in the Writing Cooperative publication. I know there will be overlap between my target reader and that pub’s target reader, so I check out their guidelines. That pub’s submission guidelines are clear:

Do I “use [my] experience to help the reader learn from [my] choices, tips, and education”?

Is “[e]very reference, claim, quote, or acknowledgment…backed with evidence and links to a primary source”? No, but that’s something I can go in and fix now.

Great job, folks, we are getting there.

Tomorrow, Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine is going live to present how he adds window dressing to his story draft (topics, subtitles, images, etc) and he’ll stick around for a brief Q&A after. Here’s the link to attend!

And don’t forget: Press Publish Party, June 30​

On June 30, 12–1 PM ET, we’re going to celebrate the end of the challenge together. Sign up to attend our live webinar, and we can all press publish, together. See you there!

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Day 18: Remember your target reader? was originally published in Just Start Writing on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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