Member-only story
A Sneaky Workaround
Of an issue all we writers face
So you’ve just finished your article — and it’s some of your best work. You can’t wait for it to be published and begin attracting readers. Should you self-publish or submit to an established publication and wait? This is a question that faces almost all Medium writers.
The rules state that once you hit that publish button, you can’t submit your story elsewhere. And the rules also prevent republishing your work on Medium. What to do?
Here’s the solution: While you can’t republish your work, you can edit and/or add to an old story and then republish it. This is key. Nobody says how much you have to change your work to republish it.
And when you think about it, that works in solving the “should I self-publish or submit realm?”
I did an experiment recently. First I wrote my story and self-published it. Then I went back, changed the title, subtitle and image — and wrote a new first and last paragraph, changing the theme somewhat. The body stayed the same.
And then I sent it off to a publication. And guess what happened. You got it. The piece was accepted and published. I had my cake and ate it, too! The edit took all of maybe 5 minutes to effect. I didn’t break any rules and added value the second time around.
