You’re Overestimating The Value Of Publications And It’s Hurting You

Wanna get real about publications and what they do for your success? Alright. Let’s do it. Let’s get real…

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Let’s cut the crap and look at where the real value of publications lies. Some claim they’re worthless, while many assume they’re the one sure golden fairy-dusted ticket to fame. The former is a very ignorant view, the latter is an incredibly naive one. The truth, in its classic fashion, is always somewhere in the middle, though not quite as much as one would think, and it’s far more nuanced than binary, so allow me to share everything I learned over the space of eight years of publishing on this platform.

The ignorant view

There are writers who swear by publishing outside and only outside of publications. They write their little stories, format them as they wish, add some great or silly photos with or without credits or concern for copyright, accessibility, plop in the five tags, hit submit, and they’re live for all the world to read whatever they felt sharing. It’s a perfectly valid form of blogging. Heck, it’s perhaps the most classic and purest form of blogging. You, your thoughts and writing against the world. It’s brave and there’s nothing wrong with it.

Where this all becomes a bit of a problem is when those same writers diss publications. To an extent, it’s valid. All these years I refused to write for any publication that asked for drafts or adding publication tags. I had and have my reasons to stick only to publications that allowed me to hit the publish button before submitting to be featured. In my mind, the upper hand was always mine, where the publication was lucky to have my article under their banner, not the other way around. That kept my writing honest, my style unique, and my content unadulterated by rules that did not benefit me as a writer and content creator. I have left and/or refused major publications like The Startup or Mac O’Clock, but worked with excellent ones like Level Up Coding, Codex and UX Collective. I have access to 13 publications, but to be honest, I limited myself to around five or six over the last few years.

Look at posting in publications as an occasional…