Success on Medium: The Shortest Guide You’ll Ever Read

There’s one big secret, which you already know.

Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash

There’s one big secret to success on Medium, and publishing in general. It comes from a simple fact about writing — summed up best by William Zinsser in his book, On Writing Well:

There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.

There’s no way anyone could possibly explain all of the methods and tricks to writing, or even success on Medium, in one blog post — or even one book. That leads to lesson #1:

Lesson #1: Read

All the little questions we ask about writing can be answered with one simple practice: Reading. Don’t know how to format your posts? Read. How long should your articles be? Read. How do you write an effective title? Read. How do you develop an authentic voice?

You get the idea…

You have to read 20 times as much as you write. Stephen King makes this point clear in his book, On Writing:

If you want to be a writer, you have to do two things above all…