Cover Image by author. Original photo by Joackim Weiler on Unsplash
A writer makes or breaks a publication
In all the different groups I’m part of, there’s often a common question: “In which publication should I publish?” Most beginners hope to get into the bigger publications, thinking that the publication will bring them traffic.
To some extent, it does, but it’s not nearly as great as you’d think. The bigger publications publish more articles than others. But more importantly, there’s something many people don’t know about these publications: they’re big not because of the volume of writers, but rather because they have “big” writers writing for them.
In this article, we’ll analyze some of the biggest publications and I’ll demonstrate how publications thrive on a select few writers only. The point is to get writers to understand that writing for the top publications doesn’t guarantee success, and in many cases, is not at the right approach.
Some notes before we get started:
A total of 544 articles were analyzed.
All the numbers are from October 2020 and compiled on October 22nd.
I do not have 100 percent of the data for each publication, so take the details with a grain of salt.
Claps aren’t the best metric to judge popularity, but it’s the only one available publicly.
The three publications analyzed were chosen based on a high volume of “hit” articles published in 2020.
See full analysis at the bottom of the article.
Observations
If you remove the top 5 writers from the results for each publication, you notice that they account for at least 21 percent of the success of a publication. 21 percent was the lowest and 40 percent was the highest. This confirms that writers account for a large chunk of a publication’s success.
The vast majority of articles are within a 25 percent range of the average number of claps. The top 5 articles published for each publication either came from writers with a huge following or they went viral. For the articles that went viral, they were still from writers with a somewhat large amount of followers (1.2K+). When you remove the outlier pieces, the averages are a lot more accurate.
With three exceptions, it doesn’t seem like the average number of claps per article is very different from one top writer to another. The range is from 248–740, but most are around: 430–530.
One writer reached a sum of over 10,000 claps in a single publication. This came at the cost of writing 25 articles (in 21 days), for an average of 478 claps per article. Volume can work, but only if you keep the quality consistent.
The number of followers of a publication did not seem to impact the level of success an article could have. For example, PS I Love You didn’t have higher stats than The Ascent, but is close to twice its size in terms of followers.
What all this means for you, the writer
It means a few things:
If you can get yourself 430–530 claps for one article, you’re doing as good as some of the top writers in top publications.
Top publications don’t make it easier for you to get more claps.
In top publications, you’re one of thousands of writers publishing monthly.
Other notes about top publications and writers not shown in the data:
The larger the publication, the longer it will take for your piece to get published. 1–2 weeks is not unheard of.
You have no control over the publishing date and time.
Due to a large volume of requests, they have to say “no” to even great articles. It’s nothing against you.
All the top writers mentioned in this article also get rejected from top publications
All the top writers mentioned in this article have plenty of articles under 430 claps.
The full analysis:
The Ascent
128K followers
Top writer: Tim Denning
Top writer’s followers: 133K (more than the publication)
Top 5 writers for The Ascent in October 2020
Averages
Average number of claps per article: 351.33
Average number of claps per article without the top 5 writers: 251.23
Difference: 28.49%
Totals
Claps: 71,662
Claps without the top 5 writers: 49,994
Difference: 30.24%
Top 5 writers for Better Marking in October 2020
Averages
Average number of claps per article: 516.55
Average number of claps per article without the top 5 writers: 325.68
Difference: 36.95%
Totals
Claps: 51,138
Claps without the top 5 writers: 30,614
Difference: 40.13%
Top 5 writers in PS I Love You in October 2020
Averages
Average number of claps per article: 500.45
Average number of claps per article without the top 5 writers: 391.39
Difference: 21.79%
Totals
Claps: 50,545
Claps without the top 5 writers: 37,573
Difference: 25.66%