Welcome to our Garden, Jessica! Please submit in draft form and give credit for all images, including your own. If you use an online image, the credit must be a clickable link to the source so the legality of use can be verified. Please, no people in photos other than yourself and a spouse or significant other. You can put your minor children in photos, but I recommend against it. Anyone can steal photos from Medium and use them nefariously. The only exception to people in photos is public performers or adults who will provide me with written and signed permission to use their images.
I see you don't write for any other publications, so I will add more specific instructions below.
Write your piece . Have a title and subtitle at the top. The subtitle can be as simple as: A poem. Below the subtitle, include an image:
Go one line below your subtitle and you will see a + to the left. Click on it.
Several icons appear. If you want to upload a photo from your computer, click on the one that looks like a camera and you will go to your PC where you can choose a photo. If you use one of your photos, be sure to click in the space below the photo once it is uploaded in your piece and give credit - something like, Photo by author or Photo by (your name). If you use a photo that a friend or relative took, be sure you have permission to use it and add the credit with that person’s name.
If you don’t want to use your own photo, click on the icon that looks like a magnifying glass and you will be connected with Unsplash, a free photo-sharing site that partners with Medium. There is a space where you can type in words to search for photos - words such as Trees, Woman Crying, Dog Barking, Sunset, etc. There are millions of photos there so you will always find something you can use. Let’s say you type Trees as I just did. There were 33,716 tree photos from which to choose. Scroll through the photos until you find one you like. Click on it and the photo will automatically upload into your piece and credit will be given under the picture for the photographer. Voila!!
Now to publish:
Once your piece is ready, click on the 3 dots in the upper right-hand corner of the page that are to the left of the little notifications bell
Click on the top choice “Add to publication”
Under the publications list, choose Weeds & Wildflowers (which is probably the only one you have if you don’t write for any others)
At the bottom of the window, click “Select and continue”
Now you will have a green button at the top of the page with your piece that says “Submit” — click that
A new window opens and it should say “Submitting to Weeds & Wildflowers”. Beneath that is a place to select up to 5 tags. Choose your tags.
Once your tags are chosen, click the green “Submit to publication” button
