Submit your work

Here at Potluck, we run exclusively on submitted work. Anyone is welcome to submit, no matter your background, age, sex, ethnicity, experience level, or discipline. However, we only accept work if it fits the theme we set, which changes roughly every four months.

We primarily publish personal writing, recipes, poetry, and illustrations, but we’ll consider anything that can be printed on a page. As we work away on our next issue, we're currently closed to new work but if you'd like to be the first to know about when we do open for submissions, we recommend signing up for our newsletter!

In the meantime, you can learn all about our submission process and how you can get involved below

Everyone is welcome to send their work in through this method- it's how we get the majority of our contributors.

Here's how it works:

We set a brief for the issue
All work we publish has to in some way be about cooking, eating or sharing food, but it also has to fit the theme of that issue. Our current theme is Authenticity, with previous themes being Rituals, Feast, Back to Basics, Winter's Traditions, and Cooking During Covid. Briefs will be announced via our social media and our newsletter, as well as on the blog. If you don't want to miss them, it might be worth signing up for our newsletter!
To pitch or not to pitch?
There are two ways to submit your work to us: either pitch us an idea or send us a completed draft. We’ve introduced pitching to minimise the amount of unpaid labor we ask of you: it didn’t seem fair to ask you to spend your time writing something without the guarantee of it being published. However, please note that we do require at least one sample of previous work from you, to give us an idea of your style, and all selected pitches will have to be finished within a two-week timescale, so it might not be for you.
You come up with your submission
We'll be open for submissions for three weeks from announcing the theme, so you've got time to create something. Not sure your idea is right for us? Drop us an email and we'll be happy to give you some advice and help!
You send it to us!
All our submissions now need to be sent in through this Google Form!
We decide what goes into the issue
Once our submissions close, we take between 1-2 weeks to read through the work and decided what will be in the issue. We don't ghost you- everyone who takes the time to submit to us will be emailed with the outcome of our selection (both positive and negative) and we'll always offer to give you feedback if you've not been successful.

Still got questions? Check out the FAQs below.

Submit your work

Send in a submission or pitch to us

Illustrate for us

When creating the issue, we like to work with illustrators to create editorial work specifically based on our written submission. If this is something you're interested in, you can register your interest in working with us! This is specifically for anyone creating visual work- illustrators, artists, photographers, designers and doodlers.

Here's how it works:

You fill out this Google Form registering your interest
It's super simple and won't take more than 5 minutes to fill out. We're just asking for your details and somewhere we can get a feel for the style of your work- this can be on your social media, your portfolio website, or just send us over some images of your recent work!
We pair you with written work we think you'll do a good job with
When we've decided on the work that'll be in the issue, we get in touch with people on the list who we think would do a really good job of illustrating that particular piece. We consider styles and recurring themes in your own work. Sometimes we'll give you a loose initial idea to work from and other times we'll let you read the piece and see what you can create from it! You'll have 2-3 weeks to create the final work.

Usually, we'll work with around 5 people to create work like this for an Issue, so filling out the form isn't a guarantee of work but it's the first step to working with us.

Got any questions? Check out the FAQs below.

Use the button below to leave us your details and we'll be in touch:

FAQ'S

What kind of work are you looking for?

We look mainly for writing, recipes, poetry, illustrations, and photography, but if you've got an idea for something slightly different you think would fit with the theme, get in touch! We're always up for hearing new ideas.

What are the technical specifications?

Written articles should be between 500-900 words. Don't worry if it's a little over, we're happy to help you cut it down and we are open to publishing longer work if it suits the piece. Images can be sent over as JPEG, TIF, PNG or PSD files. We need the resolution to be 300dpi but file size doesn't matter. The page size is A5 and please include a 3mm bleed to your artwork too, in case we want to make it a full-page image.

To send your work over, please use the form linked above.

Do you pay for work?

All work that's selected and published by us is paid for using a royalties-based system. Take a look here for more information about our business model and how getting paid by us works. Anyone whose work is accepted will also be given a digital copy of the zine for free and offered the opportunity to buy a physical copy of the magazine at cost price plus postage.

Help! I don't know if my idea is something you'd be interested in?

First off, it might be an idea to have a read over some of the stories we've published previously, to get a feel for the kind of thing we're looking for. If you're still not sure if your idea would work for us, don't panic! We want to help support you as much as possible with your submission. We're happy to speak to you about your idea and help guide you with the first drafts. Just get in touch by emailing us at:

hello@potluckzine.co.uk or using the form below.

Still have a question that hasn't been answered?

Drop us an email at hello@potluckzine.co.uk or use the form below to get in touch!