Submission Guidelines

The Outtake welcomes personal, smart, accessible writing on all aspects of film and television, classical and contemporary.

Evergreen post from your own blog? Sure.
Timely piece you wrote 26 minutes ago? Yep.
Authorized excerpt from your book on Sid Caesar’s variety show or zombie movies? Bring it.
Film- or TV-related speech or presentation the masses will enjoy? Send it on.

No “think pieces,” standard film reviews, or episode recaps, please — unless they’re super funny and/or shed a new and perhaps personal light on the subject matter. See, for example, “You Hate Musicals Because You Are Dead Inside” or “On Grief and Seinfeld: A Festivus Story.”

Prepare Your Writing

Draft or import your content.
Follow the Medium Style Sheet on spelling, titles, and punctuation. If necessary, see these tips and tricks on how to create lists, embed tweets and videos, and drag/drop images.
Cite sources directly via hyperlinks. The same goes for image captions.
Select images of the highest quality possible (minimum 900 pixels, or 900 x 900, unless you’re grouping them). Try these stock images and Creative Commons.
Proofread your work.

How to Submit

Email the editors the “Share Draft” link (at the top of your page).
If your work is accepted, we will add you as a writer. You will then submit your draft to The Outtake.
If necessary, we will edit your piece for style, aesthetics, images, and tags. We want it to look good and attract readers. After you’ve approved any changes, we will publish your work.

What Am I Agreeing To Here?

The work is yours. You can remove it from The Outtake at any time. NOTE: to date, your work can only be in a single publication at a time.
Again, high quality images with proper attribution are essential. If you do not include images, they will be provided for you.
We will add a small logo in the footer of your post (see below) and then encourage others to recommend and share your work. Writing imported into Medium automatically includes the following: Originally published at [link to your blog].

Finally, we do not pay for pieces, although please note: sometimes writers with enough exposure on Medium do get paid (see here, here, and here). We will do our best to promote your work and allow your voice to be heard.

Hope to hear from you soon!