Submission Guide for Frame Rated

Can you write thoughtful articles about Film & Television? We’re always looking for new talent, so why not contribute to Frame Rated? [Last updated: 18 June 23.]

If your answer is ‘Yes’…. we have a Google Form you need to complete below, but encourage you to read the entirety of this article before you do.

If accepted after this initial approach, please do the following…

If you have a Medium account:

• Write your article.
• Follow Medium’s Style Sheet to correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation (we prefer British English, not American English). This post will teach you how to create lists, embed content, etc.
• Make sure it doesn’t violate the Medium Rules.
• There’s no requirement to add images because we source those. But if you do, please ensure they’re at east 1200 pixels wide minimum). Try and make any ‘featured image’ 1400px wide. IMDb and TMDb are good sources. We reserve the right to replace your image choices.
• Remember to cite sources directly using hyperlinks. The same goes for images using captions — if said images aren’t marketing material made available online. Making an image’s copyright clear with a © credit beneath is also appreciated.
• Proofread! Everyone has access to spelling and grammar checkers nowadays, so there’s no excuse. It’s a good idea to check the ‘readability’ of your piece by running it through this site, too.
• Don’t accidentally publish before submitting to us!

If you HAVE a Medium account:

• Make sure your article doesn’t violate the Medium Rules.
• Follow instructions to ‘Share a Draft’ with us.
• If your article’s accepted you’ll be added as a ‘writer’ for the site.
• Once a writer, you must then submit your work as outlined here.
• We’ll edit submissions to correct mistakes and improve readability, but mostly to ensure it adheres to our house style. The closer you can mimic our vibe from the start, the more likely we’ll want to work with you again! After approving any major changes with you (check e-mails or private notes!¹), your submission will be scheduled for publishing.

¹ If we don’t hear from you and the article is time-sensitive, we are likely to proceed without this courtesy being paid.

If you DON’T have a Medium account:

• Just e-mail us your article, after fact-checking and proofing for spelling and grammar mistakes, etc. There’s a chance we may create a user account for you to access our website, depending on how likely it feels that you genuinely want to be a regular contributor and part of the team. (A lot of time is wasted on people who say they want to, but then only contribute a few things without much proactivity going on.)
• Please be aware that because you don’t have a Medium profile, your work will be uploaded via our generic Frame Rated Staff account. However, you’ll be credited within this article, so let us know if you want your name linked to a social media account.

❗️We receive hundreds of submissions, but most are rejected for the following reasons, so read this advice to avoid big mistakes!

• No listicles. We generally don’t want ‘Top 10’-style features. But if you have an inventive way of obscuring a listicle’s format so it doesn’t read like a generic countdown of films you like — go for it!
• Is your submission too short? We prefer articles that are a substantial piece of writing (5–10 min reads). Longer articles (10-20 mins) are acceptable if the extra word-count is justified and not tedious to get through… but anything <5-min or >20-min is unlikely to be accepted.
• Are you writing from too much of a personal angle? We love articles that showcase your personality, but articles weighted towards your personal life are unlikely to be accepted. E.g. an article called “How Scorsese’s The King of Comedy Made Me Reconsider My Own Career as a Stand-Up” screams it would work best as a piece of personal blogging.
• Is your style and formatting vastly different to ours? We have a house style we don’t expect newcomers to grasp immediately, so every article is altered to some extent by our editor. However, the best way to impress us is to read Frame Rated enough to intuit our general style and tone. If a submission reads as being wildly different (often too “informal”), the work required to make it fit our standards will be a motivating factor in agreeing to host it. We may reject your work simply because adapting it will take too long and our editor isn’t paid for this undertaking. Understand the publication you’re submitting to and try to match the flavour of its content. Would your article suit a traditional publication like Empire film magazine, but with added flair and depth? That’s what we want.

We DON’T own the work you submit, so you can remove your article/s whenever you please, for whatever reason.

However, we hope you’ll be courteous enough to discuss your decision with us before taking that drastic step! It’s only good manners if we helped improved your article with editorial changes, or gave you useful feedback that improved it. (We aren’t here to give free assistance and support to writers who quickly remove their work and publish a new-and-improved article elsewhere! Don’t get blacklisted as a bad egg.)

If we created bespoke graphics for your article/s when hosted on Frame Rated, these must NOT remain in your article once removed. (If they are, we’ll raise this with Medium’s administrators for a breach of copyright.)

While your work is hosted by us, you agree to let it be used for marketing purposes, which is a mutually beneficial promotion for the site and yourself.

Writers have total control over whether or not their submission is only accessible behind Medium’s built-in paywall (more details on that in the section below).

We may add bespoke graphics, logos, or links to other content within your article, to encourage readers to recommend and share your work and other relevant articles. Or subscribe to our Newsletter. Writing imported material into Medium from an external source will automatically include the following footer: ‘Originally published at [link to your site or blog].’

💰 Payment & the Partner Program (PP)

We can’t pay for submissions, but you can enrol in Medium’s Partner Program. This means you’re able to put your article behind a paywall where only certain people can access it:

• “Medium members” — i.e. subscribers paying $5 per month to read paywalled content and gain other privileges.
• Anyone with a special “Friend Link” to access a paywalled article without requiring a Medium membership.

This means authors are paid each calendar month based on an article’s engagement (i.e. how long a paid subscriber spent reading your submission). ‘Claps’ no longer affect payments much, it’s only a way to show appreciation, although leaving a response/comment can’t hurt.

The publication owner isn’t paid a percentage of what an article accrues each month, despite often having input with editing and formatting. Hopefully, this will change to help cover the costs of running www.FrameRated.co.uk and compensate us for our own added work.

Authors are paid by Medium each calendar month, but this requires signing up for a Stripe account. Stripe’s the company Medium’s partnered with to manage payouts to their user’s bank accounts. You don’t have to be a paying Medium member to set this up, but we recommend you consider enrolling in the PP if you want to make money.

A further benefit of joining Frame Rated is that our editor, Dan Owen, is currently working with Medium to help curate the best content in the ‘Arts & Entertainment’ categories by suggesting articles for “Boosting”. And he’s allowed to pick stories includes in his own publications, so you have a greater chance of being curated than ever before — which in turn means your work gets seen by more people to generate more PP income.

Please note: not every country can participate in the PP yet and Stripe isn’t available everywhere either, so some writers simply can’t be paid at this time through no fault of our own. A regularly updated list of countries where Stripe operates can be found here.

We’re happy to accept work from writers who don’t want to enrol on the PP, of course, but you won’t be paid by anyone.

✍️ Regular Contributions:

While payment isn’t guaranteed because it relies on readers engaging with monetised articles in large numbers, becoming a regular contributor does give you some perks when joining Frame Rated:

• Copy discs for review; either posted to your home address or sometimes accessible online. Let us know your preferred disc format, so we don’t send you something you can’t play. [UK only.]
• Press screening invites, mostly in the central London area for film and TV premieres. These sometimes involve Q&As with cast and crew or the chance for roundtable interviews afterwards. [UK only.]
• Interview filmmakers and actors, either in person as part of an aforementioned press screening event (UK only), or sometimes via phone or video-call. [Global opportunity.]
• Attend film festivals with press accreditation, which sometimes means a discounted enrolment fee and additional perks. [UK only.]
• Feedback and guidance to improve your writing, develop your talent, and sharpen your administrative skills (working to a deadline and brief).