Zine Submission FAQs

Q: What is a zine?
A: A zine is a booklet-style artwork that you make yourself, and give away, swap, or sell for the cost of printing. Visit our online store to see examples of the previous zines we have printed.

Q: What can I submit?
A: We are looking for articles, illustrations, short stories, zine excerpts, photography, poetry, artwork of any medium, educational guides, posters, flyers, short essays, recipes, comic-strips, reviews, informationals, collages, and anything else that will fit into a zine! We are open to all styles and abilities, and we can offer help and advice where needed.

Q: How much work can I submit?
A: You can make multiple submissions (please submit all of your work in the one form as the file upload can contain multiple submissions), but please only submit work that will fit on 1-2 A5 pages (4 pages max). If you have work that is longer/larger than this, please send us an inquiry email, as we are open to including longer formats.

Q: How do I submit?
A: Please fill in the form linked in the Current Callout tab. If your files are too large for the form, please use www.wetransfer.com but please let us know in the form that you are sending files to us, and be sure to label them with the name you used in your submission.

Q: What do I need to send you?
A: The submission form will ask you for the following details to be sent along with your work:

The name/credit you would like printed in the zine.
Your pronouns.
The city and/or country that you live in.
Contact details that you would like printed in the zine.
A short one-sentence bio.
The title of your work.
A short description of your work and how it fits with the theme.

If you wish to remain anonymous, please let us know in your submission form. Pseudonyms are also welcome.

Q: What format will the zine be available in?
A: Our zines are mainly available in print format. They are typically printed as A5 zines in full colour, and our poetry zines are printed as A6 zines in full colour (unless otherwise stated in our callout). We also have the PDFs available as digital downloads in our online store.

Q: Do you pay for submissions?
A: Your contributions are submitted to our zines on a voluntary basis. Coin-Operated Press is a grassroots community interest company (CIC), so we are unable to pay our contributors at this point. The money we make from selling the zines is used to publish the next issue of our zines, and if there is any profit left over at the end, we use it to fund our Zine Clubs that we run for our local communities. In short, you are submitting work to our zines for the joy of being published and having your work in a zine! We are a not-for-profit social enterprise and you are helping to support our zine-outreach programmes and the community work we do. Thank you so much! We are artist-run, and understand the value of paying artists, and we totally get it if this voluntary publishing opportunity is not for you. We wish you luck in all your publishing endeavours!!

Q: Will I receive a copy of the zine?
A: Contributors will receive a digital PDF copy of the zine and a 30% off discount code for their copy of the printed zine (meaning you will just pay the cost price of the zine printing).

Q: Do I retain ownership of my work if it appears in the zine?
A: Yes, you retain ownership of your work. You will be credited with your chosen name on the page with your work, and you will have a short biography, with any contact details you would like to share in our bio section.

Q: Do you accept previously submitted work?
A: Yes, we are happy to accept work that you have submitted to other publications previously, and we are happy for you to submit any work accepted by us to other publications and opportunities. The whole point of our zines is to help your share your work as far and wide as we can, so we more than encourage you to submit to as many publications as you can!

Q: How can I help get this zine out into the world?
A: Make sure to follow all of the Coin-Operated Press socials @CoinOpPress so you do not miss our updates, and share our posts about the zine with your friends, family, and audience. Every share counts! And we really appreciate your support.

Q: I have read the FAQ, but I still have questions?
A: Our inbox is always open, please email us at coinoperatedpress@gmail.com with your queries.

Please note: we will not accept work that is racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, ageist or features discrimination of any kind.