Make: is written by makers like you. These guidelines are designed to help you submit your best work to Make: online. “What about the magazine?” you ask. We’re glad to consider your work for print, too. Head to our community platform Make: Projects to add a project.
Dos and Don’ts for Submissions
- DO put your best effort into your submission.
- DO aim for a 200-word minimum. This ensures that you have provided enough discussion so that it is helpful and informative to the community.
- DO shoot landscape-oriented photos that are at least 1200px wide. The higher quality the better.
- DO use clear and consistent language. Write with precision. Use correct terms for materials, components, and processes. What’s the pointy part of that one thingy? Please look it up. Carefully define directions and areas (top, bottom, right end, left edge, etc.), and use these terms consistently.
- DO include a link if your work has been published elsewhere.
- DON’T plagiarize or submit work that belongs to someone else. This absolutely includes all visual assets. Don’t upload assets to which you don’t have the rights (public domain, open source, and your personal IP are all allowed).
- DON’T submit inappropriate content that is violent, pornographic, or hateful.
- DON’T use this as a platform for advertisements. Projects that show a use/application for a commercial product are fine.
- DON’T include affiliate or referral links.
What Counts as a Project?
- A project is a step-by-step set of instructions and photographs of a specific build that others can reproduce and reiterate upon, based on your documentation. The more you can document your project, the better. If that’s what you’d like to share, you can publish it on Make: Projects.
- If you’ve made something cool (or have come up with a cool hack or tweak for something) and want to show other people how to make one, we’d like to publish it. Note: We’re interested in hearing about things you’ve already made, not things you are just thinking about making.
- Remember: you’re the readers’ coach. Think of your reader as a smart person who doesn’t necessarily know what you know. Imagine the questions he or she might have about your project. Explain everything they need to know to recreate the thing you’re writing about, just like you would explain it to a friend in a conversation. Describe difficulties you encountered, and suggest workarounds.
- If your project has parts that are better explained or delivered via media other than standard text and photos, that’s no problem. We can point to PDFs, code, software, audio, video, photos, etc.
Can I Submit Something Besides a Project?
Please do submit other things right here! We have a few other types of content besides Projects — namely Stories, Skill Builders, and Reviews.
Stories are intentionally broad. Anything that falls under Show & Tell is acceptable (unless it’s a step-by-step of a specific build, then it should be a Project). If you’ve built a project that you want to share, but you don’t have sufficient documentation of step shots or materials lists, etc., you can showcase it as a story instead of a step-by-step project. Additionally, we want to see your stories. Your journeys. Your trials and tribulations and failures and hilarities. Show us your series of ceramic animals. Tell us what you’ve learned from dismantling your drone. Tell us about the time your dad made a homebrew computer based on the Apple II schematic. Tell us the funny story about the motorized surfboard you made. What’s the strangest experience you’ve had making something? If it’s surprising or funny, we’ll run it. Please also share your calls for participation and event announcements!
Skill Builders are crash course introductions written by experienced makers for aspiring DIYers who have little to no experience with a given skill. You can browse Skill Builders on the site to get a better feel for what they are. If you’re an expert on something and feel we haven’t properly addressed all the intricacies and pro tips, consider sharing your knowledge in the form of a Skill Builder.
Reviews generally run only in print, although certain review categories are collected into Guides (check out our 3D Printer Guide, Board Guide, Drone Guide, and Holiday Gift Guide). If there’s a gadget, tool, website, newsletter, instructional video, book, magazine, instrument, or other device you already own and love, you can email your review to “Toolbox,” Make’s recommendation section, at toolbox@makezine.com, or you can submit it online. Reviews should be 50–250 words, and written in the first person. Think more “recommendation” and “experience” when you write these than “review.” We want to hear about your involvement with it. The old Whole Earth Review guidelines for reviews went like this: “Write your review. Then write us a letter explaining why we should devote space to your item. Throw away your review and send us the letter.” That’s the way to do it.
