Writer's Guidelines

Cork & Knife is a multimedia magazine committed to covering fine dining, both in restaurants and at home.  Utilizing a variety of formats, we are focused on those who enjoy fine food and spirits and enthusiastic home cooks.  We do not focus on reviews and recipes, but rather seek to highlight interesting people, important trends, and fascinating stories.

A significant percentage of our articles are written by freelance writers. Writers should be passionate about their topic, well-suited to writing about the subject matter, and focused on stories that fit the mission of our publication.

All of our content is available online and writers should review what has already been published in order to familiarize themselves with our style and direction.

Your query should be focused and direct.  You don't need to submit the entire article, but you need to provide enough information for us to assess the suitability of your proposed article.  Be certain to explain why you are the best person to write the article in question.

All queries and submissions must be in electronic format only.  No phone calls are permitted.  Please email them to contact@corkandknife.com.

Feature articles generally run 600 to 3,500 words, with most coming in at about 1000 words.  These articles should have general appeal to readers regardless of where they may live, although they can certainly focus on a particular city or region. 

For the most part, we are not looking for personal perspectives and commentaries.  We do not seek to have a stiff, formal, journalistic style, but we also seek to appeal to a fairly sophisticated audience.  Humor pieces are rarely accepted, with rare exceptions.  Fiction and poetry are not appropriate.

Specific Columns/Departments

Bar Dining: We publish a regular column on bar dining, that includes advice to readers on where to find fine dining at a bar.  The focus is on business travelers and others who prefer to dine, often alone, at the bar rather than in the middle of the dining room.  Pieces can include advice on how to get the most out of such an experience or where to find the best bar dining in a specific city or cuisine.  These columns run 800 to 1000 words.

Book Reviews: We are interested in reviewing timely and important books that would be of interest to our readers.  We prefer books about food, wine, dining, and food culture.  Cookbooks that don't include substantial narrative discussion of interesting topics and focus instead primarily on recipes are not typically reviewed.  Typical length is 800-1000 words, although shorter or longer reviews may be appropriate depending on the significance of the work being reviewed.

Hot Plates: Recognizing that other media outlets often run interesting stories, we believe in providing secondary coverage of those articles and directing the user to the original publication.  These are typically 100-200 word briefs. We primarily use regular contributors to help with these due to the timely nature of any submission.

Local Editions: We operate several local blogs that has coverage more suited to readers in an individual area, rather than broad interest.  These are typically 200-300 word blog posts and have a much more casual style than the rest of Cork & Knife.  These are typically authored by regular contributors.

Profiles/Interviews: We are interested in profiles and interviews of chefs, sommeliers, servers, bartenders, restaurateurs, winemakers, authors, food media, and others.  These can appear in Q&A format, as video interviews, or as simple profile articles.  Length will vary depending on subject and format.

A Note on Originality

We are interested in original work.  We do not reprint articles from other publications.  We expect that anything you write for Cork & Knife will include not only original language, but also original thoughts and ideas.  You are welcome to write on topics or review books that you have touched on in other publications so long as the content and approach are substantially different.  Please note any related work when you submit your query.

Conflicts of Interest

Cork & Knife seeks to avoid conflicts of interest wherever possible.  Please advise the editors of any perceived or actual conflict of interest that may exist for any story you submit.  In some cases, conflicts or the appearance thereof may necessitate disclosure to the reader.  Please err on the side of over-disclosure to enable the editors to make these important judgments.  Conflicts may include (but are not limited to) direct financial relationships (including employment, ownership, or contracts), personal or family relationships, or the receipt of gifts or other financial inducements from subjects of the story. 

Basics

We do our best to respond to queries in as timely a fashion as possible.  You will often hear from us within a week of your submission, though some ideas that may be "on the bubble" may take longer to reach a decision about.

All writers are expected to sign a basic freelance writing agreement with Cork & Knife. We buy all rights to an article and expect you to respect the intellectual property of others.  All ideas and words must be your own or must be properly attributed.

Payment is typically $0.10 per word.  In addition, we may pay for photographs, audio, or video that accompanies an article, when appropriate.  We pay all of our writers in the calendar month following publication of the article.  At that time, writers receive one check for all writing performed during the preceding calendar month.  We pay only those expenses agreed upon in advance.