We're commissioning! Read this & pitch

We want a month off, but instead of pausing the newsletter, we're asking you to write it...

Writing a weekly newsletter is an exhausting endeavour, and sometimes we need a break. Each summer since 2020 we’ve taken a month off from writing this and we’ve paused all your paid subscriptions when we do. But this time, instead of going quiet, we’re handing over the keys: we want you to write July’s series of newsletters.

We’ve already commissioned the inimitable Sian Meades-Williams to write the first piece: an exploration of how travel writing and family life (or family planning) often don’t mix. But we need three more pieces to fill the gaps for the rest of the month. Fancy pitching something? Here’s what we want.

Talking Travel Writing pitching guidelines

You should think of us like a B2B publication: we are written by travel writers, for travel writers. That means our articles need not be about travel at all, really, they just need to be relevant to travel writers. We would love to commission:

• Op-eds about the little-discussed issues facing travel writers today

• Expert insight into a particular aspect of travel writing (such as sustainability/responsible travel, or decolonisation of travel writing)

• Tips or hacks-based articles that are relevant to travel writers (such as “how to get your pitches read quicker” or “three things every travel editor wants from freelancers”

  
  Here’s some hit pieces we’ve run that our readers absolutely loved:

Should we be paying our own way as travel writers?

Does the travel media have a women problem?

Let’s get practical: Our favourite tools for running your travel writing business

How my blog became a £100k business & made me a successful journalist

We absolutely don’t want:

• Destination guides — that’s not what we’re here for

• First-person travel writing — again, not our bag

• Rants by white men upset about not getting the gigs because of “positive discrimination” (seriously, we were pitched this last year)

• Problems-based op-eds that don’t offer solutions

We pay — and fast!

We’ve got a wee budget of £125 for 500 words, which is better than some national newspapers despite us being a tiny, independent publisher. Even better, we pay on submission, often within hours of receiving the invoice.

A final note

Deadlines will be set for mid June. Please don’t send entire articles on spec. Pitches should be no more than 200 words. We’ll endeavour to reply to everyone before the beginning of June.

How to pitch us

Email us on hello@travelwriting.xyz. Please do not reply to this call out.