Reading through the feature articles on GoNOMAD is like pawing through a big attic chest, full of widely diverse and sometimes surprising treasures. Stories here run the whole spectrum from mainstream to unexpected, covering topics like Napa Valley wine tours and skiing in the French Alps to traveling the Silk Road in Tajikistan and taking a taxi ride in Iran.
And yet, as exotic as these examples may seem, if you’d like to write for GoNOMAD, you don’t have to travel far. Editor Max Hartshorne wants articles from your own back yard, too. “Start with where you live,” he says. “If you can write a good guide to your neck of the woods, that is the perfect start. Read the site, pick up the style in which we present our ideas, and follow suit.”
Other current needs include articles on women’s and family travel.
On the other hand, the editors are not looking for round-up or list articles and, as they put it themselves, require “No glossy magazine fluff, no standard guidebook descriptions, no promotional hype; just honest, accurate, well-written and detailed articles and destination guides that speak to an educated, curious and well-traveled audience.”
If that sounds like the kind of story you like to write, here are a few more suggestions from the editors:
** Have an opinion, and back it up with facts.
** Make your story so useful to the reader that he could print it out and use it as a guide were he to visit the place you’re writing about.
** Pitch your whole idea, not just a place, in your query.
** Start locally. Writing stories about your hometown will help you develop the skills to write about your travels.
** Read the writer’s guidelines.
GoNOMAD accepts both queries and unsolicited feature stories. But be sure, in either case, that you read through the Writer’s Guidelines before contacting the editors for any reason. You’ll be glad you did — the Writer’s Guidelines are packed full of details and tips. For example, rather than receiving accompanying JPEGs by e-mail, the editors prefer writers to provide a link to their images in an online photo gallery.
You can read through the complete Writer’s Guidelines, here:
https://www.gonomad.com/travel-writer-guidelines.
E-mail your query or story to the editors, here.
Or send it by snail mail to:
Max Hartshorne, Editor
GoNOMAD
P.O. Box 4
8C Sugarloaf St.
South Deerfield, MA 01373
(Be sure to include a Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelope, or SASE.)
Payment is $25 per story, upon publication. It may not seem like much, but GoNOMAD is a well-respected, widely-read online travel publication, and the exposure is very good. A clip here is more than just a clip. It’s proof that your writing is good enough to appear in a travel resource that’s been noticed by the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, NationalGeographic.com, and thousands of online readers.
[Editor’s Note: Learn more about opportunities to profit from your travels (and even from your own home) in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel.]
Travel Writing Resources
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