Welcome to The Write Way to Travel, your free weekly e-letter from American Writers & Artists Inc. Every week, we send this special Featured Publication edition with tips and insights from travel writers and editors to help you break into new markets and get published fast.
This week’s featured publication comes from International Living’s Managing Editor, Laura Sheridan. If you’re interested in writing about destinations outside the States, this is an excellent place to do it. And you’ll find below here smart, insider’s advice about how to get your pieces sold there.
Lori Appling
Director, Great Escape Publishing
International Living
Website: http://www.InternationalLiving.com
Dear Reader,
International Living is always on the look out for new writers. This is good news for you and also good news for us, because Great Escape Publishing program members have provided a steady supply of editorial coverage for us over the years. We know and trust the folks behind Great Escape Publishing’s travel & photography programs, and we know the programs to be top-notch–therefore we’re happy to work with you, their members.
We publish pieces on travel, real estate, health care, lifestyle, culture and expat advice. Our editorial has an exclusive overseas focus–whether for travel or real estate–our interests lie outside of the good ol’ US of A. Our aim is to cover the world, but the world is a pretty big place. Therefore we need eyes and ears on the ground reporting back to us from all four-corners. Have you moved abroad recently or do you live abroad now? Can you give our readers insight into what it’s like for an expat to live in your part of the world?
We have a standing feature in our print publication based on real life stories, so we’re always in the market for stories of people who have relocated to another country…built or bought a new home, or set up a business overseas. We look for information on how your lifestyle now compares to that of your mother country…which should also factor in information on cost of living, health care, etc.
You don’t have to live abroad to write for International Living, but you do have to travel. The travel articles we publish are first-hand accounts. If you’ve taken a trip and discovered some unknown international gems…from cities to restaurants, hotels/B&B’s, festivals, golf courses or unusual sporting events, where to buy bargain goods, get any form of good value, etc. we’d like to know about them.
If you’d like to write for us, your first step is to read our writers’ guidelines. You can send in your submission on spec. I don’t need a query letter. We will contact you if we’re interested in your article. We’ll also let you know if we’re not interested.
As well as looking for full length articles for our monthly print newsletter, we also accept shorter pieces for our daily online postcards (250 to 600 words). You should read some past postcards in the archives at our website (http://internationalliving.com/daily-postcards/) to give you an idea of our style of writing and the types of postcards and articles we publish.
We pay on publication from $25 to $70 for online postcards and $150 to $350 for full-length articles (which should be no longer than 2,500 words). Your payment is determined on the length of the article after it has been edited by IL. We purchase all rights to the pieces we publish.
Here are a couple of tips for getting our attention:
1.) Practical articles which gives the reader “how to” information
2.) We’re not looking for mainstream travel articles
3.) Include lots of practical sidebars on subjects like where to stay, how to get there, how much things cost, etc.
To submit a postcard on spec contact Len Galvin, postcards editor at: Len@internationalliving.com. Full-length articles come to me (Laura Sheridan) at: editor@internationalliving.com. Please send your submissions either in the body of an e-mail or as a MS word document (.doc) attachment.
Please don’t send photos with your spec assignment. When you contact us, let us know you have photos available. If your article is accepted for publication, we will ask for photos to be submitted. Save your photos as a .jpeg.
Laura Sheridan
Managing Editor, International Living
[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.]
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