Contributor Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in the Traveler’s Notebook. Before you submit your query, please read through the Steps Below.

last revised March 23, 2008

Step 1: Check the Bounty Board.

We regularly put out calls for specific content at Matador’s Bounty Board. Your single best way to stay current on specific assignments is to subscribe to the Bounry Board’s RSS feed.

Step 2: Submit an original story or query one first.

There are several categories of work we publish.

How To
Our How to section covers anything from “How to travel by Cargo Ship” to “How to Find Your Way When You’re lost.” We’re always looking for innovative and useful ideas.

Top 10 Tips
Top 10 (or 5, or 7) roundups work well at the Notebook as long as the subject is original or particularly useful. For examle: “Top 10 Waves on the Big Island of Hawaii.”

Other topics

In addition to these three main categories, we also publish informational pieces on techniques for improving travel writing, photography, video, blogging, and podcasting. Finally, we are always open to novel ideas for entirely new categories / stories. Surprise us.

Step 3: Check the Guidelines.

Length Of Articles

We generally limit the length of an article to 500-800 words.

In certain cases, we will go longer, but most long articles usually need a tighter focus.

Editing

Your article will likely be edited in some way. Usually this just means minor copy-edits for brevity / clarity, however if certain key elements can be linked to in other stories, sometimes additional material / descriptions may be inserted.

Your title may also be changed to reflect a more compelling description of the content, and to target any keywords for the search engines. We want as many readers as possible to see your work.

Payment

We pay $25 per original published article.

What is an original published article? It’s an article that is not published anywhere else (including your own blog). This is important for a variety of reasons, but mostly to avoid search engine confusion.

Reprinted articles will remain unpaid, since the reward for an article reprint is usually wider author visibility and traffic sent to their own blogs/websites.

Payments are made through Paypal.

Step 4: Final Checklist

When submitting for your first time, please be sure to include:

1. Paypal account info. (email address)
2. Short bio written in 3rd person
3. Photo suitable for using as an author’s headshot
4. a link to your profile on Matador.
5. at least two high resolution photos to accompany your article or links / permission to use someone else’s images

All first-time contributors are strongly encouraged to read this article on working with editors online.

Step 5: Fire Away!

We look forward to reviewing your work.

Step 6: Check back.

Depending on our editorial calendar we may not respond immediately to your submission / query. Please allow one week and then feel free to follow up.

Final note: Please note that unless special arrangements are made between editor and writer, all submissions are on-spec.