If you are a published book author or anthology editor who is interested in being a part of this award-winning publication, then welcome! Perceptive Travel is designed to plug a hole, to fill a niche, to serve an unserved need for quality writing aimed at independent travelers.
For all you ADD types that routinely send e-mails to editors before fully reading the guidelines, here's the condensed version:
1) Articles from book authors or anthology editors only.
2) Your book needs to be in print and widely available, not published in Wales 15 years ago.
3) If your story idea would work in a newspaper or mainstream travel magazine, it's probably not for us.
As a book author with something to say, you can probably count on one hand the travel magazines you respect. Many of those that offered a place for perceptive writers to really let loose have fallen by the wayside. Independent travelers don't have a whole lot to choose from on the magazine rack. On the web there are a zillion choices, but only a few webzines (like World Hum and Transitions Abroad) are focused on quality material from top-tier writers.
In general, the travel magazine press is collectively infatuated with luxury, simplistic "best of" lists, and consumerism. The "special advertising sections" take up almost as much space as the editorial. In the U.S. at least, most newspaper travel sections now consist of uninspiring wire service stories that run in Des Moines and Dallas on the same day---if the paper even still has a travel section.
Payment is $100 per article, which will continue to rise with revenues.
This web magazine is now published monthly, with three or four feature articles per issue, plus rotating travel-related book reviews and world music reviews. All of the categories are open to contributing authors, though anyone committing to book or music reviews is expected to do all of one or the other that issue.
It may sound snobbish, but only articles from authors with book(s) in print will be accepted. This is partly a "who has a following already" filter and partly a submission management filter. The main reason, however, is that this requirement differentiates Perceptive Travel from the infinite number of other travel sites out there and allows cross-promotion that is of mutual benefit. The article you write will prominently feature your latest book(s) and will provide a link to your web site in the bio. Because of your platform and following you draw visitors to our site. Everybody wins.
Sponsored trips are allowed, provided you can find a unique angle. Or a funny one. Or a very odd one.
Word count somewhere around 1,000 to 2,000 words unless there's a compelling reason to go a bit higher. Preference is given to original material that has never appeared elsewhere;
Supply a few digital photos (after the story is accepted). Photos should be beautiful, strange, or striking—or all of the above.
What is the perfect story for Perceptive Travel? For a start, something that is a square peg for all the round holes out there. Think Travelers' Tales, not Travel & Leisure. Adbusters, not Arizona Highways. We're not interested in guidebook-type destination rundowns or stories that are very wide in scope. Think small and focused. Tell us a good story or immerse us in a place we haven't already read about a hundred times. Be yourself, follow your instincts, tell us the real deal. Make us want to read past the first two paragraphs. There's no set tone you have to follow: write like Hemingway or write like Rushdie—as long as it's really you that's talking.
Here's the advice you've heard a hundred times but few seem to follow: read what's already been published there to get an idea of what works.
Send queries/ submissions to editor (at) perceptivetravel.com.
More information here.
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