Submissions

Note—with Regret

In December, 2007, Sheri Leigh, this newsletter's publisher died of lung cancer without specific post-death instructions.

After having published continuously since 1999 The Cultured Traveler's last issue was August, 2007 - the default "Current Issue."

In the absence of instructions, Tony Valente, CBC Communications, maintained the online presence of the travel sites in a passive manner. Now, nearly two years later (August, 2009) Valente has decided to re-invigorate what Ms. Leigh started, first by simply monitoring the sites and offering them as a package for active operation and further development to those who could continue in Ms. Leigh's vision.

Valente was the creator and developer of the Cultural Travels suite of web sites, including The Cultured Traveler Newsletter. Please call 415-251-5417 or contact us with any thoughts or questions.

Do not hesitate to submit any thoughts or ideas via the submissions form—we're sure a new publisher, when determined, will want those ideas and will be in touch with you at that time.

We publish articles from two sources: freelance writers and travel agents/tour operators/public relations providers. (Freelance means any contributor who’s not affiliated with a travel agency, publication or provider, or the marketing/publicity arm of a travel destination.)

Since we handle each type of contributor differently, please determine which category you fall into before pitching your story to us.

We do not pay for articles from agents or tour operators because we believe that publication in The Cultured Traveler is a form of free advertising that is payment in its own right. However, we do offer a byline that clearly identifies your company or affiliation, and we hyperlink your story to your listing on the CulturalTravels.net web site.

We haven’t started commissioning original articles because we can’t yet pay the proper sums that we believe writers should receive for their time, talent and trouble. Therefore, we don’t ever ask freelance writers to work for free or on spec.

However, we do solicit already written articles whose writers own full rights to for secondary publication in our newsletter. We pay $25 per reprinted article.

How to Approach Us: Currently we are only accepting articles that relate to specific planned issues. Please see the Editorial Calendar. To see what we’re looking for, please read over the material below. Then, if you’d like to submit an article, fill out the form at the bottom of this page. We’ll respond to your query or submission within 15 working days.

Theme: While we are open for suggestions for anything connected with the world of cultural travels, please send only your idea and how it fits into our theme categories. Take a look at our web site’s themes and destinations to see the array of topics you might cover.

Style: Travelers are storytellers, so anecdotal articles are best. Tell a story about the quirks or unexpected benefits of travel. Share practical insights gained from your travels. Talk about unique or peculiar client needs and how you accommodated them. We also welcome historical overviews that demonstrate extensive knowledge of the topic. First, second or third-person accounts are fine.

If you’re an agent or operator, please don’t refer to your agency or organization except in passing. We won’t accept submissions that repeatedly refer to the writer’s company or to that company’s tours and offers.

If you’re a publicist or marketer and want to gush about your destination, please gush like a real traveler, not like a Suzy Creamcheese who has a quota of adjectives to unload. Please don’t drop brand-name references all over the place.

Length: We prefer 1,000 to 1,500 words (250 words = one standard page of 12-pt. text). We can always make space for longer submissions that are well written, but 3,000 words is tops for us.

Editing: We edit submissions for purposes of length, format, syntax, spelling and grammar. Although we try not to alter or interfere with a writer’s voice and style, we sometimes must make edits designed to clarify an article’s content or expand its context.

You retain final ownership and all rights to publish your article anywhere else. We ask for the following rights of usage.

To publish your article in any online issue we choose and keep it permanently in our online archives (with your copyright attribution retained).

If you reproduce the article from our web site or hard-copy newsletter, you must clearly identify Cultural Travels as the source. If you subsequently publish or reproduce the article under a different format, we request that you cite Cultural Travels as its original publisher.

Publishing Date: To date, we’ve usually published submissions within one month of receiving them. However, as we grow and amass a stash of articles, we won’t be able to promise when a contribution will be printed.