Traveling Tales features are first-person travel articles and traveling stories about destinations and tourism attractions, such as places and attractions that people visit for vacations and getaways.
We welcome pieces which have yet to be published, or have only been published in print. We prefer not to publish articles that may already be found elsewhere on the Internet. Contributors retain copyright of their text and photos.
We look for stories that are destination-oriented – places that people go for a long weekend or a holiday. We look for first person accounts of the writers’ travel experiences at that destination, or cruise. It’s not about merely telling us about information that is available at any travel agent or as seen in travel brochures. We’re looking for tales that bring places into vivid focus, narratives alive with characters, descriptive passages and anecdotes. Entertain us with your story about what made your trip memorable.
If your trip was paid for or subsidized by a travel bureau, CVB, public relations company or the like, it would be a good idea for you to make a brief mention of this within your text, either as part of the narrative or in the “More Information” notes afterwards. You can also hyperlink to mentioned hotels, restaurants, museums, etc.
So send us your personal story about your visit. If you use the term “we” in your story, we don’t mind if you get a little personal and tell our readers who the “we” are. Merely a mention is sufficient to let the reader know who you were with (a friend, spouse, partner, group, etc.)
Either Canadian or U.S. spellings are fine, so we don’t mind whether you write colour or color. But if you’re British, we reserve the right to re-write tyre and kerb to tire and curb.
Word counts: Your article length should be at least 700 words, and our preference is for 900 to 2,000. You should also have at least one and as many as three original photos.
Please Query First: Unsolicited attachments will not be opened. Upon approval, we prefer attached MS Word .DOC files. Use Times New Roman 12 point, with single spacing, no indentation, and an extra space between paragraphs. Use spell check. Stories can also be copied and pasted directly into your e-mail message (technically called embedding) with your photos sent as .jpg attachments.
Photos: Do not embed photos within the document, but send them as separate attached .JPG files. If possible, photos should be 72 DPI with a maximum width and height of 600 pixels, but if that’s not possible, we can do the PhotoShopping. If you have more than one photo, then please name or number them and if you want them to go into a particular place in your story, include something along the lines of [PHOTO #1 OF CACTUS GOES HERE] in the text. List photo captions and credits separately in an “About the Photos” section. Photos should not infringe on any restriction or copyright owned by another agency or person. Authors should be able to provide model releases of any recognizable persons upon request.
Please send photos that “set the scene.” Overviews, streetscapes, beaches, National or State parks, viewpoints, theme parks, etc. the “large picture” so to speak. Then add the items of interest that are mentioned in the story. The houses or buildings, the statues, people, groups, dances, festivals, beach life, city life, your activities (inside or out), etc. What we don’t want is, say, a Caribbean story, with nothing but close-ups of flowers, birds etc, as the main, or only, photo theme.
If it’s an adventure piece, a safari, or a country famous for its wildlife, show the wildlife, but also show the terrain, vehicles, huts, accommodations, tribal life, etc. Let your photos augment your text so your photos show some of your story. We only accept soft adventure, that can be experienced by those fit enough for “regular folks” who may enjoy hikes (flat or mountain), trail riding, kayaking, rafting, etc. If you have a video, we can embed it if you have already shared it via YouTube.
Response Time: We try to respond promptly, so if you haven’t heard back in a week, a reminder would not be out of order.
Remuneration: At this time, the Traveling Tales website is not a paid market. We do, however, give you a brief author’s biography of up to 100 words.
After your story has been published, we encourage you to post its URL on your Facebook timeline, in a Twitter Tweet, Instagram or any other social medium you may use. The wider the readership, the better!
Please send your queries or any other questions to:
Robert Scheer, Editor
cedarcottagemedia [at] gmail.com