Real Travel magazine - the survey is the contributor guidelines

In the recent edition of Real Travel magazine there was an invite for readers to participate in a survey with each respondent being entered into a draw for a holiday to India.

I found this to be an interesting opportunity for these reasons:

1. As well as the winner getting to go on a superb holiday to India, Real Travel would provide them with the opportunity to write about their adventure, get it published in the magazine and get paid for it.

2. Real Travel is already a great place to consider for getting published (see my previous post in the category 'interview with an editor' where Hannah James explained what she was looking for from Real Travel contributors)

3. The survey reveals a lot of information about what Real Travel are considering as ideas for future publication (otherwise they wouldn't be asking for readers thoughts on these subject areas). For example, two of the questions ask what areas you would like to read about and what type of article there should be more of:

34. What regions of the world are you most interested in reading about?

What regions of the world are you most interested in reading about?  

UK

Western Europe

Eastern Europe

North America

Central America

South America

Africa

Middle East

South-East Asia

Rest of Asia

Australia and New Zealand

Arctic/Antarctic

35. What would you like to see MORE of in Real Travel? (choose as many as apply)

What would you like to see MORE of in Real Travel? (choose as many as apply)  

Expert destination guides

Reader trip reports

Travel advice, tips and 'how to' features

Competitions

Gear, book and guide reviews

City guides

Activity-focused features

Interviews with well-known travellers

Top 10s and 'quick guides'

Readers photos, tips and stories

It doesn't take much to work out that these are two of the categories the editorial team like to pigeon hole contributions into. If I were looking to submit copy to Real Travel I'd go through their back issues, tick off which freelance submissions fit these categories and then which ones were covered by the editorial team. 

I might be wrong, but where there is a gap, or where the editorial team are covering more of a category than freelancers, this is your opportunity.

But then again, getting published could be as simple as following Hannah's advice and producing great copy about a subject they haven't covered before!

Keep Writing...

Brendan