Stubborn Travel: Submission Guidelines
Welcome to Stubborn Travel, a publication dedicated to sharing authentic and inspiring travel experiences. We’re on the hunt for contributions from passionate explorers with a story to tell.
If that sounds like you, we’re happy you found us. Please have a read through the following notes before applying to write. We look forward to hearing from you!
Table of Contents
- What we look for
- Submission examples ∘ City guide ∘ Trip reflection ∘ Experience ∘ Advice
- Submission Guidelines
- Tone of Voice
- How to Submit
What we look for
As you can tell from the name, Stubborn Travel is all about the joy of travel. We’re looking for tales around unique journeys, cultural insights, travel tips, and personal stories. The aim is to inspire a love of responsible travel.
Our style is informative, thoughtful and engaging. We’re not just looking for city guides or tips for a certain location (although those are welcome, too!), but reflections on how a trip changed you.
There are endless ways to travel, and you don’t need an exotic trip to tell a good story. Consider no destination too near for a trip. If there’s introspection and content that inspires, your story has a space here.
The flow is really important for all of our pieces. Like a trip, we aim to take our readers on a journey that is clear and easy to follow. We ask writers to review structure before submitting, to ensure that a piece that flows without the reader getting stuck.
In addition to general travel, we’d love to see stories around:
- Adventure travel: perhaps you’re an avid hiker, or you travel hours to find the perfect climbing spot. You might have camped in the wilderness and discovered something, or have a great overland adventure you’d love to share.
- Sustainable travel: did you have the time of your life on a train? Wowed by a hotel with great sustainability credentials? Discovered a trip or company that gives back for every tour? If it’s to do with sustainable travel, we’d love to hear.
- A change of perspective: travel has a way of opening our eyes. Maybe a particular trip got you to understand a situation back home, or change the way you think. Long or short, we’d love to hear from you.
Peruse the examples below to see some of our pieces.
Submission examples
City guide example:
Trip reflection examples:
What It’s Like to Meet the Young, Wild and Free
Musings on growing up, sloths and baggage
medium.com
Experience examples:
Advice example:
Submission Guidelines
Please do review the rules below before submitting, or your work may be rejected.
- Unpublished Content: We only accept stories that are unpublished drafts on Medium. Duplicate content is OK, but please mark where else it has appeared clearly, and follow Medium’s rules and advice around duplication.
2. Content Length: Articles should generally be between 800 to 2000 words. This provides enough space to share your experience while keeping readers engaged.
3. Formatting: Use proper formatting, including paragraphs, subheadings, and bullet points where necessary, to make your content easy to read.
4. Images: Each submission should include at least one high-quality image related to your story. Please ensure you have the rights to use the images you submit. If in doubt, simply use images using Medium’s Unsplash library, which credits them properly. Please be creative with your searches if you use this option, to ensure images are unique and not the generic ones seen across Medium.
5. Citations: If you’re referencing specific facts, statistics, or sources, provide proper citations and links to back up your information.
6. No Promotional Content: Avoid overly promotional or spammy content. While you can mention products, services, or places, the focus of the article should be on sharing valuable information and insights, not direct promotions.
7. Grammar and Mistakes: Use a tool like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor (both which have free versions) to ensure that your story is as free of errors as possible. If a story is riddled with mistakes, it will likely get rejected.
8. Tags and Titles: Follow best practice with tags and titles to give your piece the best chance for distribution.
9. AI: Please familiarise yourself with Medium’s policy on AI-generated writing. While you can use AI tools to brainstorm, work should not be written entirely by AI. The aim of the publication is to share authentic experiences. When using an AI tool (including image creation) to assist with any part of your submission, please mention it like you would any other source.
AI-generated articles are easy to detect. Drafts suspected of AI use without mention will be rejected.
Tone of Voice
Authentic: Share your personal experiences and insights. Readers are looking for genuine, relatable stories that provide a unique perspective on travel.
Engaging: Start with a captivating introduction that grabs readers’ attention and gives them a clear idea of what to expect from the article.
Clear Structure: Organise your article with a clear structure that includes an introduction, main points, and a conclusion.
Respectful: When discussing cultures or communities, be mindful and sensitive to different perspectives and practices.
Relevant: Ensure that your content is relevant to our travel-focused audience. Avoid topics that are not directly related to travel experiences.
I’ll say it again: please double-check your content for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Well-written articles enhance the reading experience, and it’s shocking how many people do not do this!
How to Submit
To be added to Stubborn Travel, please fill out the following form. If you have any trouble working on it from this page, you can also access it here. Please note that you should have an unpublished draft ready.
If the draft looks like a good fit, we’ll add you to the publication and ask that you submit the story to the publication (you’ll have the option to do so after being added). We may provide feedback or suggestions for improvement before accepting the article.
Once accepted, your article will be scheduled for publication. We aim to provide a balanced mix of content, so publication dates may vary.
We recommend engaging with readers’ comments after publication. It helps to create a sense of community and encourages meaningful discourse.
Copyright and Compensation
You retain the copyright to your work, but by submitting to Stubborn Travel, you grant us the right to publish and distribute your content on our platform. We may occasionally boost it through websites or social media.
We don’t currently offer financial compensation for submitted articles, but you can join the Medium Partner Program to make your stories eligible for payment.
There is a lot of content around the Medium Partner Program. If you have any questions, please reach out to Medium directly.
Thank you!
Thank you for considering contributing to Stubborn Travel. We look forward to reading your stories and insights!
If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below.
Further reading:
The Writing Cooperative has some great best practice notes around style and formatting. They also offer a guide to getting starting on Medium. Both are linked below.
