Last updated on January 15th, 2023
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Women 50+ — Write For JourneyWoman
Editorial Policy, Submission Guidelines and Legal Requirements
For almost 30 years, JourneyWoman has been the voice of solo women travellers
Established in 1994, JourneyWoman is beloved and trusted by women around the world for its honest, practical travel advice for women, a responsibility we take seriously. Our audience is typically active, adventurous solo women 50+, the world’s most influential travellers.
Most of our readers are in the US (45%), with about 40% in Canada and the remaining 15% in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India and Africa. Our articles are written in a non-marketing style, based on personal experience with candid tips and advice. Our content reaches almost half a million women each month, through our website (ranked #16 globally in travel), JourneyWoman Magazine, newsletters and our social channels.
As the first website for solo women travellers in the world, our mandate for almost 30 years has been to inspire women to travel safely and well and to connect women travellers worldwide. We are also dedicated to empowering women everywhere, whether they are running a business, publishing their own blog, operating a tour company or trying to challenge convention with a new startup.
We have a small editorial team, led by Carolyn Ray, our CEO + Editor-in-Chief. Carolyn is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and the Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC). We also have regular contributors who provide feature articles and commentary on wellness, animal tourism, women’s travel over 50, 60, 70 and 80, and injury prevention and mobility.
It’s important that you, as a guest writer, are part of our community. That means that you’re on our mailing list, part of our JourneyWoman Solo Wisdom Travel group on Facebook, and/or follow us on our social channels. We receive hundreds of inquiries and prioritize those coming from our readers over generic emails. If you don’t hear from us, that’s because we’re a small team and doing our best to keep up!
NOTE: JourneyWoman will not publish generic articles from advertising or content marketing agencies. Period. Everything we do is by women, for women, with a woman’s perspective.
We are looking for articles from adventurous women 50+
1. Practical Travel Tips or Listicles: What are your best packing tips? What clothing brands do you recommend for your adventures? What eco-friendly products do you carry in your backpack? Read this article on Wellness products to get started. Where possible, we want to feature women-owned and Indigenous businesses and eco-friendly products.
2. Destination features: We love trip itineraries, suggestions on where to stay, what to see and what to do – as long as it is from first-hand experience. We adore off-the-beaten-path stories and tips that only a JourneyWoman would know. Read this article by Diana Eden, our Women over 80 contributor, on “Surviving a Four-day Trip to New York City.”
3. First-person accounts of travel experiences: What did you discover about yourself or the world? What unexpected things happened along the way? What surprised you? What did you learn that you have applied to your life? Be honest and truthful. Tell us what worked and what didn’t. The more you share about yourself the more we will connect to your story and learn from you. As advocates for the environment, we do not cover large ship cruising but we will accept articles about eco-friendly travel, sailing, hybrid ships or river cruising. We love stories about connecting to nature and wildlife. Read Carolyn’s account of stepping outside her comfort zone in “Women of the Backcountry: Finding Adventure in the Real Canadian Rockies.”
4. Post-Pandemic travel: What tips or advice do you have for women about post-pandemic travel? This could be about new apps to try, travel hacks or country/place-specific information. Read “Preparing for Your First-Post-Pandemic Trip: Travel Advice From Women” to get some starting thoughts.
5. Profiles of women doing amazing things. We all know how incredible women are. Our goal is to bring women who are redefining solo travel and inspire us all. Read “Tips for Women to Get Adventure-Ready at Any Age” or “5 Things Women Travellers Over 65 Know That Make Them Ageless.”
6. Book excerpts by and about women: We also support women through our JourneyWoman Book Club and strive to feature women’s memoirs and books. Check out our book club page or read Elizabeth Bingham’s article “Walking and Mobility Tips For When the Heart is Young.”
7. Imagery of Adventurous Women: Finding imagery of solo women is incredibly challenging. If you have original photography of active, adventurous women that we can use on our site, we would love to hear from you.
Submission Guidelines
Please address your inquiry to Carolyn Ray at editor@journeywoman.com. Do not send a full article without sending an excerpt first. We may not respond to each individual submission. If your article is chosen for publication you will be notified by e-mail. If this is your first time writing a travel piece, take a look at some of the travel writing tips sprinkled around our site.
There are three options to be published on JourneyWoman:
1. Option 1: Our readers. The ethos of Journeywoman is about sharing real experiences and advice from women who have been there and done that. In doing, you are empowering another woman to travel safely and well. We are incredibly grateful for the tips and articles our readers provide. There are many many examples of these on our site.
2. Option 2: Bylined articles by travel writers and bloggers: We want to support other travel writers and bloggers. Please submit a bylined guest post with links back to your home page and 1-2 non-competing posts (depending on the length of the post) for no monetary payment. Word count up to 1500 words. For any images provided, you must hold copyright. We will promote your article on our social media channels with links back to your site and social channels. We may publish your article in one of our newsletters which reach over 60,000 subscribers per issue. There is also an opportunity for you to participate in an event, webinar, book club or other activity. We hope that as the travel industry reopens, we can compensate travel writers for their expertise, but we’re not in a position to do that yet.
3. Option 3: Brands, Tour and retreat operators and other advertisers: If you are a company selling a tour, a product or service, there is a fee to place an article on our site. All articles are subject to editorial review and will be marked as ‘sponsored.’ Please visit our “Advertise with Us” Section to learn about our fees or email tom@journeywoman.com. We give preference to companies listed in our Women’s Travel Directory (under “Tours” on our site).
In return, we expect that all our contributors follow our social media channels and share published articles on their own social media channels and networks as soon as we publish it within one week of publication, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We all rise together!
Tips on sending in an article
- Please send articles in a word document, not a PDF.
- At the top of the document, please write your name, word count, the date and proposed title of the article. We prefer articles that are less than 500 words but will consider longer articles.
- Each article should be written in the PRESENT tense, with active voice.
- If your article is about a destination, it should include an ‘If you go’ sidebar. This should list the places or tours mentioned in your article, and include website links to those places.
- If facts are included in the article, a link to the source must be provided.
- Articles should be written from a woman’s point of view and should contain information of particular interest to the female traveller. However, we will definitely accept articles from men if they are appropriate to our mandate.
- The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada has prepared an excellent Style Guide to help those writing about Indigenous Peoples, noting that “language is one of the many ways that has been used to oppress Indigenous Peoples. By being aware of the ways in which implied colonialism lives in language, you can re-frame the narrative and de-colonize your words.” Please click here to learn more.
- JourneyWoman never publishes advertorial — stories created by PR firms or tourism boards. We also do not accept pitches from content marketing companies.
- Your articles must be original. However, they can be female-friendly versions of something you’ve already written. If this is the case, note where and when the original article was published.
- We welcome high-resolution, original photographs once we have accepted your submission. Do not send photographs when you send in your article.
- When you submit your article, state that you have read these guidelines.
- Send 2-3 lines of your biography that can be used to introduce your story, and your social media handles.
- Before you begin writing, we suggest that you read at least two articles posted on our website. There is a particular light-hearted spirit and female-centered content that we’re looking for.
- Consider the words you’re using when you write: ditch words like “colonial,” of “conquer’ which can connotate otherness and unnecessarily glamorize colonialism. They may perpetuate an “us versus them” duality, where the entitled and the underprivileged, whites and non-whites, and the haves and the have-nots, continue to remain separated. Read more on this here.
Legal Requirements
By submitting your article to us, you agree to the Legal Terms of Use on our website, and the key points below:
Original Non-Infringing Works
Authors represent that the articles, artwork and photos they submit are original and/or created by the author and do not infringe upon any intellectual property or other rights of a third party. Photographs for which an author has obtained permission to use should be submitted with the appropriate photo credit and proof of permission.
Previously Published Articles
JourneyWoman generally does not publish articles that have appeared in other publications. The editor must be notified of prior publication as well as any other places an article might appear. In addition, if you share our link in another publication we ask that you let us know.
Editorial Review
All articles are subject to review by the JourneyWoman Editorial Team and must comply with the established Editorial Review Policy.
Liability
JourneyWoman is not legally responsible or otherwise liable for the contents of any published articles.
Factual Accuracy
JourneyWoman editorial content is fact-checked to ensure that all information is up-to-date and correct. We expect that guest writers will have fact-checked their work prior to submission. This process is repeated by our editor, publisher, and eagle-eyed production staff prior to publication.
Corrections
We take the trust our readers place in us seriously, and maintain that trust through a strong, clear and straightforward approach to acknowledging and correcting mistakes. All significant factual errors are corrected as relevant in stories, graphics, headlines, captions, photographs and other elements that appear across our platforms (website, newsletter and social media). We aim for consistency and transparency through a process that lets us publish corrections as quickly as possible.
Plagiarism and Data Integrity
Plagiarism in all its forms is unacceptable and unethical. JourneyWoman considers all forms of plagiarism and copyright infringement a serious offence. Sources must be inserted appropriately and citations must be correctly associated with a corresponding reference list. In cases of plagiarism, inappropriate data processing, disputed authorship, or duplicate publication, JourneyWoman reserves the right to retract the published article and if necessary, take legal action. If due to honest error a small part of an article proves to be misleading, we will consider issuing a correction.
JourneyWoman is a member of, and subscribes to the principles of, the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW).
Your article and photos belong to you…
Your article and photos belong to you and you can publish it wherever you please AFTER it appears on JourneyWoman.com. All we ask is that you mention us as the original source.
If your story is chosen for publication, you agree that we have the right to share it (under your name) in our newsletter, on social media, or other columns we write/edit or in travel books we publish. We may also use the photographs in our materials but will give the credit to you.
