Write for Bradt Travel Guides
Do you think you could become the next Bradt author? At Bradt Travel Guides we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of publishing guides to unusual destinations – or colourful guides to rather more mainstream places. We also publish non-standard series – including wildlife guides, highlights guides and ‘one-off’ titles – and have recently branched into travel literature. We currently publish around 40 new titles and new editions per year.
Travel-writing prerequisites
There are no specific qualifications required for writing a travel guide. Enthusiasm, determination, focus, expertise, the ability to conduct thorough research and a willingness to go the extra mile all help. You’ll also need the ability to write engagingly and to adhere to Bradt’s
Housestyle Sheet (186 Kb).
You should demonstrate to us a genuine interest in a destination – certainly through personal experience of travel in that country and ideally also through related travel elsewhere. For example, if you were pitching a guide to Lebanon then we would ideally be looking for personal knowledge of the country itself and a practical knowledge of the Arab world in general.
You’ll need to combine perseverance with perfectionism to ensure that you obtain full contact details and prices, and then add in a basic understanding of maps, which need to be compiled as you go along.
And forget the glamour: it's poorly paid, time consuming and very hard work – but of course it gets you out from behind a desk!
Want to break into travel writing but not sure where to start? We offer several suggestions on becoming a travel writer.
Updating a Bradt guide
Our authors work on a royalty basis, and as such maintain their involvement with their guide, often for many years.
On occasion, however, an author is unable to update the new edition of his or her book, and in those cases we commission someone else to do the work.
What are we looking for in an updater? We require someone with a prior knowledge of the country and ideally a proven ability to write. That said, the criteria for this, as for any form of travel writing, remain the same: they start with enthusiasm and commitment.
Writing for our travel literature series
If you would like to be considered as an author within our travel-literature series, we will need to see a short synopsis (outlining the overall ‘plot’ of your book), at least two sample chapters (including the opening chapter) and ideally a chapter breakdown (giving very brief details of what will be contained within each chapter).
Submitting a proposal and applying to be an updater
If you’d like to write for Bradt, please email your CV, mentioning any writing and travel experience and a brief summary of your proposal(s) to Rachel Fielding.
Should we be interested, we will ask you to supply an unedited sample of writing of around 500 words on a destination of your choice.
From there, we would work with you to compile a formal proposal, an outline of contents and a list of maps, before committing to any new projects.
(Note the separate requirements – listed above – of those wishing to be considered for the travel-literature series. The synopsis, sample chapters and chapter breakdowns should also be sent to Rachel Fielding.)
We’re a friendly and dedicated team, and there are always openings for the right people, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.