REAL SIMPLE WRITER GUIDELINES HOW TO

Our destination stories are almost always first person and based upon the author’s recent trip experience.

In order to make the grade, a potential feature needs an unusual hook, a compelling story, a passionate sense of place, or unique individuals finding unique ways to improve or enjoy the wilderness.ĭestinations: BACKPACKER uses pieces that go beyond a mere description of a trail or place. Gear features are generally staff written. FeaturesīACKPACKER features usually fall into one of several distinct categories: destinations, personality, skills, or gear. Direct your efforts toward establishing a working relationship with us via department or web-only assignments first. Please note that it’s rare for a writer new to BACKPACKER to break into the magazine with a feature assignment. Approximately 50 percent of our features and more than half of our departments and web stories are written by freelancers. While a portion of BACKPACKER is written by staff and regular contributors, we encourage freelance authors to submit query emails for features, departments, and web.

We write not merely to inspire our readers to do something, but to help them identify and research new places to go, techniques and skills to use, or the gear to take.

Every BACKPACKER article incorporates one or more of these things.

Advice for improving the backcountry experience: Our readers want to know how to, when to, where to, and with what.

Our defined market is North American destinations.

North American destinations: We only occasionally cover foreign locales.

Whether a dayhike or a weeklong trip, out-of-the-way, unusual destinations are what we’re looking for.

Wilderness or backcountry: The true backpacking experience means getting away from the trailhead and into the wilds.

When warranted, we cover canoeing, kayaking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and other human-powered modes of travel.

Foot-based travel: BACKPACKER primarily covers hiking.

Good BACKPACKER articles contain the following attributes: Please send your content submissions to Pitch Guidelines The best articles have style, depth, emotional impact, and take-away value for the reader. As always, you should carefully study several issues of the magazine before submitting a query. We’re not interested in slavish imitations of stories we’ve already done.

Our readers are knowledgeable and experienced backpackers, therefore we accept only authentic, well-researched, well-crafted stories (see the section on “Accuracy,” below). Likewise, we do not promote motorized use in the wilderness or backcountry. All articles and photos that appear in the magazine must adhere to Leave No Trace’s ecologically friendly practices. (Maybe someday I’ll add my Great Feminists cross-stitch series, if I can ever get Betty Friedan’s eyebrows right.BACKPACKER is a proud sponsor of Leave No Trace (check out our book, Leave No Trace, available from The Mountaineers Press). Here you’ll find some highlights from my work at O, including a few stories I’ve written and packages that I edited individually or as part of the O team. I’ve also had the privilege of talking with neuroscientists, monks, extraordinary ordinary people, and Dolly Parton, who smells fabulous.

REAL SIMPLE WRITER GUIDELINES HOW TO

I've reported on the deep-state conspiracy suppressing the plus-size fashion industry, created a handy flow-chart guide to filing a sexual harassment suit, meditated at a New Jersey car dealership, and traveled to London to learn how to face death. Since 2013, I've been the executive editor at O, The Oprah Magazine, where I write and edit feature stories and packages about the struggles of being human. I’m a writer and editor who’s worked at Real Simple, Martha Stewart's Whole Living, Wondertime (a short-lived parenting magazine nominated for a General Excellence Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors), the New York Times Syndicate, and Elle. Since I moved to New York 20 years ago, my native city’s been colonized into hip neighborhoods with names like “Pie Town.” I wish I had restaurant recommendations, but I still eat at Shoney’s, which is now so fancy it has a bar menu. I grew up right outside Nashville, long before it was home to Jack Black, the Titans, Taylor Swift's penthouse, or bachelorettes drinking beer on tractors.

Real simple writer guidelines