Editor Interview: Intrepid Times

Travel storytelling

Roads & Kingdoms, The New Yorker, Fitzcarraldo Editions

Bruce Chatwin, James Baldwin, Paul Theroux, Kapka Kassabova, Geoff Dyer

Relentless focus on authentic travel storytelling with heart. No SEO. No listicles. No AI. No chasing the trend, the affiliate commission, the search engine tag. Only stories from the world that move us.

Read it. Read at least five of our stories before submitting. We can tell. And then follow their example. Focus on one day; one moment, one incident. Resist the temptation to tell us everything about your journey and your life. Zoom in and find the beginning, the middle, and the end.

Someone who regularly reads our publication reaches out to share a story that appropriately expands our coverage without covering familiar ground.

We very often receive submissions that read more as guides or overviews. We publish stories.

It depends on the submission pathway. When we are commissioning writers (at higher rates), we care about clippings. When we are accepting pieces on spec, we don't need clippings, but we like to get to know the writer behind the story.

There are, unfortunately, submissions that come through where we can tell immediately it's a rejection. Normally, this is because the writer has not taken the time to understand our publication, they are submitting with AI, or they are pitching the kind of piece we simply don't publish. If a writer has done their homework and written a sincere contribution, we will always read it to the end.

We will occasionally run pieces by AI checkers however we do not rely on these tools; mostly it comes down an editor's judgement.

Coffee. Coffee. More coffee. And in the evenings, maybe red wine.

If it's a minor grammatical tweak, we will go ahead and it make it, but we will loop authors in on bigger changes. Like all editors, we make deletions; it is the nature of the work. Often, we will ask for more description or explanation to help a reader join in on the experience.

Yes and we're proud that our writers have been represented at numerous awards events worldwide such as the Travel Media Awards, Inspire Global Media Awards, and TBEX Travel Creator Awards.

Brand partnerships, publishing partnerships, education programs, alchemy.

Vigorously across our newsletter, social media channels, and often to relevant communities i.e we may reach out to the tourist board of a place we have covered, encouraging them to share the stories.