BootsnAll Travel Community

Has anyone here done any pieces or series for a local alt-weekly? We have a couple in town and I'm considering pitching one on a series... If anyone has experiences to share, I would love to hear them.

I've just starting writing for the Big Issue Cymru - which is the weekly street paper here in Wales, sold by the homeless.

It pays a reasonable rate but the best thing about it is its independence, which means its open to all sorts of articles ideas, including travel features - although they must have some kind of connection to Wales.

If your local alt media is similar it should be well worth approaching them.

If you are just starting out, they make for great clips. Plus, it's good practice to have deadlines and to be edited.

I got my start writing for a local alt-weekly and I still try to contribute to them whenever possible.

They'll probably want something with a local slant, so even if you're writing about a trip to Greece, try and find that local slant. Also, they probably won't pay that much, if at all at first. But hey, if you're in it for the money you might want to rethink things.

I wrote a piece recently in Amsterdam Weekly, an alt-newspaper here in the Netherlands which is backed by Chicago Reader newspaper. I bumped into the editor yesterday and pitched him another story idea as we stood on the street. He is interested so now I have to go and get the thing together. In short - do it - it's fun! Th money isn't amazing but having your work published is much more fun than the average 9-5 grind :-)