A Professional Organization of Travel Writers and Photographers

Submission Guidelines

Announcement, Article and Photo Submission Guidelines

Bay Area Travel Writers seeks to promote excellent travel writing and photography, and the BATW website features articles, essays and photographs by members.  We encourage members’ submissions, and, when you send us material, you’re telling us you own the copyright, you have all the necessary releases for photographs, and you’re giving BATW permission to post the material on the BATW website.

Below are guidelines that will help us streamline the submission and editorial process and more quickly and easily promote your writing and photographs.

Subject Line:

  • Please format the Subject Line of your email like this: “Ezine: Your Name — Subject” — for example, “Ezine: Jane Doe — Article about Tibet published“.

For Announcements and Member News:

  • For events such as book readings, speaking to travel or writing groups, displays of your photographs in galleries or cafes, etc.: Send the who, what, when and where information written as an announcement (like “Jane Doe will be speaking about . . . “).  If the bookstore, gallery or group hosting your event has information about it on their website, please send us the URL/link to the event information.


  • See real covers under "Member News".

    See real covers under "Member News".


    For book publications: Write an announcement saying something like “John Doe’s new book . . . “  Include a link to where the book can be purchased at one of your favorite local independent bookstores.  If you want, include a 1-2 paragraph excerpt (100-200 words) and/or a really good photo or scan of the book cover.  If it’s a photo book, send a couple photos that are in it.  (See photo submission information below.)

  • For article publication: Write an announcement telling us your story title, name of publication, and date of publication.  Include a link to the story if it appeared online so we include it and make your editor of that publication happy.  If you would like, submit a 1-2 paragraph excerpt (preferably your snappy lead) and/or 1-2 photos which were published with the story.  (See photo submission information below.)
  • Format: Send the story one of these ways: (1) URL of original story, (2) PDF of original story, (3) in the body of the email or (4) as a WordPerfect, MS Word or Plain Text attachment.
  • Subject line: Please put “BATW Announcement: [and a few-word summary]” in the subject line of your email.
  • Please proofread carefully.
  • Deadline:  23rd of the month in order to get into the next month’s update and newsletter

For Articles, Stories and Essays:

  • Who is the writer?
  • Is it an original article written for BATW or a reprint of an article published elsewhere?
  • If it’s a reprint, please include the title of the publication, date of publication and URL/link to the article if it was posted online so we can include it and make your editor at that publication happy.
  • Length: 200-1,500 words preferred
  • Purchase: If your story is also in a book, please include a link to where the book could be purchased from one of your favorite independent bookstores.  (It’s to your advantage to link to the independent bookstore’s actual online listing for your book.)
  • Format: Send story either in the body of the email or as a WordPerfect, MS Word or Plain Text attachment.
  • Subject line: Please put “BATW Article: [and a few-word summary]” in the subject line of your email.
  • Please proofread carefully.
  • NOTE: The first few lines of the article will be a “tease” to hook people into reading your full story so remember to put the most pertinent information (or a really great hook) in the first sentence.
  • Deadline:  23rd of the month in order to get into the next month’s update and newsletter

For Photographs:

  • Who is the photographer?
  • Who are the people in the photograph?
  • Do you have their permission to use and post the photograph?  (By submitting a photo, you’re saying you have all necessary releases.)
  • Where was the photo taken?
  • Caption: Include in the same email with the photograph a short one-sentence caption for the photo.
  • File name: Because we expect to be receiving many photographs and we want to give proper credit to photographers as well as to correctly identify shots, please use photo file names listing your first and last name and a 1-to-2-word slug describing the photo: first-last_slug.jpg.  Example: jane-doe_tibet-bus.jpg
  • Format: Jpeg
  • Size: preferably around 5″ x 7″ at 72 dpi
  • Number: 2-4 of your best photos  (When we get galleries set up, we’ll be able to post more photos.)
  • Subject line: If you’re submitting photos without a story, please put “BATW Photo: [and a few-word summary]” in the subject line of your email.
  • NOTE: If you use Photoshop, go to the “File” drop-down menu and click on “File Info.”  You will then be able to also attach all the above information to the photo itself so it won’t get lost.  This will help your BATW website editor as well as any other editor you send your photo to.
  • Deadline:  23rd of the month in order to get into the next month’s update and newsletter

Thank you.  If you have questions, please contact me at webeditor@batw.org.

– April Orcutt
BATW Web Editor
webeditor@batw.org