Featured Publication: AAA Southern Traveler

Aside from providing automobilists with roadside services, maps, and guidebooks, AAA also publishes 24 regional magazines — one of which is Southern Traveler (for access, enter zip code 70123). With an emphasis on things to do and see when you’ve got your own set of wheels, it covers events and festivals, local dining, news, travel trends, entertainment, and more.

I chose Southern Traveler as this week’s featured publication because we’ll be going to New Orleans for the Ultimate Money-Making Photo Workshop this March. And with five to six freelance-written stories in each issue, it’s a great magazine to pitch your stories and photos of Louisiana, as well as Arkansas and Mississippi.

The best time to query is now through April. Though the magazine plans editorial one year in advance (and all of 2009 is booked up) it pays on acceptance, rather than publication. So if the editors like your article or photos, you’ll be paid when they accept your story, not when it’s published a year (or more) from now.

Payment is $300 per article for feature stories, plus another $150 if story is published in AAA Midwest Traveler as well.

Before sending in a story pitch, read a few feature stories to get a feel for the writing style and article topics, here: http://www.autoclubmo.aaa.com/traveler/south/features.html

Then, you can read the Writer’s Guidelines, here: http://www.autoclubmo.aaa.com/traveler/media/south/WritersGuidelines.pdf

If you’re coming with us to New Orleans this March for The Ultimate Money-Making Photo Workshop, you’ll be pleased to know that Southern Traveler also buys photos year-round. You’ll get $75 per small photo used inside the issue, and $300 for cover photos.

PHOTO TIP: Check out the magazine’s editorial calendar to see what articles it’ll publish this year. Then, if you have a few (or you can take some) that match up with one of the stories, send an email introducing yourself as a photographer and attach two or three images, letting the editors know which story and issue you’re submitting them for.

You can see the editorial calendar here: http://www.autoclubmo.aaa.com/traveler/media/south/st_edit.pdf

[Editor’s Note: Learn more about opportunities to profit from your travels (and even from your own home) in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel.]