Much of Walk is written in-house by our small editorial team and expert Ramblers colleagues, but we also commission pieces from freelance writers – most often for our topical features, Masterclass, Ten Places, Big Walk and Destination (foreign travel) slots. Here are our submission guidelines for freelance contributors…

 

Get to know Walk

Familiarise yourself with the magazine before pitching to us. As the Ramblers’ membership mag, we prioritise features that tie in with the Ramblers’ charitable objectives, campaigns and partnerships. We don’t publish poetry, short stories, holiday diaries, academic papers or pieces longer than around 1,600 words. And we can’t include anything in Walk that promotes fundraising for other charities.

 

Send a bulletpoint outline

Please don’t send complete features. Just an introductory paragraph and a few bulletpoints outlining what you’d like to cover in your piece are all we need in the first instance.

 

Tell us about yourself

Let us know why you’re the right person to write this feature. Examples of previous work would be helpful as well.

 

Consider the whole package

Do you have access to interesting interviewees, groundbreaking research, beautiful photos? Tell us about those too.

 

Factor in our lead times

We usually commission features four to six months ahead of the magazine’s publication date. Some slots may be filled up to a year in advance.

 

Be patient

Walk has an editorial team of just two, and at busy times it may take us a little while to respond to speculative pitches. If you haven’t heard from us within four weeks, feel free to follow up.

 

Think about alternative avenues

We receive far more feature pitches than we can publish, but there are other (unpaid) ways of reaching our readership – for example a letter to our ‘Your View’ pages or a news story for our ‘Front Foot’ pages. For these sections, we need submissions no longer than 150 words emailed to us by:

• early January for the spring magazine
• early April for summer
• early July for autumn
• early October for winter

 

Ready to pitch?

If you have a feature pitch (or letter or news story) ready to send, or you have any questions about writing for the magazine, please email the editor at walkmag@ramblers.org.uk.