AAA Southern Traveler is published bimonthly by the AAA Auto Club of Missouri and is sent to 215,000 AAA households in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The magazine’s goal is to provide readers with a variety of useful articles on travel, auto safety and their AAA membership. The magazine publishes approximately 5 to 6 freelance travel stories per issue. Departments (Travel Treasures, Driver’s Seat, Card Tricks, In the News and Common Cents) are staff-written.
How to contact:
Send queries rather than finished manuscripts. The best time to query is January through April. Please note that we plan a year in advance. We are not responsible for returning unsolicited manuscripts or photos. Send a SASE to receive a quicker response, however, we try to respond within four weeks of receipt. We will consider a previously published article if it appeared in a non-competing publication. Simultaneous queries are accepted; just let us know.
Assignments:
They work from an editorial calendar and assignments are made at least six months in advance. They purchase first North American serial rights for print and electronic distribution. A copy of the magazine is sent to new contributors with the assignment, which always is made by letter. We use AP Stylebook and prefer third-person style. Obviously, the writer should have visited the places s/he is describing.
Payment:
They pay upon acceptance, not publication. That’s the good news. The bad news is you won’t get rich doing this. A feature goes for $300. If it’s picked up in our sister magazine, AAA Midwest Traveler, it’s another $150. We don’t pay assignment expenses.
Photos:
They purchase photography throughout the year and prefer digital images (please do not send slides unless that’s all you have) saved 300 dpi as a minimum as a CMYK TIFF or JPEG. Pay ranges from $75 for a small image used inside up to $300 for a cover.
Things they do not use:
Humor, satire, fiction, poetry, cartoons, reviews
Would you know if they purchase just photos? Or is it photos along with informational stories? Just wondering.