Is it a good fit?

Our content is fresh, relatable, culturally relevant, and family-friendly. We also love humorous content that gives us a good belly laugh, as well as writing that tells a story from a unique angle. Pieces that won’t be a good fit are opinion pieces and writing that dishonors or degrades other people and cultures. While we don’t exclusively publish Christian content, we are followers of Jesus who seek to honor God with our work. For security purposes, we do not use “the M word” (#IYKYK). To better your chances of having your article selected, be sure to download our free editing guide to help you craft your very best piece of writing.

Is it polished?

We expect that you have already completed your edits for grammar, content, and style. Send us your best work with complete, well developed thoughts. You can find our style guide here.

Is it original?

We will not publish articles that first appeared elsewhere, and we reserve the sole rights to your work for 90 days after being published on our website. After that time, you may post your content elsewhere online, but we require that you include the line “Originally featured at TakingRoute.net” in either the header or footer of the article, as well as a backlink.

If you answered “yes” to the above questions, you can head to the submissions page to submit your application to be a guest writer.

Please note: submissions are only open in November, February, May, and August. So if it’s currently not one of those months, you will not find a link to submit your work. To be notified of when submissions are open, we recommend signing up for our monthly newsletter.

Additional FAQs:

When will I find out if my work is accepted?

We will respond within three weeks after submissions close, letting you know whether or not we have decided to use your submission. Occasionally, we might not accept your work to be featured on the blog, but instead, on Instagram. You are free to accept or decline the offer, based on how you want your work to be featured. Your best odds for having an article accepted are to choose a topic with both a unique angle and a timeless truth, to edit the piece well, and to adhere to our submission guidelines. We also love a piece that makes us feel something, so don’t be afraid to go for a laugh or a tear.

What if my work is not accepted?

There is the possibility that your submission is not a good fit for our blog. If that happens, that’s okay! It doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer or that what you wrote is bad. We may choose not to accept a piece for a variety of reasons—sometimes we already have something published (or queued up to be published) on that topic, and sometimes we’re simply limited by how many articles we can select for our quarterly collection. If you are notified that we are not publishing your work, you can use it in any way you wish, including posting it on your own site or social media, or submitting it for publication elsewhere. We believe there is room for your words in this world. Even if your work isn’t published here, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be shared at all.

What are the next steps after my piece is accepted?

If your work is accepted for publication, we reserve the right to edit. Our editorial standards are high, and editing helps us achieve a unified style. We may contact you to work together on honing your piece’s overall arc, to adjust word count or style, or for further clarification. We will work with you to establish deadlines for any changes requested. (When collaboration is needed, we use Google Docs.) Light edits for grammar, mechanics, and readability will be made without consultation.

Are accepted submissions financially compensated?

No. We do not provide financial compensation at this time. However, we love promoting our contributors on our social media posts and podcasts, where appropriate.

How often can I submit writing?

Since we publish content collections quarterly (in January, April, July, and October), we open up submissions in November, February, May, August. Our monthly newsletter subscribers will be the first to know when submissions are open, thus giving them more time to get a piece of writing finished. We highly recommend signing up for our newsletter so you can have plenty of time to compose and submit your best work for consideration.

What style of writing do you accept?

We love practical, well-articulated content as well as narratives that encourage our readers to examine their own expat life. Posts can take the format of narrative storytelling, humor/satirical, listicle, open letter, curations (with proper credit given to original sources), and recipes.

When writing about another culture, we ask that you familiarize yourself with ethical storytelling. Our friends at Kindred Exchange have a free ethical storytelling guide available for download we highly recommend.

What topics do you cover?

While not intended to be an exhaustive list, below is a list of potential essay topics for consideration.

• Moving Abroad

• Long Distance Family/Friend Relationships

• Expat Life, Work, and Relationships as a Single Person

• Expat and Local Friendships

• Cross-Cultural Marriage

• Third Culture Kids

• Lesson(s) Learned from Living Abroad

• Culture Stress and Shock

• Work/Ministry/Life Balance

• Language Learning

• Humor (expat-related)

• Mental Health

• Grief and Loss

• Transitions

• New Expat perspective

• Veteran Expat perspective

• Repatriation

• Loving Where You Live

• Creating Community

• Celebrating Holidays

• Recipes (needs to be made from “as scratch” as possible, in order to be expat-friendly)

If you have any questions which were not answered above, please do not hesitate to contact us.