WRITING COMPETITION

To mark World Book Day, PropertyGuides.com invite anyone who has moved abroad to tell them all about it, with at least one writer getting the chance for a regular paid blog for their website, read by thousands of would-be expats each week.

Competition Details:

YOUR TASK:

Write a 500 to 1,000 word article on any aspect of moving to your new home. Entertain, inform and inspire them! It can be an area guide, top tips, amusing anecdote or advice for others to learn from your mistakes!

THE PRIZE:

At least one writer will be offered a paid monthly column on PropertyGuides.com for at least a year. Whether it’s sharing information about how you got your visa, renovated your property or made friends with the neighbours, there is a broad scope for the types of articles you could write.

YOU:

You’re a native English speaker who has moved abroad in the past ten years. You should be prepared to cover the details of your move, including property buying or rental, getting visas and just dealing with the everyday in your new country, with accuracy and verve.

At least one writer will be paid a minimum of £100 per article and a minimum of 12 articles, subject to meeting minimum quality standards.

You’ve imagined your own Year in Provence like Peter Mayle, or Driving over Lemons in Andalusia like Chris Stewart, or even renovating a riad like Tahir Shah, but could you write as well as them? Their writers earn as much as £2,000 per year.

Submit your entry to www.propertyguides.com/earn-money-bywriting-about-living-abroad/

Competition ends 1st May 2024.

HERE ARE A SELECTION OF EXPAT BOOKS THAT YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:

1. La Vie. A Year in Rural France – John Lewis-Sempel

Life deep in the Charente, depicted by one of the UK’s best nature writers, as he relaxes into a French lifestyle, indulging in two-hour lunches, while watching wild boar trot past his garden.

2. Driving Over Lemons – Chris Stewart

We’ve been to Chris Stewart’s Alpujarras home and it really is out in the sticks, but beautifully situated at a confluence of two rivers below the Sierra Nevada. You’ll love his tales of swapping scraping a living in rural Sussex, for living his best life in rural Spain.

3. A Dream of Italy – Nicky Pelligrino

You’ve read the articles. You’ve watched the TV shows. Now you can read a novel about four strangers who each take up the challenge of a one-euro home renovation in southern Italy.

4. Snowball Oranges: One Mallorcan Winter – Peter Kerr

The world behind the beaches has been brought vividly to life by a jazz-playing Scotsman who purchased a run-down farm and was shortlisted for the WHSmith British Travel Book of The Year Award.

5. A Year in Provence – Peter Mayle

The world-wide bestseller that kickstarted not just the cheerful expat genre, but launched a thousand ferry passengers to France looking to capture his joie de vivre.

6. My Family and Other Animals – Gerald Durrell

Recently depicted on the hit TV series, this is the classic true-life tale of the Durrells’ move from Bournemouth to Corfu in the 1930s. Funny, wise, lots of animals and a horrible mistake in a Greek toilet.

7. Under the Tuscan Sun – Frances Mayes

The memoir that was turned into a movie starring Diane Lane, about a recently divorced author who goes to renovate an abandoned villa each summer, picturing how the previous owner would have reacted.

8. The Caliph’s House – Tahir Shah

A departure from the usual Provence or Mediterranean islands, The Caliph’s House tells the tale of a frazzled British film-maker who heads to Morocco to renovate a mansion. Described as “joyful and resplendent” by the Sunday Times.

9. Cartes Postales from Greece – Victoria Hislop

Described as a lavish love letter to Greece, the Sunday Times bestseller’s novel is about a “discovery not only of a culture but also of a desire to live life to the full once more”.

10.Things Can Only Get Feta – Marjorie McGinn

Marjorie McGinn’s puns are painful (“Homer’s Where the Heart Is”) but the journalist’s account of her move from Scotland to Greece, at the start of Greece’s economic woes, is a delight. McGinn has now moved into novels on the same theme.

CHRISTOPHER NYE, EXPLAINS WHY EXPAT LITERATURE IS SO POPULAR: “Expat literature is so powerful because it fits the classic story structure: a character that you empathise with, who goes on a journey where they meet challenges and discover things about a new place and about themselves.

“Add an element of escape from the humdrum or a failed relationship, looking for love or a new career or just some excitement, and who wouldn’t want to read that? The fish out of water, the Brit abroad, is a wonderful source of humour, inspiration and shared experience.

“They can be fiction or non-fiction too, and many arise naturally from blogging. That’s why our offer to tell us about your experience overseas could be your route to a bestseller!”.

Best of luck if you do enter the above competition!