Opportunities to write History

Got A* in History for a levels, taking gap year. Does anyone know any good opportunities to write history professionally? I was thinking of asking the BBC if I could write a section for one of their history bitesize series, but it would be very unlikely to succeed. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!!

Reply 1

fedora34

Don't want to be a downer but this very unlikely - you're not a professional historian and your expertise is limited to the A-Level syllabus, so no publication is going to be interested. There are enough people with history PhDs who are keen to contribute, so an A* at A-Level is not going to impress a publisher.

Best advice would be to volunteer with somewhere like the National Trust or English Heritage. They have a roster of historical research volunteers (mostly retired enthusiasts, I have to say) who do archival research for them and write bits and pieces for room guides, temporary exhibitions, or occasionally something in their magazine. It's mostly organised regionally so I would recommend finding out what your nearest NT or EH properties are and seeing if they have any specific opportunities advertised that you can apply for directly. If not, then email the property's manager or volunteer co-ordinator. Try a few different ones and you may get lucky.

This'll get you more direct experience of historical research and writing over, like, starting a blog or doing TikTok videos, and it'll look better on your CV because these are national organisations who have a set of standards that you'll have to meet.