Got a Bulgaria story:
worth telling? Pitch us.
Brits, Bulgarians, Americans, Dutch retirees, anyone living here with a story the community will actually find useful. We publish human-interest pieces, business journeys, useful local know-how and community news. We do not publish promotion dressed up as journalism. Tell us a story; we will see if we can run it.
By Adrian Dane · Editor, Shumen.UK
Section 1
What we love to publish
Shumen.UK exists to help British residents in Bulgaria (and anyone else who has chosen this country) navigate daily life with accurate, contextual, English-language reporting. Stories that fit that mission go to the top of the pile and usually get a yes within a day or two.
Yes please, pitches like these
- Human-interest stories. Examples: "Teaching English online from a village outside Veliko Tarnovo," "Why I started fixing computers in Shumen, and what local customers actually want," "Three years on a Bulgarian residency permit: the bits no guide warned me about," or "Rewiring a 19th-century village house: what I learnt the hard way."
- Business journeys with real detail. Why you chose Bulgaria, what surprised you, what bureaucracy hit, the moment you knew it was working. Specific numbers welcome.
- Useful local know-how. Where to get GHIC paperwork stamped in Shumen. Which courier delivers reliably to villages. How long water connections take in your obshtina. Things readers cannot find on Numbeo.
- Community news. Charity drives, expat meet-ups, a new initiative at your local school, a village that has organised something unusual together.
- Practical first-person guides. The actual journey from "I want to import my dog" to "the dog is here," with paperwork, costs, dates and pitfalls.
- Investigative tip-offs. Spotted a scam pattern, a planning irregularity, a misleading agency? We follow up; you stay anonymous if you prefer.
No thanks, pitches like these
- "10 best things to do in Bulgaria" listicles. SEO filler. Already done a thousand times. We will decline.
- Pure self-promotion. "Buy my courses / book my services / use my agency." If your business has a story, tell us the story; we will mention the business naturally.
- AI-generated copy. We can spot it. So can your readers. Write it yourself, even if rough; we will edit.
- Affiliate-link spam. Articles that exist mainly to push tracked links to crypto platforms, casino apps, dropshipping sites or "passive-income courses". Auto-decline.
- Paid placement disguised as editorial. If you are pitching on behalf of a client, say so. We may still consider it as a clearly labelled sponsored piece. We never accept undisclosed paid content.
- Press releases. Send them, but expect us to rewrite and verify. We do not run vendor copy verbatim.
- Stories with no Bulgaria angle. Lovely as they may be, our readers come for Bulgaria.
Section 2
Promotion is fine, self-promotion is not
There is a difference, and it is the whole game. We are very happy to mention your business, your service, your project. We do it in articles all the time. The trick is that the story has to do useful work for the reader first; the mention follows naturally from the story rather than being the point.
The same small business, two ways
All hypothetical. The contrast is what matters, not the specific trade. Substitute "online English teacher", "handyman", "freelance bookkeeper", "mobile bicycle repair", "wedding photographer" or whatever fits.
❌ "New computer-repair service launches in Shumen"
Promotional. The whole pitch is about what the business does and where to find it. There is nothing a reader takes away beyond "this thing exists." We will decline.
✅ "I fix laptops in Shumen because the nearest official repair is in Sofia. Here is what I have learnt about parts, customers and Bulgarian work culture."
Story. The reader gets a first-person account of starting a small trade in Bulgaria, the realities of sourcing parts here, what local customers expect compared to UK ones, the cultural moments that surprised the writer. The business gets a clear, attributed mention as part of the story arc. Everyone wins. We will run it.
✅ "Online English teaching from a Bulgarian village: the broadband works better than my old London office."
Story. Specific (named village, specific clients, specific revenue if you are happy to share), useful (other remote teachers learn whether it would work for them), and the writer's own teaching practice gets a credited link. We will run it.
Two pitches about the same property buy
❌ "Now is the perfect time to buy a Bulgarian holiday home"
Estate agent copy. We know what this is. Decline.
✅ "I bought a derelict house in a Shumen village for €18,000. The renovation cost me three times that and a year of my life."
Story. Real numbers, real timeline, real lessons. The reader learns whether they could do it themselves. If you happen to use a particular renovator, lawyer or agency, they get a credited mention as part of the story arc.
Section 3
House style, the short version
- British English. Colour, not color. Pavement, not sidewalk. Council, not city hall.
- 600 to 1,500 words for most pieces. Longer is fine if the story justifies it.
- Sourced facts. If you cite a price, a law, a date, give us the source. We will check.
- Real names where possible. Anonymity is fine on request, especially for sensitive stories. We will agree the framing with you.
- One photo if you have one. Your own photo, your own copyright. We can take a placeholder if you do not.
- Currency in euros. Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026. The lev is gone. Convert any old leva figures at 1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN.
Section 4
Pitch us
Use the form below for short pitches. For longer pieces or anything sensitive, email hello@shumen.uk directly with "Pitch:" in the subject line. Either way Adrian reads everything personally and you will hear back within 48 hours, even if it is a no.
Section 5
What happens after you pitch
The editor's promise
You will hear back within 48 hours. Every single pitch gets a personal reply from Adrian, the editor. Even a no.
We say no often. About four out of five pitches do not run. The most common reasons are: too promotional, no Bulgaria angle, AI-generated, or the same idea has been done elsewhere recently. We try to explain briefly why, so you can adjust and try again.
If we say yes, we will agree a deadline and a rough word count. We edit lightly for British English and house style. You see the final version before it goes live. Your name (or pen name, if you prefer) goes on the byline.
We do not pay yet. Shumen.UK is a labour of love and not a paid publication. If that changes we will say so prominently. In the meantime, contributors get a clearly attributed byline, a backlink to their website or business, and a piece of writing that lives on the site permanently.
Sponsored content is possible for clearly labelled commercial pitches that still tell a real story. Email Adrian directly if that is what you have in mind, and we will discuss terms openly.
Why we are strict
Shumen.UK gets pitched daily. Most of it is the same template: a "guest post" with a backlink to a casino, a CFD broker, a dropshipping store, or some "10 reasons" listicle clearly produced by a content farm. Running any of it would devalue the site for the readers who actually rely on it. So we have a high bar, and we apply it consistently.
If you have a real story, we want to hear it. The strictness is not aimed at you. It is aimed at the spam, so that genuine pitches like yours rise above the noise.
