“I like sugar in my coffee, not in my career advice.” Tim Leffel, author, Travel Writing 2.0, via Twitter
Confession: I am a sucker. Many years ago, when I first declared to myself that I wanted to be a travel writer, I signed up for a travel writing “program.” This “program” didn’t actually offer me any solid advice, not in the least, what it did was give me some specious downloadable “credentials” that I could present to various hotel managers or PR agents convincing them that I was associated with a “legitimate” publication. In addition to a series of poorly designed PDFs, I paid for — that’s right, I paid for this — the opportunity to have the site publisher introduce me to travel providers, making it possible for me to score the ever coveted comp stay and/or meal at a property near me. In return for this, I was given the privilege of publishing my stories about these destinations on the publishers site. All this is true. In short, I paid to have my work published on a mediocre travel site.
In retrospect, that 400 dollars I spent was not for nothing. I discovered the tenuous relationship between writers and travel providers. I learned about good editors and bad ones — I still remember how a story I’d written about sailing — I do not like boats, not one bit, I get claustrophobic and seasick — had been eviscerated by the publisher, going live as a shiny “isn’t sailing FUN!” story. I learned that taking yourself seriously and acting like a professional is more important than having credentials. I learned that I had more than a fleeting passion for writing about travel — I love it, I love the words, I love the work, I love the process of experiencing a place and then, trying to distill and reproduce it in such a way that you, the reader can be there with me.
When it came time to renew my annual membership in the “program”, I told the publisher that I’d be happy to continue writing for the site, but — in vernacular — “Dude, this is a scam. I can totally do this on my own. I like having a venue, but I’m not going to pay for it.” Fast forward: Welcome to Nerd’s Eye View. The thing that I don’t understand — never have, honestly — is the actual business piece of being a freelance travel writer. And as I came to it very late, and with a focus on narrative over service (or, in non-industry parlance, advice) the part about actually making money as a travel writer remains my biggest challenge. Yes, now I know how to write a pitch (I took a class) and I know how to write a service piece (experience and guidebook work has taught me well) and I know how to find who’s publishing what (I read. A lot.) and I know how to work with travel PR professionals (I speak about it at conferences, apparently). But if you click through to my about page, you’ll see that the very first line tells you how I pay my bills. It is not as a travel writer.
There are a lot of “You Can Do It!” e-books and programs that will sell you the way to being a successful travel writer — or blogger. I can neither confirm nor deny the efficacy of these programs, though I might posit that those selling them are actually not making their living as travel writers, they are making their living selling programs about how to be a travel writer. There aren’t as many places to look for tempered facts about the very messy market that is travel writing. You can find lists of places that are accepting writing, but you won’t find as many places that tell you that you’d better have a solid backup plan or “a spouse with a real job and benefits”, to quote a travel writing friend. You can find lots of people who tell you they’re travel writers, but not nearly as many who tell you that they piece their income together out of a complicated and sometimes ugly patchwork of either a “real job” or like myself, a smattering of clients in the tech and marketing space. Lots of people will tell you about the awesome benefits — myself included — but not so many will tell you that they took a week out of their day job to attend that trip and when they returned, the paying gig they had dissolved. (This exact thing just happened to me while I was in Alaska on a press trip.)
I won’t tell you not to participate in those “You Can Do It!” programs. It’s great to have positive feedback and to feel like you’re striving towards an achievable goal. But there are two things I would advise you to do, if you’ll have it. The first is to take a writing class. Or two. Not a travel writing class, mind you, just a generic writing class. I did it at my local university extension program a few years ago and I still use the basics I learned in that class. If I had the money to do it again, I’d register for the non-fiction writing series in hopes of picking up solid journalist processes that are not exclusive to travel. In addition to investing in your writing skills, you might pick up a copy of Tim Leffel’s TRAVEL WRITING 2.0
There are a few things that don’t sit quite right with me in this book — I’m passionate about blogs as a platform for polished writing, not just as a personal soapbox. And some of the quotes feel a little decontextualized, especially since I know many of the quoted writers personally. These are minor quibbles. The unflinching look at the market and what you have to do to carve out your place makes it worth overlooking the issues I had. This book is solid, honest, and a much needed insight on a difficult career choice. You think you want to be a travel writer, do you? You should read this book.
Tim has given me a copy to give to you! Leave a comment and include what you suspect is the biggest myth about travel writing. Or, if you’re not there yet, leave your top pressing question about making it as a travel writer. I’ll pull a name at random to send the book to — but your comment must follow my guidelines. I like to make sure you’re paying attention, I’m fussy that way. I’ll close comments in one week — September 20th and pull a name then.
Comments are now closed.
Disclaimer: I’m not actually trying for the book – paper books are off my radar at the moment, as being too blimmin’ heavy to lug around in a suitcase. If you can swing an e-copy, though, I’m in!
I suspect that the biggest myth about travel writing, however, is that it’s all fun, all of the time. Much the same as with any ‘dream’ job (and I used to be an actor, so I know in some small way of what I speak) there are the downsides that outsiders looking in just don’t see. And yes, I know there will be those who think that we’re just whingeing about our diamond shoes being too tight, but there really are days when being ‘normal’ and being able to just curl up in front of the TV or even go to the pub with friends and bitch about the day-to-day problems of boring, everyday life is the absolute nadir of happiness.
I obviously mean zenith, not nadir. Sorry. 2-day hangover. Blee – getting old sucks, big time.
I think an e-copy is a possibility! I’ll leave your name in and let you know.
Thanks for this, Pam. It’s good to hear this from you. So many people, particularly recently, make travel writing seem like this glitzy fun lifestyle that includes only beaches, free stuff and a wonderful way to pay your bills.
Not that I don’t enjoy what I do. I love the travel, even the gritty, grind parts of it. And I enjoy writing about the places I go and things I do that truly inspire me. But… I’m not sure I’m even a travel blogger. Some of the lists out there say I am, but I’m not convinced my commitment to it or the amount i actually write about travel warrants that title.
Travel blogging for money requires a lot of patience and constant work. It requires a continual effort, getting writing, tweets and connecting with other people in the industry regularly. I’ve chosen not to monetize, mainly because I see the level of effort and maintenance necessary to make a living travel blogging.
But I do love the community.
“Chosen not to monitize” — this is super interesting to me. My money making from this blog is passive — advertisers come to me, I have some Amazon affiliate links, that’s it, really. So I chose to try to use this platform to pick up a little money, but not to have that be my singular goal.
I’m now curious about why you blog. But maybe that’s for another conversation.
I haven’t been travel writing very long, but I’ve been a freelance writer long enough to know there’s no easy way to make a living as one. Why should travel writing be different.
Before I started my blog, I tended to look at travel writing–especially print-based writing and think there was no place for me as I was neither a backpacking adventurer living on the beaches of Thailand, nor a cruising, all-inclusive resort sort of traveler. Through blogging, I’m finding there’s room in the big tent for all voices, if the voice is strong enough.
Just to be clear, I don’t think there’s limit as to the TYPES of voices that can be represented as travel writing. I’m not saying anything of the kind. The web is seemingly boundless in what it can embrace. I’m talking about how that translates to commercial success.
I’m a big fan of Tim’s blog and Cheap Destinations book so I’d love to read his latest book. Not sure if anyone really believes travel writing is all bliss; at least I don’t think anyone who seriously contemplates doing it believes that. Work is work, no matter what the task, right? But, I think there is a mystique to travel writing, which is why so many people say they want to do it. But it’s a lot of work breaking into it which is why so many don’t make it.
As a professional travel writer and blogger, I’d say the biggest myth about travel writing is that we receive “free” travel.
While I am no longer reimbursed for my travel expenses from the newspaper or magazines, I don’t consider hosted trips freebies. As with other business professionals, I am working during my travels. I am conducting interviews for print publications and online, and I am editing and posting videos, as well.
Thanks for this post, Pam.
I had a really hard time convincing myself that I was working on my recent trip to Alaska. It’s not that I wasn’t committed to produce or didn’t write or shoot photos or talk to people or hurl myself 100% into everything on the schedule. It’s that I was so amazed that I got to participate that the work was kind of beside the point. And honestly, when it comes to that piece of the puzzle, I rarely think, “Dude, don’t envy me, I’m working.” More often, I think, “WHOA, can you believe this?!?!? I’m WORKING!” Don’t misinterpret this for me saying you’re not working, you are, I’ve seen you. It’s just that man, it’s such unbelievable work.
You might be interested in my recent post about press trips, here. Also, whenever I feel myself protesting about travel writing as Work (capital W) I think about this awkward conversation I had with a marine welder at a party right after a press trip to Hawaii. “Wait, wait, you’re saying they paid for your travel and this is your work? What?”
I believe the biggest myth about travel writing would be that it’s fun or glamorous or easy all of the time…which I’ve found to be a common feeling among folks about writing in general. When I wrote for newspapers, I had a lot of folks say I was so lucky to have a job that was such terrific fun (usually after I’d covered a muffler shop opening, had my eyes glaze over as I’d listened to a chiropractor take an hour to explain “subluxation” so I’d be sure to get it right in the advertorials we had to do, visited a ribbon cutting at a bank, covered local Chamber meetings, and all experienced all sorts of other grand exciting things in the prior few days).
It’s already been mentioned, but yeah…the assumption that we get free trips. For the record, I’ve never really been offered a press trip (except for a free overnight ghost tour at Warwick Castle, and even then, I had to pay for my airfare from Germany to England and then pay for a a hotel room near Warwick – worth it, though). My travel writing came about because I lived in Europe and I wanted to express to family and friends what we were seeing or doing. It gradually escalated into article and city guide writing. However, I still fund my own travel.
Oh…and another thing I came across recently – “you can actually get paid to write about that?” So I guess there’s an assumption that people don’t get paid to write about travel, which is true in some cases. But yes, you can get paid for it.
It’s already been said, but I think the biggest myth (at least from the reactions I get when I tell people what I do) is that it’s all travel, all glamorous, all the time. If travel writing were all travel, there would be no time for the actual – y’know – writing. It’s work, and just like any other job where you don’t know the details it can sound better than it actually is. I am by no means complaining – I am truly fortunate that this is what I do for a living, and I love my work – *and* it’s still work.
Thanks for the mention Pam! If anyone wants to see more about the book or read interviews with the writers who are quoted within, we’re running a new one each week. Last three have been Beth Whitman (up today), Rory MacLean, and Edward Readicker-Henderson. See http://travelwriting2.com
I never got into this thinking it was a career. I just wanted to travel and having a blog was just a natural thing to do for me.
Having started a blog, I then didn’t want to have a crappy blog.
Personally, I don’t consider all the work I do to be work because I’d be doing something similar, non-travel related, if I wasn’t traveling. I like technology and I like travel. What I do is a natural fit.
I didn’t start blogging or travel writing as a career choice but I am very much a career writer. That said, I’m with you 100%, I like technology and travel too and bonus, I LOVE to write. (I’m guessing you really enjoy photography.) So talk about a natural fit.
Thanks for your comment, Gary.
I also started a blog out of a desire to have a keepsake of my travels and a means of sharing with friends and family. I make a bit of money, also by passive means, and feel fortunate that I don’t have to depend on it for a living.
Biggest myth I’ve come across when telling people I’m a travel writer is the pay. After getting past the “Oh-my-god-you-have-my-dream-job-how-can-I-do-it-too” response, they ask how the pay is and then physically recoil. “But how do you make a living?” Damn hard work and a lot o’ faith. 🙂
I’m fortunate that my “day job” also involves travel, so combining expensive passions is a little easier for me. And I count my lucky stars on that one regularly!
The biggest myth — that writing (of any kind) is easy. I mean, all you have to do is sit down and put your fingers to the keyboard, and accurate information, beautiful narrative, and sparkling prose magically move from your thoughts to the screen. And it requires no effort. . . or editing.
Yup, that’s definitely how it works!
It’s work, yes, but it’s nice work if you can get it. For me, it’s a permission slip to get out from behind the keyboard and experience something new. Something that I might not allow myself to do if not for an assignment to write about a region.
My travel writing to date is primarily service, done in between other writing jobs that are definitely not travel related. We’ve talked about this, but the difficulty for me is making the jump from all print (for the past ten years or so) to electronic markets. Preferably electronic markets that actually pay. 😉
I like this: “though I might posit that those selling them are actually not making their living as travel writers, they are making their living selling programs about how to be a travel writer.”
Well, I think it’s all been said. And you don’t have to include me in the draw for the book. Being fairly new to this game, I’m struggling in trying to figure out how to make a living doing it, and while keeping my sanity and integrity. I’m not entirely convinced this is even possible! I think I’d like to focus on becoming a better writer, first and foremost, and not even worry about traffic. Which leaves the money bit. Yeah, I have no idea.
Writing first. Before anything else. It’s my dream to learn that writing first is the right road.
The biggest myth…
That’s tricky. Travel-writing is riddled with ’em. That it’s predictable. That it’s a cinch. That it’s like going on holiday. That it’s about just about places, or just about people. That it pays megabucks. That it’s all about blue skies and warm oceans and big lie-ins in the morning. That, as Katja says, it’s always fun, ie. it’s not like an actual job. And on and on.
In fact, I wonder if anyone actually, really knows anything about travel-writing who doesn’t do it for a living. Myself partly included, as I’m merely ascending the foothills right now (eyeing the peaks above with a gleam in my eye).
“Messy”. Good grief yes. “Ugly patchwork”. Again, bang on. It’s chaos – frustrating and fickle, but also sewn with opportunity for those willing to pick a niche and set up shop.
The biggest myth, then? That it’s a discrete profession with a distinct shape and boundaries to it. A Thing, with edges. Which it oh-so-very-much isn’t. It’s a stew, made by 10,000 cooks. Drag your ladle through it and there’s no telling what you’ll scoop up.
I know people who make their actual living as travel writers. There are staff positions of course, though vanishingly few. But I do know freelance travel writers who make their living from full-time freelance travel writing and in some cases, they are even the main breadwinner in their household.
There are also many people, like myself, who make their livings from full-time freelance writing/journalism, including but not solely travel writing. It’s a choice for me – I love to travel but I also have a husband and home I love and actually wouldn’t want to be travelling quite as much as my full-time travel writer friends.
And yes, Pam, you’ll be happy to know that I think good writing skills are a key part of the secret to success. But not just that – good reporting / information gathering skills are also essential. And an ability to sell and run a business – you need to hustle, hustle, hustle.
It’s nice to read something that tells it like it is! I suppose all the travel writing ebooks and courses are no different from the tranches of other stuff online about making money online through blogging, affiliates or whatever. It’s ridiculously circular. There’s only so much work to go around and even Lonely Planet’s guide to Travel Writing repeatedly states an obvious point: if you want to make it as a freelancer then don’t limit yourself to travel, find other subjects you can score commissions with. There is a very good (free) blog written by a full time travel writer called 1001 Travel Writer Tips. (I won’t put the url in here for obv reasons but I will stress that I have absolutely no personal connection with its author!)
Instead of busting a myth I’ll pose a question: Obv it’s always best to approach an editor with one or two specific ideas tailored to their title, but I always worry that they’ve been pitched the idea before or actually ran something similar not so long ago. How unique does your story idea need to be and is it silly to worry about it anyway?
Thanks
Jools
Editors don’t like it so well when you pitch them something they ran last week. They also don’t like it so well if you pitch them something that isn’t right for their publication, say a piece about mountain climbing to a magazine about beach living. It helps to do a quick search to make sure it’s not — literally — yesterday’s news. But places change, so it’s not impossible that the spread they ran on Vancouver before the Olympics, just a year ago, isn’t due for an update.
I think most editors worry more about pitches that don’t either have a point or are just plain wrong. There are points for close in pitching — but the best thing is to read the publication, of course. If you’re a regular reader, your unlikely to pitch badly.
BTW, Jools, I suck at pitching. I’m TERRIBLE at it. The few times I’ve got a yes, I think it’s more lucky timing [Editor: We need that now! Yes! Send that in NOW!] than anything else.
If I’m on a press trip and spill jelly on my favorite Don Johnson white sports jacket, can I still drive around in a Ferrari?
No. You’ll be sent home, pronto, and will never be invited anywhere again. Ever.
that they make lots of money?
Lol! Think Peter should win, once he’s mopped up his jellypants.
I hate querying too, at least we can do it by email these days and don’t have to stammer our way past their impatient sighs of uninterestedness! Timing’s a lot of it as you say, esp for dailies/weeklies. Keeping in front of them while not pestering is the delicate cheesewire tightrope we all need to walk!
As I’ve commented twice, does that double my lottery ticket or just show me up as clearly having nothing better to do on a Saturday? 😉
You’ve got nothing better to do. But I’m here replying. 🙂
Jools, as a person who’s now on the receiving end of queries, I’m here to tell you, what makes me crazy (today) is the following:
1. I AM AWESOME! YOU SHOULD KNOW ME! (Uh, bully for you.)
2. I want to write about X, which is totally unrelated to what you do.
3. Anything that’s a laundry list rather than a story. “Went there by bus. Saw some fish.” So what?
Etc.
I enjoy your practical approach to this topic, Pam. Like Tim Leffel, I appreciate someone who dispenses with the sugar coating and tells it like it is.
A travel writing myth that people of, ahem, a certain age run into is “Now that you’re retired, you too can make money writing about your fun little travel hobby.” No, travel writing is not a hobby, it’s a business, which means you better have a plan. And that plan better include the willingness to work hard (while your friends are sometimes having more fun than you). But, hey, I’ll take this hard work any day of the week. Where else could I learn about cool technology, travel the world and do what I love most – write.
Good info. As a travel blogger, how do you help people find your blog?
That’s kind of a huge question with no simple answer. Getting found is the big struggle for lots of new bloggers — here‘s a pretty good read on the topic.
I’m starting to think ‘Travel Writing’ is the biggest myth of all. I haven seen a serious decline in both fantastic narrative posts and solid, informative service posts. Where did it all go?
I suspect that the biggest myth is that being a travel writing is all fun and free stays in luxury hotel suites with savory dishes from room service all for free. And of course that all of this is fun and no hard work is involved.
I’m not even a *real* travel writer and people think my little blog/site is all fun and games and no real work.
I’d say the biggest myth is that travel writing is nothing more than navel-gazing “what I did on my vacation” prose. I don’t know many editors who would put up with that sort of writing, so I’m not sure why the stigma still exists. I have plenty of journo friends who look on this business with scorn and think it’s all cushy lala work–many of them change their minds once they come on the road with me.