How to be a Travel Writer

by Don George

  Writer’s tip: The personal approach

  Another strategy for addressing your proposal is to find an editor at the magazine who also writes, and whose articles you admire. Send in your article to them, with a note saying how much you enjoyed the piece they wrote for a recent issue – any writer who has struggled to produce a good story will be happy to hear that at least one reader enjoyed it, and this strategy will help get you noticed and read.

  The kill fee

  ‘Kill fee’ is the rather aggressive expression used by the industry to denote compensation that is given when a commissioned article is submitted (or an article sent on spec is formally accepted) and the editor eventually decides not to publish it – that is, to ‘kill’ it. There can be many reasons for this. It could be because the subject has been overtaken by events – for example, the destination you wrote about has been devastated by an earthquake or disrupted by internal social upheaval. More often it is because of a change in personnel or policy, which means your story is no longer required. The kill fee is usually between 25 and 50 per cent of the fee agreed upon for your story. If you receive a kill fee, you are free to sell the story to another publication; you may sell the story just as it is or rewrite it to suit a different editor and readership.

  How magazines are produced

  When a magazine editor accepts a story, they will call you to discuss your article. Sometimes the editor will want a substantial rewrite, and will go over the article in great detail with you, paragraph by paragraph and even sentence by sentence, as necessary. At other times the editing changes will be minimal but, again, the editor will discuss them with you in detail. When your story has been reworked and edited to the editor’s satisfaction, you will often be sent a copy of the edited version. This is a final opportunity for you to approve the changes or to raise any final concerns, because you will most likely not be sent a final proof of your story as it will appear on the page.

  At some point in the editing process, depending on the publication, you may be contacted by a fact-checker or sub-editor. In the USA, the fact-checker will ask you to supply materials that corroborate your information – maps, brochures and pamphlets, pages from guidebooks and other source materials, tapes of quoted conversations and the like. The fact-checker or sub-editor will also contact all of the places mentioned in your story – every hotel, restaurant, store and museum – and will use independent resources to verify every cultural, historical and geographical fact in your story. So, to avoid humiliation and to cultivate an ongoing relationship with the magazine, be sure to do your own scrupulous fact-checking before you deliver your story. The more errors the editors find in your story, the less likely they will be to use you again.

  Magazines have a much more elastic publishing timeline than newspapers. For example, your article could be accepted in May and a photographer sent to shoot photos to accompany your piece in June (photographic conditions permitting); the editor would then contact you about editorial changes in the piece in August, and then work on it with you until the end of September.

  The magazine would go into production in October, close in November – and hit the news-stands in February or March. Because of the lengthy printing process, magazines work on issues many months in advance – and often on three editions simultaneously.

  In another scenario, a piece may sit at a magazine for a year – or much longer – before it appears in print. This might be because the magazine is waiting for the appropriate season to publish your article or because the photographs needed to accompany your piece can’t be shot until the following year – or quite simply because space is limited and other stories have higher priority due to the volatility of their subject matter or the celebrity of their author. If this is the case, you won’t be contacted to fine-tune your work for many more months. In such cases it is wise to maintain a cordial relationship with your editor, periodically checking on the status of your story and pitching new ideas. Above all, don’t be precious about your work – once you’ve submitted your piece, allow the magazine staff to get on with what they need to do to make it publishable without interference. If the wait is sometimes great with magazine publishing, the rewards are usually great, too.

  Writer’s tip: Always read the fine print

  Always read the contract you’re signing. Don’t get so overwhelmed or flattered by acceptance that you neglect to study the fine print or decide not to negotiate on points that make you uncomfortable. You may well regret this later. And if you breach your contract, even unwittingly, you will be legally vulnerable.

  Press trips and freebies

  Journalists will sometimes be offered an all-expenses-paid trip to a particular destination arranged by travel companies such as tour operators or government tourism organizations, usually in association with an airline. Such press trips can involve traveling with three to 15 journalists and a PR consultant: you all fly out together, you all stay in the same hotel, and you are all expected to follow the same pre-arranged itinerary (lunches, dinners, museum and carpet-store visits, etc.). A good press trip will build in plenty of free time for journalists to explore the destination independently, so that any ensuing articles won’t be based on exactly the same experiences (although not all press-trip organizers are so imaginative or enlightened). The sponsors will be hoping that the writers will write favorable stories about the destination or tour for their various publications.

  Press trips in the USA

  This is a hot issue in the USA these days. Thirty years ago press trips were an accepted part of the business of travel writing. They were seen as ways to broaden editorial horizons at minimal expense, and as excellent perks for otherwise under-rewarded staffers.

  Since then, however, acceptance of subsidized travel of this kind has changed dramatically because of the all-important issue of impartiality. Most publications do not allow their own staffers to take press trips or to accept freebies, and many do not accept freelance articles that have resulted from accepting such perks.

  The development of a special discount rate called a press rate has further complicated matters. This is a reduced rate that sponsors will often offer to writers who want to participate in a trip but who have to show that they have paid for it. Essentially, it was developed as a way to get around prohibitions on press trips. Press rates can make an absurdity of the whole situation. For example, if you pay $25 or even $250 for a $2500 trip, is that more valid than getting it for free? It’s a tremendously delicate and complicated issue – but the best thing is to be as honest and upfront with your editor as possible, and to be clear about the publication’s guidelines and policies. Sometimes the publication’s policies on press trips and freebies will be spelled out in their contributor guidelines, but if you are in any doubt whatsoever, be open about the situation before you find yourself in a predicament you could later regret. A few publications still rely on press trips to supplement their own meager travel budgets, so it is essential to know the position on this issue before you accept any travel offers.

  It’s not unheard of for sponsors to insist on reviewing any articles that result from the press trip, prior to publication. This is absurd and you should never agree to any such conditions. If a sponsor wants you to go on their trip, they need to give you editorial freedom. Equally, although you need to write your story based on your observations, you also need to ensure that your description isn’t colored by any special treatment you may have received. In most cases, it’s futile to write about experiences that would not be available to the general traveler.

  A writer’s view: Andrew Bain

  Andrew Bain is an award-winning Australia-based travel writer and author, specializing in adventure and the outdoors. His work is published around the world, and he writes online at www.adventurebeforeavarice.com.

  Skip New York, London and Paris, and look for lesser-known places with appealing quirks. If you must stick to the blue-chip destinations, find a different way to look at them. Develop a specialty
– food, spas, outdoor adventure – that will gain you a niche market, then supplement it with general stories.

  It’s a risky business. I determine how much a certain trip will cost me, then calculate how much I’ll need to earn to justify the journey. I break this down into the number of stories required from the trip and then scurry about making certain I come up with at least that number of stories. Then comes the problematic bit: selling them. It’s difficult at the beginning of your travel-writing career to make accurate forecasts on expenses and profit because you’re not sure how much a certain story will bring in, but eventually you get a feel for the markets you’re targeting.

  Books are a long, slow process… and that’s even after the writing’s complete. As Headwinds was my first book, I completed the manuscript before making any approaches to agents or publishers. It’s then a marketing battle – to convince a few people that this book will reap a profit to any publisher. I found an agent who thought the book had potential and she then found it a publisher.

  Behind all things glamorous there’s the everyday tedium: actors learning their lines, models waxing their backs, and writers spending hours wrestling with a sentence. It happens, and more regularly than we’d all like. And while everybody else at the Grand Canyon is oohing and aahing about the wonderful view, you’re quietly fretting about how your story is progressing and wondering how you’re going to express the scene in words – ‘words cannot describe…’ will never suffice. Everything you now see and do will be tainted slightly by the knowledge that you’ll later be sitting at your computer recreating what you wish you never had to recreate.

  Press trips in the UK

  The press trip has long been an integral part of the UK travel journalism scene, and most travel editors receive a dozen or so such invitations each week, asking them to nominate a writer.

  Many publications prefer not to use pieces based on press trips because they want their writers to take a more independent approach than is often possible on such a subsidized trip. Also, they don’t want to run the risk that another publication – whose writer also accepted the press trip – might publish the story ahead of them. Regardless, hundreds of press trips are taken by staffers or freelance journalists each year.

  Before a journalist agrees to go on a press trip, it is important for every party – the writer, the publication and the benefactor – to agree on the credit that will be given to the organizations that are providing facilities. This is often less of an issue for tourist boards (who are generally happy simply to see their country/region/city in print), but is of considerable concern to commercial firms. Some publications will mention that ‘Joe Bloggs traveled as a guest of Soaraway Vacations, which has holidays to the Costa Brava from £299’, but will then go on to suggest other companies. It is very unlikely that an editor will agree to an ‘exclusive’ mention, although some airlines issue formal contracts to this effect.

  Free facilities

  While UK publications rarely pay travel expenses, it’s also true to say that very few UK travel writers pay for their own travel. When travel journalists receive a commission from a newspaper or a magazine, it is commonplace for them to negotiate free facilities with tourist boards, airlines, hotels, tour operators and car rental companies, on the understanding that some sort of credit will be given in print.

  These freebies exist because travel organizations believe they will gain more of an impact from money spent on a journalist than if they were to spend the cash on advertising – there’s an industry term, ‘equivalent advertising spend’, which means an estimate of what it would cost in advertisements to procure the same level of media coverage. The effect is to help the journalist make a living.

  Press trips and objectivity

  Both press trips and freebies introduce the thorny issues of objectivity and impartiality. If a hotel has given you a free room, how objective can you be in assessing it and writing about it? If an airline has carried you in business class, won’t that prejudice the way you think about the company? Integrity is the editorial bedrock. If you take a press trip, or negotiate free or discounted accommodation or services, you must not feel obliged to write a favorable piece just because someone else is paying your way. Your story will be judged – and your reputation as a travel writer will be based – on your integrity; your primary obligation is to the reader.

  Syndicating your stories

  In order to augment their earnings, many freelance writers syndicate their stories, selling one article or story multiple times. This happy scenario is much more likely to occur in the USA than elsewhere.

  A writer’s view: Mara Vorhees

  Mara Vorhees has written about destinations from Costa Rica to Mother Russia, as well as her home in New England. These days she often travels with twins in tow. Read about their adventures at www.havetwinswilltravel.com

  Develop a regional expertise: travel, learn the language, develop a network of contacts. Learn as much as you can about that place, so you can demonstrate that you are an expert. And by the way, you’ll probably do better if your regional expertise is not France.

  Guidebook writing comes in relatively big chunks, meaning that one assignment will keep you busy (and pay the bills) for several months. Assignments from newspapers, magazines and websites are usually much smaller, occupying a couple of days or perhaps a week.

  Many guidebook writers are homeless: they crash with friends or family between assignments and avoid housing costs.

  Good guidebook writing is accurate and informative, but it is also entertaining. It is insightful, funny and inspiring. It allows readers to make informed decisions about how they will spend their valuable travel time.

  Travel always inspires learning – even more so for guidebook writers, who must become experts about their destinations. We go everywhere, we see everything, we have incredible adventures; then we come home with a suitcase full of notes and a head full of stories and histories to share with others.

  It’s very important for me to have a stable home, but it’s hard to keep it stable when I am traveling all the time. Now that I have children, I am not willing to leave them for long periods of time. Balancing work life and family life is challenging.

  Remember that life is trade-offs. This is not an easy job. The hours are long, the pay is short and the benefits (capital B benefits like healthcare and retirement plans) are non-existent. But the small-b benefits are infinite. We guidebook authors definitely have more than our fair share of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and that’s what makes it all worthwhile. That, and meeting our fellow travelers, who lug those books around, trust our opinions, share our adventures, forgive our oversights (hopefully), and make the planet a little less lonely.

  Syndication in the USA

  The USA has five ‘national’ newspapers, to the extent that they buy first national rights to the stories they publish: the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and The Christian Science Monitor. All of the nation’s other newspapers buy local rights, which means that they want exclusivity within their circulation area but do not care if your piece appears in a paper outside their area. You would be ill-advised, therefore, to submit your story at the same time to the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, or the Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Chronicle, because their circulation areas overlap. However, you would have no problems sending the same piece at the same time to the San Diego Union-Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. This is called simultaneous submission and most newspaper travel editors in the USA recognize that, given the low fees they pay, simultaneous submission is a necessity of freelance life. It is a courtesy but not a necessity to inform an editor in your cover letter if you are simultaneously submitting a story.

  The vast majority of freelance writers who sell their stories more than once practice self-syndication. That is, they develop a list of travel editors – anywhere from 10 to 50 – to whom they routinely submit their stories. A timely, well-
written story may be published by 10 papers, or sometimes even more. Preparing and keeping track of these submissions is both time- and energy-consuming for the writer, and for every story that gets picked up by 10 papers, there are two dozen that may get published by one paper or by none at all. Still, writers who make significant earnings from their newspaper writing all practice some form of self-syndication.

  The other syndication option that tempts freelancers is the notion of selling their work through one of the national syndication agencies. The top agencies include King Features Syndicate, New York Times Syndicate, Hearst News Service, Creators Syndicate, Universal Uclick, and Gannett (a list that has shrunk in recent years after a spate of closures and mergers that will no doubt continue). If you peruse newspaper travel sections, you will often see these agencies credited under the bylines of different writers. The truth, however, is that almost all of these agencies do not accept submissions from freelancers. When you see an agency credited, this means that the writer works for a newspaper that belongs to this syndication group.

  If a syndicate accepts one of your stories, they will submit it to all of the newspapers that subscribe to their service. If any of these papers publish your story, you will receive a percentage – often 50 per cent, though terms vary – of the money the syndicate has been paid for your story. This arrangement will be specified in the contract you will have signed with the syndicate.

  Writer’s tip: Press trips and blogging

  While the press trip has long been an expression of the symbiotic relationship between the travel industry and travel writers, that has exploded with the growth of blogging. It’s a two-way street: travel bloggers want free travel to give them something to blog about and power their content (plus, free travel), and the industry, from destination tourist offices to tour companies to individual hotels and attractions, wants access to influencers with loyal followings – it’s the equivalent of paid word-of-mouth, an advertiser’s dream.