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 Travel Writers' Resources 
10 Tips for Selling Your Travel Writing
Lan Sluder
| | Lan Sluder has been banging around Belize for more than a decade and has visited every corner of the country. A former newspaper editor in New Orleans, he is the editor and publisher of Belize First Magazine. |
Network. Get to know travel editors and schmooze public relations people in the hospitality industry. While good writing sells stories, people who know and like you make the plum assignments.
Specialize. Many successful travel writers combine general travel writing with a specialty in golf, fishing, cooking, technology, or another subject.
Narrowly focus your stories. Write about the best coffee houses in Sydney instead of your trip to Australia.
Learn to shoot. Good photos help sell travel writing, and with many publications, especially newspapers, they're an absolute necessity. Point-and-shoot camera technology makes it easier to snap decent shots. It may also pay to take a course on photography at a local college.
Go beyond destination pieces. Destination articles are a drug on the market. However, editors much less frequently see stories that rate, compare, contrast, review, or explain. A well-researched piece on the ten best folk art sites in Florida, or the 25 best free attractions, likely will sell better than another article on Disney World.
Look professional. It should go without saying that professional-looking manuscripts and photos are the minimum requirement. More and more publications ask that you submit electronically, on disk or via modem or e-mail. Be sure your electronic submissions are in the format requested by the editor.
Repackage. Don't limit yourself to one article per destination. Each trip you take is fodder for many different stories targeted for different publishing markets. Research once; write many pieces.
Avoid the obvious travel markets. The travel magazines and newspaper travel sections are swamped with over-the-transom material. Go where the competition isn't, such as in general interest consumer mags, small destination-oriented publications, electronic media and foreign publications.
Resell. Unless you've signed away all rights, every article you write can be sold again and again. Keep it fresh, update it, add new art, try new markets, but resell it.
Don't bug editors. Editors, even at the large daily newspaper travel sections and at magazines, usually are overworked, underpaid, harried and harassed. Editors don't have secretaries or assistants. They may get hundreds of letters a day. They hate interruptions. Avoid telephone calls, unless you know a call is welcome and it won't come on deadline day. |
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