- 17 May 2011
- 3:41pm
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10 ways not to be a travel writer
Vivek WagleLonely Planet author
It’s the dream: travelling around the world and getting paid for it. Every day, thousands of aspiring travel journalists start up blogs, pitch pieces to editors and put pen to paper (at least metaphorically) in the hopes of making travel a full-time job.
Image by swimparallel, Flickr
The good news is that it’s achievable. While only a select few attain the high life of sipping margaritas by the pool while churning out leisurely prose on their Macbooks, travel writing for a living is a real possibility for those who have the talent and are willing to put in some really, really hard work.
However, we’ve noticed that there is a subclass of potential travel writers, photographers and video journalists who don’t really seem to have their heart in it. For some reason, they do their best to sabotage any chance of success. We believe you can learn a lot from them, so we’ve put together a list of their most common traits. Engage in these behaviours and you’re pretty much guaranteed to lock yourself out of a career in travel journalism.
10. Be sloppy
Whether you’re pitching a 500-word essay to the New Yorker or dashing off a quick blog entry, you’re presenting your professional face to the world. Is it the best face possible?
No one is perfect, and everyone except the stodgiest subeditor will forgive the occasional typo. But when you’re an aspiring content creator, any form of communication you produce becomes part of your portfolio. If your work is amateurish in quality, don’t expect to be paid for it.
9. Treat your pieces as personal journals
If you’ve started up a blog to keep your friends and family informed about your travels, go crazy! But all too often, we see works that are all about the creator and not at all about providing real value to the audience. They have the stink of those WhatWeDidOnOurFamilyVacation slideshows that everyone used to dread.
Use Facebook or personal blogs to reassure your mother and make your friends jealous. Use the avenue from which you hope to derive income to inform, educate, entertain or otherwise improve the lives of your audience.
8. Be flaky
Have you promised an editor that you’ll have that sample in for next week? Have you told your blogging audience, ‘Stay tuned for a big post tomorrow?’ Then please deliver. Nothing alienates people more than broken promises. Editors have tight, busy schedules and they are primarily concerned with getting great content out on time. Your audience has a ton of options vying for their attention, and if you fail to earn their trust they will go elsewhere.
7. Act like a jerk
You’d think this one would be obvious. But we’re constantly surprised by content creators who appear to lack any respect for those who are there to help them.
Here are a few simple tips:
- Don’t call your editors names or make bombastic demands from them. (Any reasonable editor will listen to calm, professionally delivered opinion, but no one wants to be yelled at.)
- Don’t belittle the people who comment on your website.
- Don’t be rude in any form of communication with anyone who might have anything to do with your getting your work published. These people are here to help you live your dream. Don’t ruin it for yourself.
6. Stay shallow and general rather than building expertise
Bill Bryson may be able to say anything he likes about whatever he likes (no matter how general), but you can’t just go out and make observations about ‘stuff’. Build your niche and establish your credibility in it – this is crucial to earning trust. Are you THE authority on hiking in northern Spain? Are you an incredible wildlife photographer? Are your videos mordantly funny? Figure out what it is you’re amazing at, and go after that. Once you’ve established your area of expertise, you can begin branching out. But start focused.
5. Demand respect without earning it
Not too long ago, having your words on a printed page provided an instant credibility boost. But nowadays, anyone can self-publish – to the web, to ebook readers and even to print-on-demand machines. What this means is that you need to provide better evidence for your claims to expertise than being a published writer. Have you won any credible awards? Can you demonstrate having a large following? Have you produced something truly meaningful? If you can answer ‘yes’ to these questions, then let people know! And if you can’t, get to work on it. We’d all love to be paid $5 per word, but before you get there you need to demonstrate your value for more realistic returns.
4. Lack voice and personality
Most travel writing is insanely boring. If you can make someone smile, cry or act, you’re well ahead of the game. Gimmicks and tricks can help, but it will come down to how authentic you are. If you don’t put enough of yourself in your work, your travel content will be as woeful as the rest of the dross that pollutes the travel-blogging universe, and even the Travel Literature section of your local bookstore. Please be interesting.
3. Act without integrity
Trading unverified links with others to bolster your search-engine juice? Made deals with the devil (eg sketchy ‘advertisers’ who put malware on people’s machines)? Lied about your accomplishments – such as where you’ve been? Making promises you can’t keep to your editors and audience?
Sorry – there’s just no room in the travel-content community for you. Get out.
2. Ignore or disrespect your audience
Your audience is by far the most important factor in your success as a travel journalist. And yet we so often come across people who have no idea whom they’re writing, photographing or making videos for. If you don’t know who is going to consume your content, you haven’t targeted it appropriately. And you’ve demonstrated that your priorities are all wrong.
If you’re pitching or creating a piece, make sure you know exactly whom it’s intended for. (Case in point: if you’ve read this far down this list, then this list is DEFINITELY intended for you.)
1. Never try
Of all the mistakes aspiring travel writers make, none is more catastrophic than failing to enter the game.
It’s not an easy life. It requires a lot of talent, determination, perseverance and resilience. But the world is full of people who turn their travels into a living – through blogging, professional writing, video journalism and beyond. There are more resources than ever available to those who wish to travel for a living. If it’s what you want to do, then go for it.
What do you think?
Well nice tips really for aspiring travel writer – and I am one of them. I agree with what you say but sometimes it hurts when you believe what you have written is brilliant and yet receive no comments on your blog. I have received 50 to 200 visitors a day on my blog – I know that’s way too small when it comes to number/reader/visitors – but what really peeves me is the fact that only rarely someone leaves a comment. The least they could do is let me know that my writing sucks. Can’t they? Personal Journals is it? :D I wanted to give a link to my blog here but that will be liking begging for recognition and respect. All points taken you see :-)
Hi Nikhil – many, many more people read than comment on blog posts. Have you tried actively soliciting comments? Are you asking good questions?
It’s also tough being the first to comment, so you may consider asking people you respect to leave (genuine) comments in order to kickstart the conversation.
I really enjoyed this piece. It underlined how much things have changed over the past few years. When I was starting the idea of doing any writing without money was abhorrent to pretty much anyone trying to make a living from it. Now there’s a recognition that you need to build a profile and an audience. I think there’s a lot of value, in addition to the comments above, in spending some time coming up with an excellent pitch and targeting it carefully. It’s well worth spending some time polishing your ideas until they’re shiny and seeing who you can sell them to.
I love travelling & all my friends tell me that I should write a book as my blog things are informative and funny. However I read a lot of travel books and recognise that my blogs just aint good enought & not of the same standard as these books. I have no illusions of grandeur & shall save myself the heartache and keep my blogs as memories!!
Wow. Love this list. I’ve just started a blog about my exploits teaching English in Korea and have been trying to find my niche in the travel community. This really offered some great advice that I hope will improve my work. Thank you!
You can check it out at:
http://imakoreanimport.wordpress.com/
I think one title you (LP) missed was “never asking for advice from others”, which I have found helpful for my blog—so that’s what, I always love advice and opinion on my blog (www.anshjainblogs.blogspot.com).
Great list — why not make a sequel for those who’ve already started to crack into the industry? Research obsessively, document prolifically, and by all means ask the locals — those would be my top tips for those who have mastered the basics above.
Great article with good points to consider. I’m an American freelance writer now living in Germany. I love to explore and write about it but am finding it difficult to figure out my niche. Any tips on how to figure out what it is we want to focus on in our travel writing?
Travel writing seems to be in crisis…
Travel writing needs to be redefined for the new On-Line world… Basically anyone can write about their travels… The only question is why bother…? And who cares…?
Some writing seems “agenda driven”…political commentary disguised as travel writing…
Some travel writing is simply a long description which could best be done with a few photos…
Some writers are doing a dairy…listing every small detail of what they saw or did… Boring.
Others specialize in how horrible my trip was…and how stupid the people I met were… Much of this is passed off as “adventure writing”… Well…maybe.
Then, there is the New York Times “36 hours in….” genre…sort of a mini-guidebook… Proving the world is too homogenized these days…same stuff, different place…
Travel writing seems to be in crisis…
What would Richard Burton do…?
Good points here, especially the one that notes ‘most travel writing is insanely boring’.
The best advice I can give is: Remember, your voice might not be enough.
There’s a lot to learn – writer’s rarely admit it, but if you are good, you are always learning – and just because you have something to say, doesn’t mean it’s what people/ clients want to read.
Always research who you are writing for. And if your style is very different, either keep it for your own space or learn how to write the content that people like to read.
And enjoy it! Indulge in travel fantasies and creative time-sponges; you will find a way!
Thank you for this little “how not to” on writing. I’ve done a bit of writing and I love to travel. I particularly liked the comment about writing with hopes of eliciting a response from your audience. Over the years I’ve written for several editors. Some wanted to hear “my voice” in the piece. They encouraged the use of small sampling of humor or the occasional witty phrase. While others are like the old black and white Detective Joe Friday wanting “Just the facts ma’am.” I’m off to Italy next week. I’d like to learn more about what Lonely Planet (or other travel venues) might be interested in. Any recommended reading? Thanks again. Michael Davis
A lot to keep in mind there and some advice we should all follow. I also agree that most travel writing is insanely boring. It’s the people that can keep a spark in it that will gain a real faithful audience.
Great advice LP! @karenmci I like you realistic outlook :) @melberg I started reading “Adventures of An Unexperienced Teacher” but I’m not sure I can get over the word “unexperienced” versus “inexperienced.
@Vivek
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll try what you have suggested :-)
nikhilchandra – do your articles require comments? Do you ask questions in your articles in a bid to promote discussion? Do you ask for people’s opinions? If your article is simply informative, that’s great, but it’s not going to prompt people to comment. If I am researching for a trip, I might find a fantastic source of information, take lots of notes, then leave. I’ll usually only comment if they’ve said something I think is wrong (and should be corrected), or if they’ve asked for their audience’s opinion on something (or just asked any sort of question).
hi all of you,
I have a travel blog Bagpack Traveller and I really appreciated your tips.
Thanks for it, and I hope that you would like my blog.
Greeting from Barcelona
@bagpacktravelle
9. Treat your pieces as personal journals
Is my personal pet peeve. Same goes for photography. I have friends who’ve been to Las Vegas or Paris or Thailand and guess what their photo albums look like – some face shots at a club. Nothing worse than having everything focused on you rather than the place.
My tip is put the focus on the subject rather than you and walk us through the experience
Which one would you rather read?
1) So today, I went up the CN tower. Oh my god it was so tall I thought I was going to faint. Then, I stood on top the glass floor, I almost fainted.
2) Standing 553 meters tall it could be overwhelming for some to stand on top of the glass floor, including myself. Even after taking a deep breath it would still take a lot of courage for some to even dare peek at what lays way below them.
Frankly, I think a travel writer can walk us through his/her experience without the focus on the writer.
I think the number one killer is laziness. I just graduated college so now I am able to spend a lot more time on my blog and I’m realizing just how much work it actually is- it’s hard to keep it up sometimes. But I know I can make it pay off in the end!
I’ve been posting monthly updates of my stats and income too, to try to help others learn from my mistakes and successes, take a look!
http://www.escapenormal.com/category/monthly-traffic-income-reports/
Who are some of your favorite travel writer writing currently on the web? Do you maintain a collection of writings outside of lonely planet?
@alexboates I like a lot of the classic writers, such as Bruce Chatwin and Jan Morris. I think Bill Bryson tells stories fantastically well. To be honest, I don’t read a ton of travel literature. There are a lot of spectacular travel blogs out there; many are featured on our Destination pages under “Blogs We Like.”
Thank you so much for this! It’s very helpful to have a guide through the difficult world of writing, especially in something as seemingly-hard-to-break-into as travel writing.
Some good stuff here … I teach travel writing, and one of the big points I tell people is to make sure they know the the magazine/ paper your are writing for – they all have different needs and styles.
see some tips on my wordpress blog ( http://www.kiwitravelwriter.wordpress.com )
Thank you so much for this post!! I have just begun writing a blog cause I really want to do this as a living… or at least as a hobbie, and I couldn’t think of a better way to do it. One problem I have is letting people know about my blog. What do you recomend? All visitors I have are from my status updates in Facebook, and I think one or two from tweets but that’s all. Is there a way to improve the number of visitors and the reach my blog has?? Thank you again!!
Oh, I’ll start with these webpage if you don’t mind… Thank you once more!! haha…
http://thewanderingtrekker.blogspot.com/
love it…!
thank you for sharing this :)
I got into travel writing with the basest of motives – namely to travel the world at someone else’s expense. Have since made a precarious living as a travel writer/photographer for around 17 years. The key has been SHARING – sharing contacts, ideas, inspiration etc. You can’t do it on your own.
Those thinking of getting into travel writing should read, re-read and then re-reread “10 ways not to be a travel writer”. If you’re like me, you will have violated each and every one of the ways listed in the article. Just be thankful that most people are ultimately forgiving!
Hmmmm, lots of good advice here, but I think I can add a bit more. First identify sources of income… are you going to write for magazines, guidebooks, newspapers? Good money but you’ll need to be at the top of your game and probably cut your teeth at some smaller brands for next to nothing to begin with. If you’re going to create your own blog you will need to get a lot of visitors… this means mastering a) social media and b) search engines/Google. The first means starting a facebook page and twitter account and being very active (and also commenting on posts like this def. helps, and plugging your link!) and the second means mastering SEO – search engine optimisation. SEO is worthy of many posts in itself, so have a Google around!
Personally I make money via every way possible in the travel writing sphere! I have built up areas of expertise (mine are geographical areas – Poland and Barcelona – yours could also be activity niches. I believe the author of this post gave the example of hiking) which means editors of certain magazines know I can deliver and actually come to me and put commissions on my desk… makes a nice change from pitching into the cyber-wilderness! Plus I have my own projects. My favourite, but not highest earning is Urban Travel Blog which you can follow on Facebook.com/UrbanTravelBlog.
I would definitely be wary of starting your own ‘I’m off travelling the world for a year’ blog. Apart from the fact that you’ll be little more than a tourist, not an expert, in all of those places, Nomadic Matt and several others have already beaten you to that I’m afraid (plus I don’t think they’re exactly coining it in anyhow). More on not making money with travel blogs here:
http://drtravelwriter.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/making-money-travel-blogs/
My advice would be find a niche and do a mix of writing for others and yourselves, and possibly hold down another part-time job/source of income too. If you’re good and you manage to survive for a couple of years you might just be able to go full time.
If you really want to make money as a travel writer, the big money is still in online travel guides… (when local advertisers, hotel/apartment bookings are all possible) you’ve just got to pick a destination that isn’t already oversaturated. It also means staying in one place for most of your time! More here:
http://drtravelwriter.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/travel-websites-franchise/
Hope that helps the more determined of you to get started!
Best wishes
Duncan
The great English writer, Somerset Maugham, had this to say about writing as a profession:
- in the production of his work, the author has fulfilled himself. But that is not to say that it has any value for anyone else.
- there is an impression abroad that everyone has it in him to write one book, but if by this is implied a good book, the impression is false
- The saying asserts only that everyone has it in him to write one book. It says nothing about a second. The amateur is wise not to try his luck again.
- every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul
The best advice I have ever received from an editor: “Write like a writer, not like a travel writer.” That is to say, the reader isn’t any less worth of quality writing because it is “travel writing.” The caliber of writing should be what you would expect in a novel, as enjoyable to read as a piece of creative fiction, as interesting to read as hard news. (Bad) travel writing is generic, cliche and boring.
I remind myself of his advice with every piece I write.
Check out some of my work here: http://www.cindyfan.com
Cheers
These are great tips. I recently started a travel blog and I would like to break in to travel writing. You can find my blog at outofsights.blogspot.com
these tips are great! as obvious as some of them sound, they are so important to keep in mind and something we struggle with as new bloggers.
while we find our voice (and our niche), we’re also working to find the best way to move to the next level. love reading posts like this, and the comments here are just as insightful!
http://www.thelazytravelers.com
Having a perfect trip….!
Boring….!
I just signed up to Lonely Planet, though I’ve been on the road for a while. I finally decided I should see what it is you guys offer. This is the first piece I read, and I’m glad I did. Reaffirming the simple things is important, sometimes they are the easiest to forget. My travel writing becomes to personal most days, I love the currency of story and it often overshadows information. Thanks, here is a link
http://rafael-vigilantics.blogspot.com/
Really useful article thank you. It’s handy to have a list of do not’s. From an aspiring travel blogger http://hfbartist-abrushwith.blogspot.com/
Well they say rules are made to be broken :p
http://thebrazenvagabond.blogspot.com/
This is a very interesting read- I find it interesting that it says that you have to have a target audience… I have a travel blog of my own (http://amber-letsgoflyakite.blogspot.com i dont care I’d like the publicity!) but i never imagined having a target audience as are my experiences and im writing about them in the way i want them to express them. I figured humour is my thing so try to expres myself in this way as well by using oberservational humour as well as my own quandries. I would be happy for any comments and maybe i should try earning from my writings.. if they’e any good that is!
Fun article. Very creative angle.
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