All Posts Tagged: Getting started
8 Questions to Ask Before You Sit Down to Write Any Travel Article Pitch
This November, we’ve been kicking our live events into high gear with a new series of weekly webinars, travel writer focus groups around the world, a half-day workshop in London, and a weekend-long Pitchapalooza in our writing retreat center in New York.
In our live events, we use propriety worksheets to teach travel writers to walk through the same steps of generating, refining, and matching ideas that we do together in our workshops one their own at home.
One of the most powerful things that we do is teach people to think like an editor and get out of their own heads and their attachment to ideas and really begin to see the fit both with a specific magazine and it’s audience and with a print publication as opposed to a blog.
Established Travel Writers Share Their 11 Favorite Pieces of Travel Writing Advice
We’ve started hosting focus groups around the globe to tap into the pitching, writing, and organizational processes of established writers so we can share them with you in a series of white papers.
To get the ball rolling, I wanted to share words of wisdom on travel writing success from the writers who joined us in New York City for our first focus group this fall.
Pitch This, Not That: *Much* Better-Paying Replacements for the Usual “First Clip” Travel Writing Outlets
As one of the first assignments of its travel writing program (more on that here), Matador has long had students scour the web to find places that pay for travel writing and then share them online.
For each website or magazine, students list the editor’s name, how to get in touch, and the submission guidelines for the publication.
To Niche or Not to Niche: What’s the Best Way to Freelance Travel Writing Success?
A lot of the prevailing advice to the soon-to-be-self-employed is to pick a niche and brand yourself heavily in that area. Proponents say,
“Who’s going to hire a freelance travel writer with no experience besides her own personal travels? You have to do something and be known for something so incredibly specific that when people really need exactly that skill, they come to you.”
But what new freelance travel writers respond with, very validly, is:
“Okay, but who is going to hire me for that incredible specific thing right now? I need enough clients to earn an income now, not just later when I become famous for my super specific niche.”
What You Need to Know About Freelance Travel Writing Contracts
If you’ve already been in this game for a while, feel free to skip this post. I am not a lawyer (though that was my original career plan back in the day!), just a concerned citizen, so if you are already commanding the rates you deserve and negotiating for contract terms that work in your favor, jump ahead.
The Gift that Keeps Giving: How to Break One Trip into Unlimited Travel Articles
Writers love to talk about “finding a good home” for a story. As if the story, or the idea that pre-dates it, is a child you are putting up for adoption, and you’ll only let go of it if you know its new mother and father will take better care of it than you ever could.
The Only Thing that Matters in Travel Writing Is Your Hourly Rate
At one point in my career when I was in desperate need of work, a writer and writing coach that I greatly admire made a case for writing for trade magazines that completely changed my career:
I’ve earned anywhere from $.10 per word writing for trade magazines at the beginning of my career up to $2.50 per word penning articles for national consumer magazines like Health. What’s important, though, isn’t the per-word rate—it’s your hourly rate, and I usually earn $250 per hour at this kind of work even at magazines that pay just $.50/word.
How to Launch Your Travel Writing Career in One Hour (Seriously!)
In one hour, you’ll be official. I promise. Ready to start your travel writing career?
Why You Don’t Need To Start with $20 Articles and Work Your Way Up
People often ask me how I ended up writing The Six-Figure Travel Writing Road Map, and the answer actually relates to one of my favorite journalists and writing bloggers.
Seven Unconventional Ways to *Really* Get the Most Out of TBEX Travel Conferences
Nearly two years ago now, I wrote a post for the TBEX blog on “How to Rock TBEX and Walk Away with New Friends and Business Partners.”
At the time, bloggers on the whole were just getting a handle on presenting themselves at conferences as businesses rather than individual freelancers or simply traveling nomads. Every single attendee wasn’t showing up with professional business cards, approaching their idols asking how they can work together, and bringing beautiful, printed media kits to speed networking detailing how they work with companies.