Dear Reader,

Yesterday we put ourselves in a travel editor’s shoes, considering why story submissions might be accepted or rejected.

Here’s another great selection from our archives by freelance writer Jennifer Stevens. As a contributing editor for International Living and a travel writer for in-flight magazines and other publications, Jennifer knows what makes a marketable travel story. It’s all about targeting your ideas.

Read on to find out how...

-- Bonnie

Bonnie Caton
AWAI Travel Division

P.S. Target your ideas just right and you’ll be enjoying all of the extra paychecks and perks of a travel writer’s life in no time. What kinds of perks, you ask? Well, freelance writer Steenie Harvey, for one, enjoys comped hotel rooms and meals, free bottles of wine, and sometimes even entire vacations on someone else’s dime. Hear how she does it -- and how you can start turning your travel stories into by-lines and perks, too, with the .Ultimate Travel Writer’s Workshop-At-Home package, on close-out sale now for over $200 off.

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December 5, 2009
The Right Way to Travel
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Uncovering the Best Story Ideas: Three Keys to Writing Articles Editors Want

Once you have a general story idea in mind, you've got to really hone it. The best -- the most marketable -- story ideas are specific, unique, and targeted to a particular audience.

If you're anything like me, what you'll scribble on a scrap of paper and toss into your "story ideas" file will most often be just the core of an idea... something that struck you as a possibility for a piece, but not something you've really thought through.

So when you sit down to decide on the actual story you'd like to write, you must make sure that your idea is --

*Specific*

Don't send a letter to a publication asking if the editor is interested in a piece about Belize. Instead, ask if she'd be interested in an article about the best jungle lodge or the top spots to invest in real estate.

*Unique*

If you've been reading a lot of travel stories, you'll develop a sense after a few months for what's run-of-the-mill and what's new. Also, by keeping country files you'll have on hand some examples of what other people have written about the place you're going to write about, so you'll know in what ways your piece will need to be different.

I've found that one way to keep ideas unique is to think about what the stereotypical view of a place is and write to counter it. If most people know about the diving in the Bahamas, then you write about the hiking trails.

*Targeted to a particular audience*

When you target a particular audience with your story idea, it becomes a stronger idea. Here's what I mean: If I were to write to the readers of Walking magazine about St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, my story would, most likely, be about the trails there -- the best walks, the best guide, the best time of year to go, maybe the best "outdoors" hotels to stay in.

That story is specific and it's unique -- at least to the readers of Walking magazine. While you might regularly find stories about St. John in travel publications, it's not run-of-the-mill fare for Walking.

[Jennifer Stevens is author of The Ultimate Travel Writer's Program, currently nearly 50% off during our Holiday Sale. (Be sure to check out the full listing of the discounted products in this sale.) She's a former editor of International Living and remains a contributing editor there today. Jen has gallivanted through 23 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe, writing about the best locales for overseas travel, retirement, and investment. In past incarnations, she lived in Paris and wrote market research reports for the Foreign Commercial Service. And she spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer on a spit of sand between Madagascar and Mozambique.]

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