The Write Way to Travel

Issue #86
Edited by Lori Appling in Bethany Beach, DE
October 15, 2005

"There's no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love. There is only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen." -- Wayne Dyer

Today:

• Skipping the Lines at Disneyland
• Make Money Writing (and Help 3 Million People Get Access to Clean Drinking Water)
• An Easy By-line and a Check: How to Write Stories on the Art of Travel
• Attention Photographers: South American Explorers Is Looking for Photos of Guagua Pichincha
• This Week's Featured Travel Publication: The National Geographic Traveler
• More Opportunities and Resources for Writers

Dear Reader,

This month's Budget Travel magazine has a great travel tip on its From The Editor page...

The editor, Erik Torkells, tells a cute, little story about getting a "Parent Predicament Pass" at Disneyland. Apparently, Erik's sister, Molly, has told him that when he gets off a ride, he should ask for one of these passes so he won't have to wait in line again to get back on the ride.

The pass is designed for parents to take turns watching their kids without having to double their time in line. One parent will go through with Johnny while the other parent waits near the stroller with little Jane. Then, they'll switch and the second parent will use this special pass to jump into the Fast-pass line and avoid the wait.

Erik's story is funny because he ends up using his sister as a stand-in wife and his niece as a pretend daughter, only to find out that the pass is really called a "Rider Switch Pass," and you don't have to be a parent to get one.

Anyway, the travel tip is great, which brings me to a very important point...

Travel articles don't necessarily have to be about travel destinations. They can also be about traveling or the "Art of Travel" as I like to think of it.

This month's Budget Travel not only includes Erik's article up front, but it also features:

• Who's on Your Side: Extra Mile Awards -- which is an article about companies around the world that make travel "smarter, easier, and just plain better."

Travel + Leisure is on board too. The September issue features...

• The Business Travel Guide: 18 essential tips

And Conde Nast Traveler likes these sorts of articles, too. This month's issue includes three "art of travel" features...

• Low-fare Fleets at a Glance: Where they fly, what they fly, and how to find Asia's new fleet of low-cost carriers
• Picking a Winner: How to size up (air) carriers you've never even heard of
• Splendor in the Grass: Tips for surviving nine days in sultry Thailand from our intrepid fashion editors

In an effort to help you write a story like those, I asked Jennifer Stevens, the author of our Ultimate Travel Writer's Course, for some advice. You'll find her step-by-step guide below.

You know, if you haven't yet taken either our travel writing or our photography program, now's the best time to get started.

There's something about the weather and the spirit of the holiday season that lends itself to a great travel article... and a great photograph.

Whether you're writing about holiday celebrations around town or hopping on a plane to experience the holidays on the other side of the globe, this is a great time to get your career off the ground.

You don't have to give up your day job (if you don't want to that is) and you don't need any kind of fancy equipment to get started. Many travel writers and photographers I know are freelancers turning a trip here and a vacation there into a little cash on the side.

Some never even get on a plane. They make money from the comfort of their own homes while writing about local events,restaurants in their own regions, and occasionally about a family vacation.

Click here to take a quick peek at some of the other benefits of travel writing: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/kp/tw4

And here to learn more about photography: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/tw4

And, as always, remember to keep me up-to-speed on your success. If you have good news to share, send me a quick note at lori@thetravelwriterslife.com.

I hope you have a great weekend,

-- Lori

Lori Appling
Director, AWAI's Travel Writer Program

P.S. Know a friend or two who'd enjoy the freedom and independence of a writer's life? They, too, can sign up to receive this free e-letter weekly at: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/eletter

EDITORS BUY PRACTICAL ADVICE: SELL YOUR INSIGHTS ON THE ART OF TRAVEL
By Freelance Travel Writer, Jennifer Stevens in Colorado Springs, CO

Surely you've learned some lessons in all the travel you've done.

No doubt you've picked up a trick or two along the way that make your trips more enjoyable or efficient or affordable now than they were years back -- before you were so wise.

I'm certain you've got ideas, advice, and guidance to share with your fellow travelers -- suggestions that can save them time or money or trouble.

Maybe you know the best way to get discount tickets to Broadway shows. Or the best place online to get bargains on good-quality luggage.

Maybe you've figured out how to find the best cruise deals. Or perhaps you always travel with three critical items in your "kit," and have, as a result, never met a travel crisis you weren't prepared to handle.

You get the idea. Editors like their publications to deliver readers practical advice. It keeps those readers coming back.

And so if you can provide an editor with an article that delivers the sort of useful guidance his readers like to get -- chances are, he'll take it.

You'll find articles about the art of travel not only in travel publications but elsewhere as well -- in newspapers' travel sections and in the travel departments of non-travel magazines, too. A music magazine might run a piece on the best way to travel with your instrument, for example.

That means there's a wide audience for this kind of article. And it means you'll have a good shot at getting yours sold -- provided you've targeted your audience correctly and your piece does, indeed, deliver the goods.

Three Examples of "Advice" Articles

Here are a few examples of such articles, to give you a more concrete sense for what I mean by "practical advice" --

1. Vacation Rentals Made Easy: Our picks for the best rental sites Travel and Leisure, July 2005: http://tinyurl.com/bbhda
2. Some New Flexibility for Changing Flights on the Day of Travel New York Times, October 9, 2005 http://tinyurl.com/aq9ju
3. The Lowdown on Car Rentals: Advance bookings, local agencies, shopping the web -- money-saving secrets you need to know before you rent Budget Travel Online, March 30, 2005 http://tinyurl.com/b7tye

I encourage you to read through those three pieces. I think you'll find that while each focuses on a different topic, they share several common elements. They each make a promise and deliver on it. And they don't just offer helpful commentary... they also show the reader how to follow through.

Your Advice Article Should Do These Two Things...

When you sit down to write an article that offers practical advice, you want to be sure that yours does the same. It should --

1. Open with a very clear (and clearly stated) promise: "These 12 steps will improve your next trip," for example. You want your reader to understand, immediately, what you're going to give him.
2. Really do deliver practical, actionable advice. Include resources. Don't just tell the reader that lesser-known car-rental places charge lower rates, include some examples and give their websites.

As with any article -- whether it be a destination-driven feature or a piece on the art of travel -- you'll have the most luck selling it if you err on the side of specificity when you're defining your subject.

In other words, pick a narrow topic. It helps you, as a writer, to stay "on subject." And it allows you to create more stories with your ideas. (And remember, more stories means more income.)

Nine Categories in which You Could Offer Advice

I suggest you come up with several lists of tips you might possibly write about. Divide them into categories. For example, those categories could be:

1. Tips for eating well when you travel
2. Tips for saving money when you book airline tickets
3. Tips for packing light
4. Tips for getting from the airport into town in x city
5. Tips for buying luggage
6. Tips for traveling with toddlers
7. Tips for researching a destination before you go there
8. Tips for finding the "insiders" hangouts in x city
9. Tips for using credit card when you travel

Think about ways you can "divvy up" any advice you might have to offer a fellow traveler. To get your mind going, start by answering these questions:

• What sort of advice would you offer somebody about to visit a place you've been to?
• Did anything irk you on a recent trip? Maybe your credit card charged you a fee for withdrawing funds in a foreign currency -- a fee you didn't expect. Or maybe you discovered -- too late -- that you'd have been better off taking a cab into town instead of cooling your heels for a "shared ride." Think about what lessons you've learned that you might share with other travelers.
• Are there things you do before every trip you take that help to ensure your trip is smooth?
• How do you save money either before or during your travels?
• How do you choose a hotel?
• Where do you turn for on-target advice about local destinations?

Now, your advice about the art of travel could apply to any destination. Or, instead, you could make it specific to a particular place. Instead of offering one or more tips about "packing" for any sort of trip, make your advice specific to "Central America" or "an overnight road trip" or "Paris."

What's more, think about how you can make your advice most useful to a particular subset of traveler. For example, you could write a piece on "packing" for somebody embarking on a Caribbean cruise or for a wheelchair-bound traveler.

In fact, the advice you might offer in two separate articles might, in fact, overlap. But that's fine. Sell them to two different publications and you'll have doubled your income.

[Editor's Note: Jennifer Stevens has spent the balance of the last decade gallivanting through Latin America and the Caribbean -- to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize, Mexico and beyond writing about the best locales for overseas travel, retirement, and investment. She is the former editor of International Living and is author of AWAI's Ultimate Travel Writer's Course: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/sh/tw4. You can meet her in person this November in The Bahamas. For details: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/bahamas]

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You'll find The Writer's Tax Guide: A Money-Saving Manual for Travel Writers and Other Freelancers here: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/tax/tw4

ATTENTION: PHOTOGRAPHERS

South American Explorers (http://saexplorers.org) is looking for some photos to illustrate an article on Guagua Pichincha. If you have photos of this volcano to share send an email to Don at: don@saexplorers.org or call 1-800 274-0568. The photos are for an upcoming issue, so you'd better act fast.

Also, don't forget to sign up for our brand-new, FREE, monthly e-letter at: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/travelwriteroffer

As a special gift, you'll also receive David Morgan's Shoot to Sell in 3 Days. This FREE mini-course includes tips you can put into practice immediately to jump-start your new career.

THIS WEEK'S FEATURED TRAVEL PUBLICATION

The National Geographic Traveler, published by the National Geographic Society, regularly publishes work from freelancers. Feature articles must uncover a fresh angle on a well-known destination or find a little known destination to cover. Stories must capture the essence of a place, inspire your readers to go there, and provide them with useful tips for making the most of their trip. Query first. Send queries to NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER, Attn: Query Editor, 1145 17th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-4688. View the full guidelines at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/writer-guidelines.html.

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CHECK OUT: http://www.fwointl.com/ -- A free site that hosts thousands of writing resources and writing links in a massive online database. 40+ genres, funds for writers, job listings, education, news, submission calls, research library. Publishers of Inkwell Newswatch (IN) Writers ezine. All forms of writing resources available. Professional writing resources and writing links for editors, journalists and writers of all mediums.

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TAX SAVINGS EVERY FREELANCER SHOULD TAKE -- Find out where you can save... what the IRS really needs to know... how to make the most of those deductions for travel, meals, entertainment, home office, and more including practical worksheets you can use to make sure you're paying as little as possible to Uncle Sam. You'll find The Writer's Tax Guide: A Money-Saving Manual for Travel Writers and Other Freelancers here: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/tax/tw4

The Write Way to Travel is a FREE weekly newsletter from the American Writers & Artists Institute, available to AWAI students and friends.

© 2004 American Writers & Artists Institute

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