Apart from news and views on media covering tourism, travel, and hospitality, writers, editors, photogs, and bloggers share tips, leads, ideas, news, gripes. PR reps/journos ISO press releases/trips, see also "PR/Marketing." Opinions stated are not necessarily those of Tripatini.
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Others are self-publishing and finding that the royalties are higher than those garnered from having their work put out by the traditional publishing houses.
The only way I got here (and fingers crossed that it stays this way!) was to turn every job into something that could get me somewhere else. I wrote for a low-paying but highly visible daily newspaper, and it got me new beats in other venues. I spent some $$ and went to wine school, and turned that into a regular paying beat for wine, travel and business--this past year I traveled to about 12 wine-producing regions on assignment (no cost to me). I parlayed a low-paying real-estate column into a book-editing project on real estate, won over the publisher and am now on her go-to editor list. And so on. All of this is to say, I don't think anyone can hang out just one shingle anymore and now more than ever it takes a holistic approach. I found that writing on several, related subjects (i.e. real estate and business; wine and travel; historic preservation and community development, which again, leads back into real estate) has finally gotten me to where I want to be.
I'm not making the big bucks I used to when I was on staff. But I'm also not on the verge of a nervous breakdown anymore. And, the long hours I'm working now are for me, not the man.
Dick Jordan
"On Assignment" in Hell
In the days where we could research and write a story and then resell it or a variation several times, it was easy to make a living writing for periodicals. With the development of the web, "citizen journalism" and all these content mills paying next to nothing, it is almost impossible to make a decent living exclusively writing travel. It was certainly good while it lasted.
All of the long-time travel writers and photographers that I've met in the last year since my first story was published are looking for new ways to continue to travel, pay their expenses, and earn a living, since the old ways seem to have gone by the boards. Even though my "day job" now is travel writing, I'm glad that I have other sources of income that pay the bills.
My advice: Keep writing, keep submitting, but don't be overly optimistic about the odds of living high on the hog as a travel writer. As far being sent on assignment, read this: http://bit.ly/c5kLLh
I ask because I notice in the Ask a Travel Expert forum, several of us have advised the nice 17-year-old girl who's interested in being paid to travel that she should start slow, do her own blog, be very entrepreneurial, develop her voice, and if she's good, people will notice and (presumably) she will eventually become a successful, well-traveled and well-remunerated Travel Writer.
Well, I don't have the heart to tell her, and maybe I'm wrong -- but should someone tell her to run for the hills, and go to law school instead? That in travel media today, unless she is one of the lucky handful to get a staff position or come up with The Next Big Travel Web Site, she will likely end up chasing after articles that will pay $10 to $50, if she's lucky?
Maybe it's not fair for me to ask this question, as I've always written part-time and thus have not gone through the wrenching situations many of you have. But I find it hard to encourage any young person (who doesn't have a trust fund behind them) to follow their dream and try to become a travel journalist. At this very moment in time, that dream is looking... well, I don't want to use the word "nightmare," but it IS some kind of "mare" and as the song goes, she ain't what she used to be.
What do we do about these budding writers with dreams?
Cindy Ferguson of TRAVEL eTV and Travel eTV eMagazine seeks luxury, golf, adventure travel writers for some upcoming press trips. She's looking for journalists who post on multiple review and blog sites (and have their own blog), and get published in print, too. Trips will be to New Orleans, Tahiti, Fiji, Malaysia, Bali, Italy, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, etc. Email Cindy@TraveleTV.com
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