Many consumer-oriented travel magazines [Travel/Holiday, Travel & Leisure, Condi Nast's Traveler) rely on staff and freelance articles. Vogue, Glamour, Seventeen, and specialty publications such as Gourmet, Town and Country, and Tennis also have regular travel sections or features.
While travel writing is not easy to get into, you might try to enter the field by writing for a local paper. Once you establish credentials as a travel writer, then it is possible to be included on press trips though many publications have strict policies against accepting free travel.
One of the problems with this field is that many people, including editors and amateur travel writers, assume travel writing is a joyride, a lark, an endless spree of first-class air travel, luxurious accommodations, and extravagant wining and dining. They fail to see the amount of work that goes into the writing, from the first hustle for assignments, to the pre-trip research, to the sheer physical effort that a trip requires, to the arduous work of banging out a story by deadline. As a result, fees for travel stories are well below those for any other kind of article and sometimes do not cover the expense in time and effort.
The Life of a Freelancer
Eunice Juckett, a professional travel writer since 1948, had just turned 71 when her doctor diagnosed "fatigue syndrome" and advised her to cut down on her rigorous travel schedule.
"People don't think I work. They don't know how hard it is.'' She would rise at 4 a.m. to write for 4 or 5 hours before the phone started ringing. When traveling, she put in 16- to 18-hour days. "You try to do personal investigation, wander around the city, and get a feel. You try to observe what's happening, the people, other tourists, where the popular places are. You ride the local transportation."
Even the writing is more difficult than it looks. "You have to go beyond the normal guidebook stuff-you must give insights about travel in relation to other destinations, not just the hours the museums are open and how much the hotels cost," she said.
As a freelancer, unattached to any single publication exclusively, Juckett maximized the value of her assignments by selling each story to as many publications or media as possible. She would do one story for about 15 different publications, changing the lead and the body to fit the audience. Types of audiences are limitless, ranging from the trade press to local newspapers, special-interest magazines (food and wine, travel, sports, in-flight magazines) and senior citizens and religious publications.
Some assignments come from editors or are initiated by the public relations or promotional people for destinations and travel companies. The good travel writer, however, also creates ideas for stories and, simply by asking questions, can influence the development of new products, programs, or policies. For example, Juckett did a story on what cruise lines do to make all the procedures that come on the last day of the cruise easier for passengers. "Many didn't even think about the issue until I asked."
Breaking into travel writing is difficult for several reasons. Just as someone who snaps a picture may think he or she can be a photographer, a person who can type and takes a trip thinks that he or she can be a travel writer. Editors will generally never use an unpublished writer. "If your name isn't known, editors are skeptical about what you are saying." The best way to break in, advised Juckett, is to "write about what you know well, and get two or three stories under your belt before you approach an editor."
Another reason travel writing is difficult to get into is that there are only about 300 professional travel writers-individuals who make their living from travel writing (thousands more write occasional travel pieces)-and they are an exclusive group. These writers, who typically are members of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW), are invited to take trips by tourist offices, travel companies, and airlines and have the credentials to get assignments from editors. Writers outside this group usually experience a "chicken-and-egg" syndrome-they will only be invited on a trip when they already have an assignment. Frequently, too, editors will not take a submission about a destination that they themselves hope to be invited to cover.
Juckett, a fiction writer since her childhood, started her travel writing by doing articles about Long Island, NY, where she lived. "I wrote a story about East Hampton celebrating its 300th anniversary and sent it to the Herald Tribune. It was printed in the Paris Herald before here. And I was off and running." The key is to cultivate an association with one publication and then expand.
Since 1948, Juckett has visited about 117 countries, including South Africa, Lebanon, and Northern Ireland. "As a travel journalist, my responsibility is to report what is there," she said about visiting controversial places. She traveled 75 to 80 percent of the year.
A considerable amount of a travel writer's time is spent set-ting up assignments with editors, getting invitations for trips, reading background material and preparing for trips, setting up inter-views, handling correspondence, arranging an itinerary, and booking transportation and lodgings. Publications have their own special audiences and their own policies. Some do not allow the travel writer to take any "freebies." Others insist that the articles support the advertisers, who are likely to be the expensive tours and resorts rather than the cozy, inexpensive inns and do-it-your- self adventures.
Many travel writers have been in the field for decades and have literally locked up syndicated columns and relationships with publications. But, a new generation is coming up. "They are clever. They study the market-you have to. You have to decide what facet of travel writing you want to be in. You can't be a specialist in everything. Some are better writers than others; others are mediocre but have good ideas; some are better at gathering facts but can't put them together in a publishable story; others are good writers but poor at research.
"Also, some are great writers, but you also have to be able to market the story and yourself-analyze the market, what will sell, and when.
"You have to be able to sort out from all you see and experience, and write about what is important to the reader.
"You have to be able to keep up with 16- to 18-hour days, to keep going and do interviews even if you are suffering turista or some other ailment. You have to face hassles, like airline delays or cancellations or rerouted flights. You have to be an organized, detail-oriented person, and keep tremendous files, read everything about the topic you intend to write about. You have to be flexible, adventurous, curious, interested in people, able to absorb, assess what you have seen.
'The travel writer has to be many things that's' why I got into photography, because the photographer was earning more than me. You have to sell yourself, and to know whether a trip will be profitable-if it is worth spending six days in Arkansas, for example."
Travel writing can pay well, but only if you hustle. Many publications feel that travel is a perk and therefore pay less (even as much as one-third less) for travel stories as opposed to other features. Moreover, cash flow can be a problem. Travel writers have to spend sums of money and wait for publications to reimburse them for their expenses and to pay their fee, either after acceptance of a manuscript or after publication. Sometimes, publications will assign a story but then not print it, and the travel writer has to collect a kill fee (only a portion of the full amount). In short, travel writing, particularly freelancing, is an insecure field, one of feast and famine.
Travel writing, however, is more than newspapers and magazines. It is also radio, television, cable television, cassettes, walking tours, lectures, and books. There are vast new markets for travel writing, such as serving as a consultant to a large department store that may by tying a merchandise promotion to a foreign country. You must be creative to find new avenues and niches.
One of the difficulties in being a travel writer, Juckett reflected, is that "you lose contact with your hometown." On the other hand, a travel writer becomes part of a world community and forms friendships around the globe. "You are reminded of that when someone you met in India and haven't seen for years phones up out of the blue."
The Society of American Travel Writers does not offer much assistance to those trying to break into the field (in fact, membership is restricted to working professionals who meet certain criteria and are sponsored by members). However, SATW does offer members seminars and a base for networking.
