January

Has anybody participated in this or another Travel Writers' Workshops? http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/workshop/il5/

This one is sponsored by the online zine "International Living." As an amateur, I was wondering if this sort of thing was worthwhile, in terms of skills taught or contacts made.

Any opinions?

StCirq

I don't know what the heck is happening to my replies on this forum today - only about half of them are "taking." I responded to this about a half-hour ago - here goes again.

Do not let anyone take your money to give you tips on how to make money being a travel writer. The way to make money being a travel writer is to know things and places others don't, do a lot of traveling, take copious notes, be a decent photographer, get to know the specific schedules and publishing needs of travel publications, and be a damn good writer.

I've written for Internatonal Living. It's a huge organization, like Rodale Press, and they make most of their money giving seminars and training sessions to people who think they'll be able to live in a chateau and toss out travel stories from time to time. Balderdash! No one gets rich from travel writing, and you'll be even poorer if you pay International Living for "tips and contacts."

January

Thank you, St. Cirq! I had a strong feeling that what you say would be the case, but I didn't know for sure.

When you wrote for International Living, did you simply submit a query?

I do so appreciate your reply!

StCirq

Yes, January. I submitted a query detailing an article I wanted to write about purchasing property in the southwest of France. They agreed and paid me $400 for the article (came out to about $30 an hour after meeting all their requirements). Interestingly, I have queried them recently about other articles, thinking that as a "known quantity" they would probably bite, and have received nothing but form letters and solicitations to sign up for their (paid) seminars and such. And I "know" the editor, having had considerable correspondence with her.

I think they make very little money off their publication and a LOT off teasing people into thinking the writing life overseas is a piece of cake. I wouldn't give them a penny.

ira

Hi january,

Forget about actually making money.

Write the trip off your taxes and tell the IRS that you did it in order to write a travel article for sale.

Flyboy

I filed a Schedule C with my income taxes for four years and made sales of freelance articles and photography. It is true that there can be some side benefits, but I didn't find it to be a great way to make a lot of money. There are a lot of people competing and many of them receive plenty of satisfaction just from seeing their work in print, so pay rates in many publications are not always very good. My feeling is that very few freelance writers make serious money at it on that basis, though there are a few who do. (My response to people who asked about it was "With eight or 10 years of successful freelance writing, you can probably make a decent year's pay."

If you intend to write off travel expenses and especially international travel, then I would suggest you be prepared to document things very, very carefully and that you truly do make some credible sales. It is important to have some offsetting revenue to report from writing activities or you will risk having a very unhappy IRS audit experience at some point down the road.

While I still do a small amount of freelance writing involving travel, I no longer operate it as a business because it was turning too many of my adventures into more work than I really wanted to do on those trips.

BTilke

For travel writing, I've made more money writing about travel for a specialist audience, in this case, medical professionals, than for travel-oriented publications. Example: last year, I wrote an article about the radiologist who works full time at the Louvre x-raying paintings for the French government. The 1000-word article was written for an allied health mag that paid $1 a word. I was able to make some modifications to the original story and then re-sell it to another magazine (normal practice among professional writers who insist on First North American rights, not "all rights", in their contracts) for about the same amount, making a total of about $2000 for a 1000-word article.
My contacts came not from a course, though, but from having worked full time as a journalist in the medical press for 10 years.
In short, I suggest you become familiar with all the trade press that serve your profession, then come up with a travel article that relates to them--you'll have better luck selling to them than to a general travel magazine. If you set your sights on a specific magazine, ask for their editorial calendar, which tells you what the focus will be for upcoming issues. Also find out their editorial deadline--it could be a month or two before publication.
Do NOT write free articles for a for-profit publication (like your community's business magazine--they are notorious for trying to get free articles). One of the most important things I was taught in j-school was "try and write for pleasure but ALWAYS write for money!"

January

St. Cirq, how interesting! Sounds like they discovered they could make a lot more money touting their seminars than publishing actual articles. Considering the slightly hysterical tone of their hype, I figured as much -- but I really appreciate your firsthand knowlege and feedback.

Flyboy, thank you for your perspectives!

And ira -- do you really do that? (lol)

January

Btilke, thank you -- I just saw your post after my last.

Excellent advice! I will definitely look into it. (Your advice about free articles for local business publications comes too late, alas -- I've already done a few of those.

Thank you VERY much!

BTilke

January, good luck to you! If you have some success with trade press, keep plugging at writing for them on a variety of subjects and after you establish a track record of quality writing delivered ON TIME over a year or two, there is a very good chance you could make the jump to working for one of them full time.
While working for a medical professional magazine, I traveled (at company expense) to conferences all over the U.S. and also to a few places in Europe. I have since gone "over the wall" and now handle internationl press relations for one of the major companies in the field I covered for years as a journalist. My work with them has sent me all over Europe, including Paris, Vienna (3 times in 12 months), Copenhagen, Milan, etc.

ira

>...ira -- do you really do that? (lol)<

Every possible chance.

As noted, you have to keep careful records.

KT

Sorry to bring up the nasty subject of legality, but for expenses to be deductible as business expenses, the taxpayer has to be engaged in a business, i.e., with continuity and regularity and with the primary purpose of making income. A hobby or sporadic acitivity isn't a business, even if it tangentially earns you some money. Tax law is full of cases disallowing deductions for travel expenses of people with other regular jobs who sold an article or two. (I'll spare you the citations.) Whether you get caught or not is another matter, but if you do....

jddet

I am an editor at a major metropolitan newspaper and am here to tell you that most, if not all these workshops are a ripoff.
First of all, the only way you'll make decent money is if you sell your story to a large newspaper or travel magazine.
Most of them already have a stable of freelance writers they use regularly.
Secondly, you need to be a good writer to begin with and these seminars can't teach you how to write.
Lastly, we are flooded with queries. Unless you have something new to say and information that hasn't been printed eleswhere, we're really not interested in the work of amateurs.
Save your money and go to a lovely dinner or spend an extra day in your destination.
Don't be suckered into signing up for these seminars.