Photo by guldfisken.
The Traveler’s Notebook published an article of mine called Ten Travels (and their Tales) that Made History.
It is about my favorite old travel books. I read a lot of books about world exploration, and it was nice to put that to use in this piece. Every book I mention is over 100 years old - Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Lewis & Clark, Sir Richard F Burton, and so on.
Julie (a regular on the Matador network) already left a comment:
Fantastic article. What I really liked about this piece is that you include books that are obscure to many readers, even those of us who consider ourselves pretty well-read! The only problem is that I already have an impossible stack of books to read!
Why Go is a travel blog that is part of the extensive BootsnAll network of travel blogs. They do one post a day, featuring either a photo or a quotation. Today, they chose one of my photos. Check it out. It is from a parade I saw while staying in Cuenca, Ecuador.
Posted by: Theodore Scott in Writing
I have been getting a steady stream of emails from people wondering how to break into travel writing. Just so you know, I haven’t been doing this long. I don’t make big bucks. However, most of my submissions do get accepted, and I do get paid. Maybe I will develop a FAQ page on this later, but for now I will let you know what I think.
It is as simple as finding a travel website that you enjoy and try to submit stories to them. Don’t be shy. I haven’t found it to be that difficult to break in, as long as I follow the submission guidelines.
There are many markets to be found listed here:
50+ Travel Magazines That Want To Publish Your Writing
Just be sure to read many articles so that you understand their style and content range.
So far, I have gotten into a couple markets and have worked on submitting multiple articles to those few. After building a history with those sites, I plan to expand. This isn’t my day job. Right now, I would be happy with submitting to four or five markets on a semi-regular basis.
More:
The Do’s And Don’ts Of Submitting To Online Travel Magazines
I have been watching the sales numbers on my photo book. I know where some of them have gone, but I am curious about the rest. If you buy a copy, I would love it if you would leave a comment here or send me an email. Let me know what you think!
I just found out that a photo from my Flickr account was chosen as Gadling’s Photo of the Day a couple days ago.
It is a photo I took in an outdoor market in the Sacred Valley of Peru.
Jeremy Kressmann of Gadling says:
“The bright colors of the vegetables on the tarp along with the movement of the women as they hustle about certainly piqued my interest.”
