How to be a Travel Writer

by Don George

  If a prominent travel writer comes to town, the odds are good that members of the local travel writing community will turn out to hear them speak; you can make good connections at such events. Other excellent ways to network include joining a writers’ organization, taking a writing class or attending a writers’ or bloggers’ conference.

  Finally, when you are on the road, you should consider virtually everything you do as an opportunity for networking, fact-finding and story-generating. If you’re flying somewhere, talk to the ticket agents about how business is doing, and with the flight attendants about great places to see and things to do in the city you’re visiting. Taxi drivers are an endless source of anecdotal entertainment and illumination. Hotel concierges and desk clerks can often give you valuable tips about special places in the neighborhood. All of these opportunities can enhance your life professionally and personally. And one way or another, they can help you distinguish and develop stories that get published.

  Writer’s tip: Sound memories

  Sound is a powerful key that can open up all kinds of stored-away memories, and bring a place back to life.

  Twenty years ago, I accompanied a tour group on a three-week journey along Pakistan’s Karakoram Highway. When we stopped in Hunza, we were visited by an impromptu band of musicians. I don’t know how it happened that they materialized at the moment we entered the village, but there they were, and they began to play. I quickly got out my tape recorder and stuck it into the air to capture their spontaneous performance. Even now, two decades years later, when I begin to play that tape, I am transported back to that scene: the marvelous musicians, the snow on the peaks around us, the crisp sunshine, the muddy fields, the neat stone walls and the rows of poplars all around.

  Courses

  Writing courses and workshops

  Writing courses and workshops are often overlooked as tools of the trade, but they can be an invaluable means of recharging your professional batteries and refining and expanding your expertise and skills.

  Travel writing classes are offered across the globe through community colleges, universities, writers’ centers and independent learning organizations; they can also be held in conjunction with bookstores. The majority of courses are for creative writing, but they shouldn’t be discounted, as travel writers old and new can learn a lot from courses such as these. Some offer travel writing as a component of a more general course, while others specialize in the genre of travel writing. Attendees usually comprise a good mix of professional and amateur writers. Grants are sometimes available to help less-privileged students cover costs, so it’s always worth asking the course organizers about funding opportunities.

  You’ll find many writing courses online, including those that are specifically for travel writing. There are also courses for writing for online, blogging and all facets of the writing profession. Don’t just consider courses that focus on writing; learning how to edit, how to find and work with an agent, and how to work with editors can also be very beneficial in helping you understand the pressures and requirements of the publishing world. Mediabistro (www.mediabistro.com), a professional journalists’ organization in the USA, has a strong program of writing and related courses, and MatadorU (matadoru.com) offers travel-writing specific courses. There are also increasing numbers of MOOCs (massive open online courses) offered for free by universities around the world, where you can hone your skills virtually. Try Coursera and Open2Study.

  See the Resources chapter for listings and more details on courses offered online in the UK, the USA and Australia.

  When you’re considering a particular workshop or course, find out as much as you can about the presentations and course structure. What topics are covered? Who are the guest speakers? What are their credentials? How much interaction is there between lecturers and students? What kinds of opportunities are there for close critiquing of your work, and for one-on-one or small-group contact? Do the topics correspond to your interests? Read reviews or ask for feedback from past students, and find out what former students have gone on to achieve.

  Writer’s tip: Real-world blogging

  If you’re plunging into the world of travel blogging, you’ll find a virtual community of people doing the same kind of thing as you and keen to share experiences and tips. Relationship building is a vital part of this world, and you’ll need to do lots of virtual networking to establish links to your blog, grow your audience and raise your profile on social media. You’ll generally find a supportive network of people to help you. But there’s nothing like making a real-world connection. TBEX is the biggest travel bloggers’ conference, held annually in a number of locations; there are non-specific blogging conferences held all over the world and you might want to attend one near you to meet other bloggers and exchange insights and experiences.

  Typing and shorthand courses

  Being able to touch-type at speed is an invaluable skill for any writer. When the words are coming thick and fast, your fingers need to keep up with them on the keyboard. If you can’t type, or if your typing skills are poor, a typing course may be one of the best investments you make. It takes only around 40 hours to learn how to touch-type, and courses are generally inexpensive.

  Before the advent of audio recorders, shorthand was an essential journalistic skill. There can still be situations when an audio recorder isn’t appropriate and old-fashioned shorthand comes into its own again. It can be particularly useful when you are interviewing someone by phone or when the presence of an audio recorder is making an interviewee feel ill at ease. UK and Australian journalists use a form of shorthand called Teeline, which is based around the consonants of the alphabet and is therefore easy and fast to learn. As with typing courses, Teeline shorthand courses can usually be found wherever there’s an adult-education center or secretarial college; you can try it online at www.teelineshorthand.org. Depending on how many words per minute you want to achieve, Teeline shorthand can be learned in anything from 70 to 100 hours. Most US journalists simply devise their own abbreviated note-taking method – but nearly all agree that having some way to quickly and easily jot down notes is essential.

  Your home office

  One of the essentials for a writer is a comfortable and compatible place to work, and ideally one that is a dedicated workspace. In the UK it is best to have your workspace as part of a room that’s used for another purpose – for example, a bedroom or living room; if you set up your home workspace in a separate room, you could become liable for business tax rates (that is, non-domestic rates). In the USA and Australia it is actually a tax advantage if you can set aside a dedicated separate room as your workplace.

  Wherever your workspace is, you want it to be truly your office. When you go there, even if you are simply stepping from one part of a room into another, you have to have the mindset that you are now entering your workplace. You are there to work and not to watch TV, listen to music or chat with friends by email, IM or phone. If at all possible, it should be free of all such distractions. Of course, you have to set up a schedule that works best for you, and if that means periodic TV, music or phone calls to friends, that’s up to you. But to get the most out of your workplace, wherever it may be, you need to adopt it in your mind as the place where you focus on your work.

  Basic administration

  Once you start earning money as a freelance travel writer there are administrative and legal steps that you will need to take, such as filing taxes, keeping careful records and taking out insurance.

  Taxes

  Taxes in the UK

  Whether you start writing full time, part time or on weekends and evenings after your ‘proper’ job, you will need to register with the Inland Revenue as being self-employed. You need to register within three months of receiving your first check (regardless of how small it might be), because otherwise you may incur a fine of £100. Once you become self-employed, you will have to pay your own National Insurance contributions, but only when your net travel writing i
ncome hits a certain annual threshold. While you’re earning less than this, you can apply for a Certificate of Small Earnings Exception. For an overview of what you need to do when you become self-employed, see www.gov.uk/working-for-yourself.

  As a self-employed writer, you will also have to pay your own tax (see www.gov.uk for more information). Each April, at the end of the tax year, the Inland Revenue will send you a Self-Assessment Tax Return; if you return it to them before 30 September, the Inland Revenue will work out your tax bill. You will be required to pay your tax and National Insurance contributions in two installments, on 31 January and 31 July. If you haven’t given up your day job, you will be required to pay tax on any travel writing income from the outset because your tax-free allowance will already have been used up. The tax rate of either 22 or 40 per cent will be worked out on your total earnings. If your travel writing income reaches £83,000, you’ll have to register for VAT (the threshold figure changes annually; be sure you’re aware what the current threshold is.)

  An editor’s view: Sarah Miller

  Sarah Miller is the editor of Condé Nast Traveller magazine (UK).

  I was approached to launch the UK edition of Condé Nast Traveller precisely because I’m an editor and a journalist rather than a ‘travel’ journalist. Condé Nast wanted someone who understood that travel, rather than being a separate compartment, a section of a newspaper, is part of the mainstream, integral to everyone’s lives, from the food we eat to the clothes we pack.

  Pitching correctly is everything. Editors want good, original journalistic ideas which are timely and relevant to a publication and its production schedules. Also, don’t muddy the pitch by also claiming to be a good photographer. Get your words accepted first.

  It’s better to build relationships with editors of complementary publications – a monthly travel magazine, a newspaper section, foreign publications – so that each editor doesn’t feel you’re writing for their direct competitors. Tailor-make your ideas to each. Don’t send the same list of ideas to everyone but make each editor feel you are right for their brand. No editor wants to come second or feel that they’re being offered second-hand goods.

  Ideas are stories, they’re not countries. Most people try to cover too much. An entire gap year is a guidebook, not an article. The best pieces are relevant, timely and finely focused. And whether you’re writing for a newspaper or magazine, think about what would sell it, what is going to make the public buy it. Understanding lead times is essential. It’s no good pitching a good idea if by the time it comes out, the peg has gone. Good travel writers are also acutely aware of timing and the seasons. It’s no good pitching a skiing idea halfway through the season to a monthly because they are already on to their spring/summer issues.

  Good writing is good writing and is usually born from experience. This notion that there are ‘travel’ writers is something I sometimes think was dreamed up by retailers who like to pigeonhole what they display. There are good journalism courses out there, but I would always see these as an extra to a good degree and interesting life. On the other hand, I don’t know a single writer who hasn’t benefited from a subbing course. Accurate, clear expression as much as evocation is the essence of being a good writer.

  A common mistake writers make is talking too much about themselves, getting to a place, and a linear narrative of ‘and then, and next’ – if I read ‘As we banked over Rio…’, then the piece goes straight in the bin. Plus, while I don’t recommend selling yourself as a photographer at the same time, not enough writers have a sense of what a piece could look like visually – both photographically or how it could be ‘packaged’ on the page.

  Good travel writing shouldn’t read like a dissertation. A good destination piece should make you feel you’re there. I stop and listen to how a piece ‘sounds’, ‘smells’, ‘looks’ or whether it makes me laugh. I also look for people – too many writers deliver pieces that feel like the Mary Celeste. News reports should open my eyes to something I didn’t know before. And the very best writing always makes me feel I want to read it again, like a good novel.

  Taxes in the USA

  The situation is a bit less formalized in the USA. If freelance writing is a source of income, in addition to the 1040 standard tax form, you’ll need to fill out the Schedule C tax form for self-employed individuals, ‘Profit or Loss from Business’. For your freelance income, you’ll use the 1099 forms you have received from all the publications that have paid you to fill out the Schedule C form’s earnings information.

  If you are filing as a freelancer, you should also fill out a Schedule SE Self-Employment Tax form. The SE tax is a Social Security and Medicare tax primarily for people who work for themselves; it is similar to the Social Security and Medicare taxes withheld from salaried employees. Regulations and rates vary from year to year, so the best advice is to research the current rules and requirements by reading the IRS’ concise and helpful Publication 334, ‘Tax Guide for Small Business (For Individuals Who Use Schedule C or C-EZ)’. You can download this publication and peruse a wealth of other tax-related information on the IRS website (www.irs.gov).

  Writer’s tip: Your home office away from home

  With the rise of telecommuting and the ‘digital nomad’, startup culture and surging city rents, coworking is on the rise. At coworking spaces around the world, common in big cities and rapidly spreading (particularly to locations where get-away-from-it-all freelancers cluster) individuals or small workgroups rent a place to plug in their laptop, hook up to the Wi-Fi and get to work. Coffee and snacks might be provided, and in some cases these spaces act as social hubs and collaboration centers as well as just a place to type, code or create. Generally you can rent space casually by the day or pay a monthly fee for unlimited access.

  To explore cowork spaces around you and discover more about the coworking ethos of collaboration, community building and sustainability, see wiki.coworking.org.

  Taxes in Australia

  In Australia, freelance writers need to apply for an Australian Business Number (ABN), which must be included on all business-related invoices and stationery. If you do not have an ABN, any payments you receive may be subject to a Pay As You Go (PAYG) withholding tax of 48.5 per cent. If your annual income reaches or exceeds AU$75,000 you’ll also need to be registered for GST, and will be required to lodge quarterly Business Activity Statements (BAS) specifying the GST payable or refund receivable, and any income tax payable or receivable. If you keep a separate office in your residence, you can claim a proportion of heating and lighting, rates, insurance and interest payable on your home loan. You can also claim for stationery, plus depreciation on your computer, printer, modem, desk and library etc. You need to be rigorous about keeping documentation such as invoices, fees, contractual agreements, purchase contracts and receipts. It’s also a good idea to keep a running diary of your expenses and income, detailing your working hours and time spent using your computer for private use, and to keep track of business phone calls, emails and faxes. For more information, go to the Australian Tax Office website (www.ato.gov.au).

  Hiring an accountant

  It’s highly recommended that you engage an accountant to prepare your taxes. An accountant can handle (and educate you about) the intricacies of your tax return, give you up-to-date advice and ensure you are not over- or underpaying income tax. A possible alternative to hiring an accountant is to use a tax software program to prepare and file your returns. The best of these feature a step-by-step ‘interview’ process that will record and analyze your answers and then generate the required tax forms.

  However you choose to prepare your taxes, it is very important to bear in mind that you may be able to deduct many of your business-related expenses. These include your office expenses (stationery supplies, postage, phone calls, internet connection etc.) and a portion of your heating, lighting and other home expenses. You may also be able to deduct expenses for books, newspapers and magazines, as long as they are
genuinely for research purposes, and of course research-related travel expenses such as transportation, accommodation, meals and some work-related entertainment expenses. Since each individual’s circumstances and options are different, hiring an experienced tax accountant is a good idea to ensure that you take full advantage of your qualifying deductions.

  Keeping records

  Clearly, all of this means that you have to be a meticulous record-keeper. As a travel writer you’ll incur a wide range of expenses – air tickets, hotel bills, car mileage, meals, equipment, entrance fees – and virtually all of these may be tax deductible. From the outset you need to make sure you understand what is an allowable expense and what isn’t. In the UK, for example, you can claim travel expenses only on a work trip and not for a holiday that may also result in you writing a travel piece. In order to prove your legitimate business expenses, you need to keep all your receipts, and to have a thorough, well-organized calendar of your travels and other work-related activities during the year. You must keep all your records for six years in the UK, for seven years in the US and for five years in Australia.

  With regard to expenses and deductions, you should be aware that the government will expect your business to become profitable at some stage. If you are incurring a business loss year after year, you should consult with a tax accountant because you will be permitted to lose money for only a certain number of years in a row. In the USA and Australia, for example, you must make money in any three out of five years or your travel writing will be classified as a hobby rather than a livelihood, and your travel-related expenses will be disallowed (but any travel-related earnings, of course, will still be taxable).