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Issue #369: Travel Bloggers: Are You Sitting on a Gold Mine? September 27, 2021 |
| Greetings Fellow Travel Writers! . . . and WELCOME all new subscribers. Thanks for joining us.
Editorial: Travel Bloggers: Are You Sitting on a Gold Mine?
Our subscribers are a great mix of print travel writers and travel bloggers. Are you a travel blogger with dozens—or hundreds—of travel stories lying dormant on your blog? If so, you could be sitting on a gold mine!
Your travel blogs, whether they’re raw or refined, could very well form the genesis of travel stories that you can pitch to paying print media. This means you can pluck out your juiciest blogs and pitch them to print magazines and newspapers without doing any additional research. And, your travel blogs contain practically all the information necessary for writing your query letter, saving you valuable time. Dreaming up and researching travel stories are the first two steps to getting your articles published — and you’ve already completed these tasks! Travel bloggers already have several other built-in advantages over unpublished, novice travel writers. You have . . .
If you’re a reasonably good writer, this won’t be such a big stretch. And, of course, you’ll have to learn how to create magazine distribution “pitch” lists to target magazines for your query letters. For print magazine editors to take your queries seriously, you’ll also need to make sure your blog looks professional. Is it riddled with misspellings, poor grammar, poor syntax, an undeveloped writing voice, and overused clichés? If so, clean it up if you want editors to take your queries seriously. I’ve met a lot of travel bloggers during my freelance writing career. Almost without exception they tell me that they didn’t realize how much work would be involved in creating and maintaining a blog. And, the majority of them tell me they’ve made little or no money from their travel blog. According to the top travel bloggers, it takes at least four years to monetize a travel blog — and that’s assuming you do everything right! So, if you’re looking to make some quick cash for all the time and effort you’ve put into writing your travel blog, pitching your most exciting travel blogs to travel magazines could reap considerable reward! Here are seven reasons why travel bloggers should write for print media and some guidelines for doing it right This Week's Featured Post6 Tips for Dreaming Up Travel Story Ideas that SellA huge factor in getting your travel stories published is the quality of your story idea. While this may seem self-evident, finding an interesting story to pitch is frequently a daunting task for novice freelance writers.It takes some experience to know what constitutes a viable travel story. And deciding whether a story idea is a dog or a shooting star is an important first step in the pitching process. So where, and how, do travel writers start their quest for a salable story?
Here are 6 tips to help you . . .
Upcoming PostsOctober 4: One of My Most Potent Travel Writing SecretsOctober 11: My Winning System for Generating Articles that Sell October 18: My Diverse Travel Writing Assignments PitchTravelWrite.com Success StoriesJessica Pickett's Impressive Travel Writing Trajectory
Here’s Jessica Pickett’s impressive and inspiring story, in her own words, of how she launched her impressive travel writing career.
Hailing from Lake Charles, Louisiana, Jessica’s steady ascent through the travel writing ranks is a textbook example of what novice travel writers should be doing to break into this competitive arena. Novice writers can learn from and aspire to the lessons in her trajectory: “While attending a Travel Writer’s Conference in San Diego in 2014, Roy and his wife, Linda, sat at my table and, to my good fortune, easily struck up conversation. After chatting with Roy, I immediately purchased his eBooks, even before hearing him speak on stage. A few short weeks after the conference, I landed my first byline. Bolstered by the knowledge gained from Roy’s books and his PitchTravelWrite.com posts, I pitched a well-known regional magazine and blog. This regional blog and magazine where I “started” my travel writing is TexasHillCountry.com. After answering a “Call for Writers” post (which had been shared over 4,000 times by the time I saw it) I was invited to become a regular monthly contributor. Upon submitting my first article they offered me a permanent contributor’s role. There, I published dozens of articles, both digital and print, in over a year of writing for them.” Here’s how Jessica went from strength to strength to become a professional travel writer . . .
Pitch Travel Write: Most Requested Links About Query Letters that WorkThe query letter is your most important sales tool. It explains your idea in enough detail to arouse the curiosity of an editor.Well-written query letters convince magazine editors that you have exciting travel stories their readers will absolutely love. Your query needs to point out how the stories will fit into the magazines. And all freelancers need to learn the basics of writing good query letters. Here’s our Query Letter Resource Page on www.PitchTravelWrite.com, with one dozen of our best articles on writing effective query letters.
Access our free Query Letter Resources
Inspirational Travel Quote
RESOURCES FOR TRAVEL WRITERSFeatured Book for September: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MARKETING AND SELLING YOUR ARTICLES
If you can’t sell your travel stories, you don’t get to write them. This guide shows you EVERYTHING you need to know about selling your travel articles to paying print media.
My manual, The Complete Guide to Marketing and Selling Your Travel Articles tells you how to select salable story ideas, how to write first class query letters and pitch your ideas the right way. This comprehensive manual shows you how to find magazines that will be interested in buying your story, and how you can start selling your travel articles to magazines immediately and reap the fantastic travel benefits, while being paid for your work.
“Roy, although I’ve been contributing to magazines, newspapers, TV and radio for nearly 20 years, your book, The Complete Guide To Marketing & Selling Your Travel Articles is an invaluable tool regardless of one’s level of experience dealing with & contributing to various outlets. Your book is written in a clear, understandable manner that gives concrete examples. Most importantly, it’s enormously informative & helpful. As I shared with you, in one month I took a brutal hit and my 3 biggest outlets no longer exist or have ceased generating content. So it was back to square one for me — having to reach out and pitch editors and find new outlets. The query letter section in The Complete Guide To Marketing & Selling Your Travel Articles is an enormous help; it is packed with useful, practical information and not a bunch of fluff. Thanks one again for generously sharing all of your tips and
info that you’ve acquired over the years.”
When you buy this book in September you can get $15 off the regular price if you use promo code sp15 at checkout:
Don't forget to use promo code sp15 at checkout to get your $15 discount.
Group Coaching Mastermind CommunityOur first Group Coaching Mastermind Community kicked off in October, 2020, and we’ve got a global group with members living in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Indonesia and the U.S. We're very excited about this group of writers and our new community! We added new members to our community in January 2021 and they're getting to know the group and participate in writing activities.If you missed out on the opportunity to join this session, you can get on the waiting list for the next session starting in January 2022:
Live WorkshopsPeople have been asking when our 2022 workshops in New Orleans, Louisiana are scheduled.Here are the 2022 dates: We've had lots of interest already. You can sign up for our no-obligation interest list for these workshops and receive our substantial early bird discounts when we open registration:
Did You Know . . .Our Complete Marketing Master Class for Travel Writers is ranked #1 on TravelWritersExchange.com’s Top Ten Travel Writing Workshops.You can access the list of the top ten travel writing workshops at the link below:
Online Travel Writing & Marketing Master ClassNow, you can study our Marketing Master Class for Travel Writers online for only a fraction of the price of the live class! We recorded it LIVE in Seattle, for aspiring travel writers who weren’t able to attend in person.
At Your ServiceCoaching
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Consulting email: pitchtravelwrite@gmail.com
If you know someone who will enjoy this newsletter, PitchTravelWrite.com, is our information-packed website for travel writers. This e-zine, a series of travel writing books and reference guides, coaching programs, and our workshops all work together to give you guidance in this field. Our aim is to provide you with practical, nitty gritty information to help you gain entry into the travel writing realm and all the enjoyment that comes with it.
You can see the entire list by visiting their website - click on the graphic to view the list now.
Friend me on FacebookMy Facebook page is about freelance travel writing. I frequently post about:• links to other well produced travel websites and blogs • links to my travel articles • magazine cover stories and back stories • links to resource pages • links to coaching and mentoring resources . . .and plenty of other useful information to get you up to speed Link to Roy's Personal Facebook page That's all for now. Until next week - just keep pitching! Roy Roy Stevenson |
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