5 Reasons to Buy Tim Leffel’s Travel Writing 2.0

Once again we’re breaking from our typical destination and travel-tips coverage to talk about a subject near and dear to The Vacation Gals’ hearts (namely because it’s how we, in part, pay our mortgages): travel writing. If you’re a longtime print travel writer flummoxed by online opportunities, a self-published travel blogger who wants to get paid for your writing, or a freelance writer interested in dabbling in the travel genre, you’ll find lots of helpful advice on how to navigate the “new media landscape” in Tim Leffel’s new book Travel Writing 2.0.

In full disclosure, I write for Tim (and get paid for it!) at his Practical Travel Gear blog; and I’m quoted in the book, along with 51 other travel writers, including our very own SoCalGal Jennifer Miner. Still, the 246-page book is so chock full of good stuff, I’d recommend it to others even if I weren’t a part of it and I didn’t get a PayPal deposit from the author every month. Here’s why:

1. Tim knows his stuff: The prolific freelance travel writer has published hundreds of destination articles online and in print, plus he’s the editor and owner of the award-winning Perceptive Travel site, which publishes fresh narrative travel pieces monthly, and he’s the author of three other books, including The World’s Cheapest Destinations. He’s the perfect case study on how to diversify your travel-writing income successfully. Learn more at his personal portfolio site TimLeffel.com.

2. Tim knows he doesn’t have all the answers. As I mentioned above, the book author interviewed 52 different travel writers to get our perspectives on how we patch together part-time or full-time living writing about travel. Some of us our blog owners, some of us write guidebooks, still others focus on editorial magazine articles. It’s so fun to flip through the book and see many bylines I recognize, and these additional insights add to the books’ worth (if I do say so myself).

3. Tim tells is like it is. He certainly doesn’t sugar-coat the travel-writing profession. No “Get paid to travel the world for free!” promises in this book. Instead, he explains, for example, how researching guidebook material or double-checking facts for a magazine article, can be incredible draining, day after day in a foreign country. Money-making travel writing isn’t all fruity cocktails by the pool, that’s for sure. The graph of travel writers’ annual income is also telling.

4. Tim lays out all the paths to prosperity. In Travel Writing 2.0, Tim outlines different ways one can make money travel writing these days: from traditional magazine, newspaper, guidebook and corporate print writing, to the newer digital blogging for yourself, blogging for others, writing for webzines, web publishing, online corporate writing and a variety of online income streams, like affiliate ads, ad networks, writing sponsored posts and selling e-books on your own websites. He explains which income paths have the promise in the future, and which just might be going the way of “buggy whips and carbon paper.” (I bet you can guess.)

5. Tim’s several pages of Travel Writing Resources are great. This section includes websites for travel-writing communities, where jobs are posted, professional development associations and much more. Plus, each travel writer quoted in the book gets a couple-paragraph bio, and I enjoyed learning more about some very successful writers (yes, I stalked some via their personal portfolio sites).

Another cool resource: the associated Travel Writing 2.0 blog. Here, Tim writes thought-provoking posts about the current state of the travel writing and publishing industries (I’m partial to “Screw the Gatekeeper” and “Who Has the Biggest ‘Circulation’ Now?”), and he also shares detailed Q&A interviews with writers (including yours truly and Jen Miner), where we talk a bit about how we got started travel writing, how we make our money and what advice we’d give to folks just starting out.

A couple of notes: The book Travel Writing 2.0 is not intended to teach the craft of travel writing; as Tim points out, there are plenty of books out there that cover “how to write well.” This book is focused much more on the business and marketing of travel writing. If you do want to bone up on writing skills, I can recommend firsthand Amanda Castleman’s writing classes.

Also, lest you think the last 750 words have been one big ol’ brown-nosing homage to Tim and his latest book, I do take issue with a few of his points. For instance, he writes that only after some level of success do you get invited on free trips (enjoying VIP treatment all the way) or have your editors pay travel expenses — indeed, this is one sweet perk of the travel-writing profession.

However, in this current age of digital self publishing, travel bloggers are receiving press-trip invitations much earlier in their writing/blogging careers than print freelance writers ever did, say, five years ago. To wit, Anthony of the Travel Tart says on Travel Writers’ Exchange (another great resource!) that he started his blog in 2009, and in 2010, he was invited on press trips to Fiji, the United Kingdom and South Africa — all from his home in Australia. The perks are definitely available to hard-working bloggers; and I’m the first to say that it never ever hurts to ask to be considered for press trips or media rates – if you truly feel you have the page views, community or social-media presence to warrant it.

Also missing from Tim’s book are the types of creative partnerships that new-media folks are forming with travel companies these days, for example, Visit Lanai‘s New Media Artists in Residence program (of which I am a part), Gap Adventures’ Wanderers in Residence or Park City’s Snow Mamas (granted, Tim’s book went to press before the Lanai or Gap programs rolled out). With these relationships, travel bloggers contract with travel companies and help promote their products/destinations in exchange for not only trips, but cash for their time, writing or consulting.

Today, when there are so many opportunities for travel writers to solely “write for exposure” and not for cash, I think it’s important for those new to the travel writing or travel blogging world to heed the advice of someone like Tim Leffel who has made a living from travel writing for many years and who has adapted to a career in this digital age. Indeed, as my friend Pam points out in a thoughtful recent post, paying markets for travel essays are shrinking (or have shrunk). But I contend that there are many other ways to cover travel than solely personal narrative.

My nutshell advice: Read Travel Writing 2.0, study the resource pages, maybe take a writing class, network your butt off, recognize success doesn’t occur overnight, put into practice some of the money-making opportunities Tim suggests, and I am certain you can earn cash from your travel writing. You might need to throw some guidebook work, charticles (which I happen to love), service pieces or website “content” into the mix — or perhaps you’ll monetize your blog or write e-books — but it is possible to make money from your passion for traveling, for sure.

Purchase Travel Writing 2.0 direct from the publisher for $17.95 in paperback or a $9.95 e-book. On Amazon you can buy a Kindle version for $9.89.