{"id":7839,"date":"2020-06-17T03:44:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T10:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/?p=7839"},"modified":"2020-06-17T13:37:52","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T20:37:52","slug":"how-i-became-established-as-a-travel-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/uncategorized\/how-i-became-established-as-a-travel-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Became Established as a Travel Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While\nI’ve been successful in my first career, I’ve always enjoyed writing,\ntraveling, and telling stories about the trips. I\u2019d been thinking about a variety of ways to monetize\nmy writing. Copywriting. Screenwriting. Publishing books. But it wasn\u2019t until\ntravel writing seemed possible that I began to have big dreams and that bright,\nfar off look in my eyes about all the places I\u2019d go. With someone else footing\nthe bill.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to\nget out of my own way at first, of course. Bad work injuries left me bed-bound\nand nearly bankrupt the year my daughter went off to college. Ironically, with\nno financial aid because I \u201cmade too much\u201d the year prior. After returning to\nwork, I swore I\u2019d never be dependent on just one source of revenue again. No\namount of insurance saved me. Only I could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first purchased at home travel writing videos in 2015. As a reverse procrastinator, it surprised most people that I never got to them. But I\u2019d finally returned to work and couldn\u2019t manage it around two jobs that averaged an 84-hour work week and physical therapy. Until I committed to attend the live conference in Austin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get Started Sooner Rather Than Later<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made myself query 5 magazines before the\nconference. Determined to have an assignment before I went, I did. Writers in\nAustin were willing to help me improve my article on the spot. That was\nSeptember 2018. The article, The Crown Jewel of Arizona\u2019s Christmas City:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/online.fliphtml5.com\/ebse\/srpq\/#p=44<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nWith that success, and a\nfortuitous license plate in front of me at a stop sign I snapped with my cell\nphone, I pitched the company I\u2019d paid to teach me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great Escape Publishing (GEP) is good for\nthat. They don\u2019t accept articles on travel. They accept articles on how to\nsucceed at monetizing income based on travel or lifestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what my query letter looked like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear —-,<\/p>

It was so nice to meet you in Austin.<\/p>

I’ve had my first article accepted to Prescott Woman.<\/p>

With all we learned at the conference, and a fortuitous license plate in front of me on the drive home, I was inspired to write the attached article, “You’re not there…yet” which some of my fellow attendees have told me they’ve found helpful.<\/p>

I hope you’ll consider it for “The Right Way to Travel.”<\/p>

I look forward to working with you!<\/p>

Best wishes,<\/p>

Gail<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Now, that\u2019s more informal than most since I\u2019d met the woman I was pitching. She accepted the article that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a few other unpaid bylines and the acceptance of a photography article by an international magazine, it felt legitimate to offer more advice to other writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I published four articles with GEP, getting paid $100 to $150 each. This led to submitting articles to their affiliated International Living magazine and postcards, where my pitches were accepted, and articles published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accept the Opportunities Offered<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GEP hosted a contest for the most queries\npitched over a particular time frame. Three chances to win. Most pitches\naccepted. Most money made. Most entertaining article. I\u2019d become so accustomed\nto pitching (thank you, screenwriting), and resilient to \u201cno, thank you,\u201d that\nI won the first. And completed my assignments, so won the second. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas a confidence booster that made it easier for me to pursue additional\ncontacts for anchor clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nreached out to a professional organization and asked if they’d be interested in\npaying me to write articles for them. They became my first true anchor client,\n$350\/post, usually 2 posts per month. I’ve also pitched, and had accepted, a\n6-part series of articles for a bi-monthly magazine. It’s good to be in every\nedition, and have the checks consistently arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all connected. And I\u2019ve got the 100\narticles submitted \u201cmile marker\u201d in my rear-view mirror, headed for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rinse and Repeat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve had two $1000+ days so far. The first\nwhen checks for two photo awards and several articles arrived the same day. The\nsecond when I sold a series of articles. I\u2019m working towards more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dream becomes clearer. I’m getting out and\nreally seeing things in every new town I visit. Writing about them makes me\nlook a little more intently. Definitely more intentionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\na wonderful thing to finally combine my love of travel and story telling. And\nmake an additional income by submitting the stories to publications. And\nsharing what I learned so others can have as much fun or suffer less than I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My travel is richer despite becoming less\nexpensive. Everything Jacob says is possible at Freedom with Writing is true.\nYou can embrace this writer’s life and even make a living at it. Keep going.\nI’m cheering for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I’ve been successful in my first career, I’ve always enjoyed writing, traveling, and telling stories about the trips. I\u2019d been thinking about a variety of ways to monetize my writing. Copywriting. Screenwriting. Publishing books. But it wasn\u2019t until travel writing seemed possible that I began to have big dreams and that bright, far off…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":8167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-studies","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7839"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8164,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7839\/revisions\/8164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}