For Free or Not for Free

If you’re a working freelance writer, like Donna Summer you work hard for your money. Your income from writing is only as high as the number of assignments you land and the rate those publishers pay. Is it ever appropriate to contribute content for free? That’s a question each writer must do some soul-searching to answer.

My rule is freelancers first. Without us, there would be no publication. My no free content rule applies whether the publication is in print or online. How much you make in a content for pay arrangement is between you and the editor.

photo credit: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=987

There are three scenarios when many writers I know contribute free content to for-profit publishers.

Photography Basics for Travel Writers – Part Two: Planning

Just starting as a travel photographer? Guest blogger Roger Ward shares tips for travel writers designed to improve your photographs and increase your story placement and profits. Watch this blog for future articles in this series.

Editors frequently ask travel writers to provide photographs to accompany their articles. This review of the basics is intended for writers who are new to photography or for those who do not yet feel that photography is a natural for them. The content was first presented at the Spring, 2011, Pacific Northwest Travel Writers Conference, Travel and Words, at Willows Lodge, Woodinville, Washington. http://www.travelwritersconference.com/

Images of Turkey by Roger Ward

Plan your approach to photography before each trip

Good travel photography and good travel writing don’t happen by accident. Travel writers create a plan to gather the information necessary for a successful article: persons to interview, questions to ask, sights to visit and other details. Some travel writers detail these plans in writing as they conduct research before a trip. Successful travel photography also requires detailed planning.

Photography Basics for Travel Writers – Part One: Getting Started

Just starting as a travel photographer? Guest blogger Roger Ward shares tips for travel writers designed to improve your photographs and increase your story placement and profits. Watch this blog for future articles in this series.

Editors frequently ask travel writers to provide photographs to illustrate their articles. This review of the basics is intended for writers who are new to photography or for those who do not yet feel that photography is a natural for them. The content was first presented at the Fall, 2010, Pacific Northwest Travel Writers Conference, Travel and Words Seminar, in Gresham, Oregon.

Composition and Color, photo by Roger Ward

This article will focus on camera selection. Future articles will feature other skills and tips .

Book Review: Traveling with Pain

 

Author Liz Hamill writes with the voice of experience. She is a chronic pain patient and a travel writer, a combination not for the fainthearted. In The Imperfect Traveler’s Guide to Traveling with Pain, Hamill moves that which seems implausible for many, or difficult at best – traveling with chronic pain – into the realm of the enjoyable and rewarding.

Hamill examines not only the how-to but why. What would motivate a person living with chronic pain to push herself beyond the challenges of ordinary daily routines into the added challenges of travel? She answers that question from the perspective of one who has reaped the rewards.

Nuggets for New Travel Writers: 13. Is your Writing DOA?

Just starting out as a travel writer? Watch this blog for a series of tips designed to help you place articles and make a profit in the process.

“The view from the hotel room was absolutely beautiful. It was made to order. The majestic mountains were spectacular and the river was swift. We wondered what we would do that afternoon. Finally, we decided on rafting.”

Source: photoree, photo by Lauren Powell Smothers

What’s your reaction to that paragraph? Does it evoke a vivid image? Is it laced with color and senses? Are you in the hotel room with the writer enjoying the view with him? Are you hoping the story ends in a raft accident for a little excitement?

This writer has failed you. He’s taken shortcuts that led nowhere. What mistakes has the writer made? The paragraph is grammatically correct and Spellcheck has done its job. What else could he have done?

He could have made the scene come alive for the reader. The paragraph appears dead on arrival. It’s cold with no distinctive style or real voice. Do you believe it can be revived?

Nuggets for New Travel Writers: 12. Find a Conference You Like

Just starting out as a travel writer? Watch this blog for a series of tips designed to help you place articles and make a profit in the process. 

If you’re a travel writer, you definitely do not live in a vacuum. You get out, see the world, meet people - it’s part of your job. One more activity that should be part of your job is attending writers conferences. A well-planned, well-presented writers conference is the most concentrated source of professional development you’ll find.

Over the last few years, several travel writing conferences have sprouted up. But not all conferences are alike.

With some internet research you’ll probably find the right one without having to travel half way around the globe. What should you look for in a conference to get the most for your registration fee?

Three key components: experts, networking, and story opportunities.

Nuggets for New Travel Writers: 11. The Other D-word

Just starting out as a travel writer? Watch this blog for a series of tips designed to help you place articles and make a profit in the process. 

If you’ve been following this “Nuggets” travel writing series you’ve hiked a very diverse landscape. We’ve examined looking not only to distant destinations for travel stories but close to home, forging constructive relationships with other writers, finding the inner discipline necessary to make your writing marketable, the art of pitching and learning from rejections, finding your identity as a writer and promoting your “brand,” and finally the business of tracking your life as a writer.

I’ve heard from new and experienced writers who have followed this series and who’ve taken the time to tell me how it’s helped them. Even if you take away only one nugget you find useful, I’m gratified. I’m going to continue the series by building on some of those themes and exploring new ones.

We’ve learned about one D-word: Discipline. This nugget is about another D-word: Diversify.

Nuggets for New Travel Writers: 10. Keep on Tracking!

Just starting out as a travel writer? Watch this blog for a series of tips designed to help you place articles and make a profit in the process. 

WARNING: This article is about tracking and may cause drowsiness. Do not operate heavy machinery while reading. 

credit: tornadoquestions.com

There comes a point, when you realize you’re serious about freelance writing, that you begin to hit your stride. I suppose the signals might be different from writer to writer; in my case it was the realization that I’d developed a new obsession besides seeing my work in print – finding the best way to organize the tornado of pitches, assignments, follow-ups, invoices, payments, dead ideas, new ideas, interviews, trips, and on and on.

I know what you’re thinking: Learn to use your Blackberry. I admit, I’m old fashioned. No, I’m not as Jurassic as to paper my workspace with yellow stickies. But I am the spreadsheet type, which, I realize, is so very 90s. The point is – Blackberry, Post-it Notes, spreadsheets, or slate and chisel – you need a way to track your business as a freelancer regardless of the genres you write. This article is not targeted only to travel writers, but to anyone who attempts to sell their work at a variety of outlets.

Nuggets for New Travel Writers: 9. Go for the Prize

Just starting out as a travel writer? Watch this blog for a series of tips designed to help you place articles and make a profit in the process. 

Many writing contests are geared for nonfiction writers, and as a writer in the travel genre that’s exactly what you are. Some are specifically geared for the travel writer. Each contest is an opportunity to share your ability with others in the field, garner exposure among travel editors, and reinforce your brand as a writer (see installment 8 in this series, “You Are the Brand.”).

A Google search brings up lists of competitions, most with a nominal entry fee. Be judicious about which one(s) you enter — nominal fees can add up to a whopping sum. Some of the better competitions are those sponsored by well-known travel writers membership organizations, such as International Food, Wine, and Travel Writers Association (http://www.ifwtwa.org/).

Nuggets for New Travel Writers: 8. “You are the Brand”

Just starting out as a travel writer? Watch this blog for a series of tips designed to help you place articles and make a profit in the process. 

A magazine editor I once wrote for took an unusual approach to coming up with details of author bios for the contributor page. She had an intern interview the contributors and write the bios. In the interview, a barrage of odd questions hit me. What was my most embarrassing moment and what did I learn from it? What’s my most unusual interest? What first inspired me to start writing? She even asked me what my least favorite color is. Some questions, I answered judiciously.

With pause, I opened the magazine, read my bio, and had a new most embarrassing moment. I could appreciate that the editor was attempting to present a fresh author persona that parted ways with the usual city of origin, favored subjects and list of published outlets stuff. But the approach and the results wiped out any authenticity. It had no real soul. It seemed as though I was reading about someone else.

If you consider the question of what distinguishes you from other writers in the same genre and makes you a writer someone would actually choose to read – a key to convincing any editor to publish your work – you begin to peel away another layer. You begin to examine your brand.