Doesn't this just always happen? You buy a stock in August and then September the market collapses. You buy a dress on Wednesday and it goes on sale for half-price the following Friday.

The BBC bought Lonely Planet Guidebooks and magazines (I didn't even know they had magazines) at the height of their popularity. Then the recession hit and travel plans shrunk, while free online travel websites and blogs seduced a lot of readers away from guidebooks. Read the story here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/14/bbc-worldwide-magazines-lonely-planet

Ever wonder how travel writers find writing gigs for guidebooks? There are professional groups that you have to pay to join where you can often find information. Also subscription lists like travelwriters.com. But many writers simply comb the websites of known travel publishers. I was surprised to learn that Craigslist was one place where a writer can find an assignment.

I have opted for Google alerts for the words "travel writing" and "writing a travel guide" Most of the links that pop up are for blogs from other travel writers or simply people journaling about their trip to Thailand or some college kid boasting or moaning about the girls/pot/rooms/rides he did or did not get.

But today I happened to see a link to a joblist website that had an ad for a guidebook writer for Williamsburg, Virginia. I never heard of the company, but new ones pop up all the time. The advance money is no great shakes, but they offer 10% of the retail price of the book which is a lot better than 10% or even 12% of the net price.

The publishers are obviously interested in someone local and someone who has the time to do the job. Check it out, even if you are not interested just to see what some publishers want. And if you do get involved check out the contract very carefully. There is always room for negotiation in some areas. And check out the company to see what other books they have published and who their other authors are.
Here's the link:
http://www.telecommutejoblist.com/travel-writer-wanted-williamsburg-travel-book-williamsburg.html

travel writing: the good,the bad and the ugly

Ever wonder how a travel article is received? Here's a funny anecdote from David Farley on the reaction to his article about a tiny, hillside Italian town that landed in the NY Times and landed him in trouble--for awhile.

http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-stories/on-the-perils-and-popularity-of-travel-writing-20090704/N2/

Want to Travel and get paid for it?

Want to travel the world and get paid for it? That’s the tag line for any number of courses and workshops. But sometimes opportunities appear in the real world. Take, for instance, www.oyster.com. That’s a new website that’s rather like a web magazine. It concentrates on hotel reviews and they are using professional writers as reporters for the site.

By professional I mean the writers will get paid or at least it seems that they will be paid. The ad for jobs mentions medical and dental coverage and it certainly sounds like the company will pay for the writers to stay in the hotels. That’s a step forward because most guidebook publishers expect their authors to shell out expenses from their own pockets using the advance money to cover the costs.

Oyster seems to have a good idea. Have people who know how to write and take photographs (another essential of the job) cover hotels at specific destinations and write about them honestly. In other words, mention the problems as well as the privileges the venue provides. Rather like Trip Advisor as done by professionals.

If you have ever read most travel e-zines (or regular travel magazines for that matter) you know that the emphasis is on the breathtaking views, the wonderful service, the sugary white beaches and so on. They never mention the croaking frogs, the stale muffins, the erratic telephone service or other problems that pop up when you travel. Oyster is looking for the whole picture—including authentic pictures of rooms, pools and lobbies that have not been Photoshopped.

So far Oyster has gotten a roster of reporters—all fairly young and proficient at taking photographs. They have submission guidelines and at the moment they are looking for regular reporters not one-shot feature writers. Don’t know about the future. They definitely want some writing experience but they don't seem to have any taboo about writing from the first person point of view. (Actually, I doubt anyone under the age of forty knows how to write from the third person POV anymore.)

I have looked at the Jobs section and although it mentions plenty of perks I don’t remember an actually salary being discussed. As you know, many content sites do not offer salaries. Not for writers anyway. The SEO people and other techies get paid. Writers often get profit sharing. That means that if the site gets ads, the content provider will get a share.

Guidebooks were originally meant to fill the particular need of unbiased reporting. Unlike travel magazines, guidebooks are sold direct to the customer so there is no need to sugarcoat the truth. In reality, many travel writers get freebies from airlines and hotels so their write-ups tend to be slanted. But lately guidebooks have become either a pile of statistics or a venture into narcissitic exploring.

Will Oyster succeed? If they tell the truth about hotels, how will the owners get ads from hotels to pay the bills? At this time they have a bunch of investors to keep them going. I guess like AssociatedContent.com and Examiner.com they are waiting for big Daddy Googlebucks to come along and buy them out. Since I write for both Examiner and Associated Content let me clue you in that they pay very little—although writers who know how to promote themselves and are SEO savvy can make some freelance dough.

The two owners of Oyster seem to have an interesting rationale for their website. I think guidebooks can still fill much of that need and I hope anyone interested in writing a guidebook reads my “Crafting the Travel Guidebook.” Because one thing I have always believed in is telling the truth to the reader. Your loyalty should not be to the state or the country or the attraction you are covering—but to the ultimate traveler who will visit there and should know what to expect and what to look out for.

An Interview with Liz Hamill Scott, author of Moon California

INTRODUCTION: Liz Hamill Scott loves her overpriced home in the Silicon Valley just
as much as she loves escaping it for a weekend getaway or a month-long vacation. A full-time travel, food, wine, and lifestyle writer, Liz is the author of the all new Moon California travel guidebook. She’s also written numerous articles for magazines and newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, Living Without Magazine, Coastal Living, and Cabin Life. She blogs about her adventures in traveling, cooking, and gardening at her blog, Eats, Writes, and Leaves—www.eatswritesandleaves.com.

BARBARA: You are the author of Moon Handbooks California. How did you get the gig? Did you find a request on the publisher’s website? Was it through a subscription travel market newsletter that lists openings for particular destinations? Was it through your own blog or website?

LIZ: I got this gig by answering an ad on Craigslist. Seriously. I saw their ad on the SFBay Writers/Editors Jobs board. I knew that Avalon was a reputable publisher, so I cross-checked their Acquisitions web site to make sure the ad was for real. It was. So I submitted all the materials they requested. They liked my submission, so I made it to the phone interview phase. Based on the interview, I (along with 2 other candidates) was selected to submit a full book proposal, which I was given about two weeks to put together. The Acquisitions editor chose my proposal as her favorite, and I won the contract.

BARBARA: Congratulations! Is this a later edition of a previous work?

LIZ: Yes and no. This is officially the Second Edition of Moon California.
The first edition was written and updated regularly by Kim Weir. The “second edition” is 100% new content, by me. I’ve never read the first edition or any of its updates.

BARBARA: With Moon handbooks (published by Avalon Travel) do you have to do your own maps and index?

LIZ: Index, no. Avalon provides professional indexers. Maps, I provide a “rough draft,” with destinations plotted on an existing map of my choice. Avalon has a cartography department that draws new maps based on my draft submissions.

BARBARA: Are you allowed to use photographs from the public domain and ad agencies or does the publisher insist they be your own? Some publishers do not allow public domain photos. Others commission the photographs separately. How does Avalon work?

LIZ: Avalon lets me use public domain photos, though they prefer that I submit as many original photos as I can. (Some places it’s just not possible for me to do it myself, such as Disneyland. Uncle Walt keeps a tight grasp on rights to his images.)

I don’t have to source my own public domain images—-I have a photo editor to do that for me. Something like 80% of the photos in Moon California are mine, taken
either by myself or my ex-husband Lance Scott.

BARBARA: California is a big subject. And Moon has guidebooks to particular parts of
California like the Monterey peninsula. How did you apportion the several parts of the state? Who does the selection—you or the editor?

LIZ: I did most of the selection, though my editor had the final veto and selection
power.(I would not have put Santa Cruz in the Central Coast chapter.) That was one of the fun parts of working with Avalon—they really wanted my take on the state.

BARBARA: I see on the Amazon site that you are also writing the California Coastal Guide. Is this a later edition of a previous work?

LIZ: Avalon is trying something new with the upcoming Moon Coastal California, Moon Northern California, and Moon Southern California books. Like Moon California, they are new editions, not updates of Kim Weir’s guides.

Instead of having me write these guides from scratch, they are sourcing most of the content for these three guides from my new edition of Moon California. I provided new itineraries and keynotes for each new book. I also beefed up the Wine Country chapter.

BARBARA: In my book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook, I spend a lot of time talking
about constructing a guidebook from scratch. Moon Handbooks and many other
“branded” guidebooks work from a preset format. How did you adjust to that?
Were you in close contact with an editor or editors?

LIZ: Because I have a 10-year background as a technical writer, I was
not bothered by following a preset format. In fact, I found it helpful. I didn’t have to worry about formatting—I could concentrate on content.

I worked very closely with my editor, Sabrina Young. She was awesome! She took great care of me, was patient when I needed deadline extensions, and helped me make Moon California a better book.

BARBARA: Aside from the general descriptions there are dozens of short descriptions
of restaurants, nightclubs, attractions, etc. Here’s a question every travel guidebook writer gets asked (I know I was). How many of these places did you actually visit?

LIZ: This is the dirty little secret of the travel guidebook industry.
No, I didn’t visit every single spot I list in the book.

BARBARA: Many travel publishers, such as Fodor’s, pay their authors on a
write-for-hire basis, rather than a royalty basis. How does Moon work?

LIZ: Avalon offers a traditional advance-on-royalties and royalty payment
to its authors. I receive 12% (twelve percent) royalties on Moon California. The advance was paid in two parts—half on signing, half on mss acceptance. Your published readers will know that this is a pretty good deal!

I have the same deal with the three new books that are sourced from
Moon California. Though I’m a new author, I feel good about working for Avalon Travel
Publishing. They ask a lot of me in terms of work, but I think they’re taking pretty good care of me, that they value their authors, and offer us a fair cut of the profits for our work.

BARBARA: Well, they certainly sound good, compared to some others. I also see you are on Examiner.com. I tried it for awhile. Everybody and his brother seems to be an examiner. How do you like them?

LIZ: I’ve only been the San Jose Weekend Getaway Examiner for a short time, so I don’t have a good feel for them yet.

The good news for me is that Examiner.com lets me cross-post from other blogs. Because I’m currently contracted as a blogger on Moon.com to support Moon California, I write posts for Moon and cross-post them to Examiner and to Eats, Writes, and Leaves. Three blogs’ worth of exposure for the price of one article works for me!

BARBARA: That makes sense. By the way, have you even thought of doing a book from scratch—i.e. not a branded-name book?

LIZ: I am thinking about writing a niche guidebook (or series) especially
for folks with food allergies and “hidden” physical disabilities. (I am a chronic pain patient.) That would require creating my own guidebook structure and working more independently.

BARBARA: Thanks so much Liz, for giving such honest and informative answers. I’m sure many prospective authors have learned a lot from you. And good luck in the future with all your guidebooks—to California and beyond!

Writing for clicks--the pay-per-view alternative

I've had a few articles published for various online e-zines and newsletters. Most were given for free as a way to promote my book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook. However, I've actually received money for some articles. The first was a ordinary, old-fashioned check. For the second, I had a choice of getting the money through Paypal right away or waiting 30 days for the check. I chose to wait.

But increasingly, for many websites and ezines, Paypal has become the only method of payment. And there is also a growing tendency to pay per click rather than paying a set amount (e.g. $125 for a shorter piece, $250 for a 3000-word piece and so on).

Associated Content and Examiner.com and two of the many "writer-collective" websites where the author is paid per click. The pay for individual is very small--one cent or less in many instances. So you have to get 1000 clicks in order to make ten dollars. But if you have a popular subject and know how to use search engine optimization and/or run around all the social media sites pimping your piece, you can build up a respectable salary.

Well-known travel-writing sites like Bootsnall still attract good writers without offering any type of payment at all. Epinions.com which covers reviews of everything from hotels and restaurants to electrical appliances now offers a pay-per-click option.

I started writing for Associated Content a few months ago. So far I've put up about 12 pieces. Someone on my publishers list mentioned Examiner.com as an alternative. I looked them up and figured, why not, although I always have trouble with new templates. They also have a strange set-up: there are national examiners who can write about almost any subject they want (for instance, there is a Dancing with the Star examiner) and there are local examiners based in various cities. Because I live in New Jersey and the guys who thought up Examiner.com live in Colorado, they made Newark the main city in NJ. Well, Newark may be the biggest city in NJ but is certainly not the cultural capital. In fact, New Jersey doesn't have a cultural capital--Princeton come the closest. And I guess Atlantic City is the entertainment capital. So I became the Newark/central NJ examiner which means I can cover quite a bit of territory.

Here is a link to my first article for examiner. There is no photo attached. I had a photo but I was not able to upload it according to their template. Now they've changed things so there is only room for a slide show--not a single picture. Maybe they will change back soon. They are a fairly new enterprise and I think there are still a lot of kinks to iron out.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8862-Central-Jersey-Examiner~y2009m4d25-The-USGA-Golf-Museum

Is there money to be made this way? I don't know as yet. I did buy 100 shares of EBay when it was down to 11.50 a share because they own Paypal. Just as UPS makes scads of money when publishers ship books to bookstores and bookstores ship returned books back to publishers, and customers buy books and other items from online stores, Paypal makes money when the writer is paid by the ezine or the buyer buys an item from EBay. The guy in the middle always seems to make money!

Spelling the Names Right--Steven or Stephen Colbert?

I have a wonderful book at home called Copyediting and Proofreading for Dummies by Suzanne Gilad. One thing she recommends is to create a style sheet in the beginning to cover all the names, abbreviations,and other words that may be used in a book so that you have a reference to go by. Although this book was written for nascent copyeditors and proofreaders it should also be read by authors. Naturally, one thinks of using a style sheet for a book. But sometimes even a short article needs a run-through.

I recently wrote a funny article for Associated Content on the Stephen Colbert confrontation with NASA over the naming of a node on a space station. Unfortunately, I called him Steven Colbert. Why? I guess when I Googled the name to get some facts on the controversy one of the articles that came up mentioned Steven.

Well, luckily Associated Content allows for editing one's posts even after they are up. However the original title, which has the spelling Steven, is embedded in the html code. Therefore if I want to send someone to look at the article I have to send it thusly:

www.associatedconte nt.com/article/ 1631168/the_ steven_colbertna sa_dispute. html

Now, one thing about the article is that I managed to sneak in a reference to my book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook, into the text. Will that help sales? Who knows? But it was fun.

Names in travel books can be a major concern, especially when writing about non-English speaking countries. Most travel publishers have a style sheet which they give to their authors. This would include whether you use English usage: the Tate Museum or foreign usage: Musee d'Orsay. Street names, lakes, mountains, all may have two or three names--one for the country of origin and one for the travel guides.
Naturally, personal names should be checked from the outset and put into the style sheet. If I had done that with Colbert I would not have the problem. Luckily Google picks him up whatever the spelling is.