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Editorial

When we finally sell our house our plans include moving to Cleveland, Ohio. Linda has family spread around the Buckeye state, so we’ll be closer to them. And since Ohio has cold winters, we plan to spend most winters in New Zealand catching up with my family and some winters back in SE Asia.

Our travel plans this fall include a couple of months in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. We’ve been reading about this gorgeous colonial town that is, apparently, an expat haven. Then early next year we’ll spend a couple of months in New Zealand, catching up with my brother and two sisters, and a sizable tribe of nieces, nephews and their offspring.

Now For the Serious Stuff . . .

If you’re a novice travel writer, here are 11 things you can (and should) be doing NOW to advance your travel writing and establish your brand.

Self-Improvement

1. Take online classes and courses. They’re easy to accomplish on your own schedule. And summer is the perfect time for self-improvement when it’s too hot to be outside. It’s important to always be learning about freelance travel writing — it keeps you in practice and refreshed.

2. Read self-improvement books about writing, travel writing, and sales skills. Here’s an article to give you some ideas

3. Subscribe to writing newsletters that will help you get published (like the one you're reading now: https://www.pitchtravelwrite.com/newsletters.html)

Self-Promotion

It’s important to continuously be self-promoting and marketing yourself and your products (travel articles) to sell your work. Travel writers often put this on the back burner.

If you procrastinate marketing and promoting yourself, or have ever thought, “I’ll do it when I get some time,” now IS the perfect time. Here’s a list of marketing tasks—broken down into bite sized pieces—that you can do each day.

The steps in this article will advance your name, help you promote yourself, and further establish your personal travel writing brand. Use your extra time and start your self-promotions today. Do one or two of these tasks each day, and continue to do them every day until it becomes routine. You'll be surprised by how well established your "brand" will be when you travel and begin to pitch your travel stories.

Use these marketing tips to rise above the thousands of others writhing around in that huge travel writer’s mosh pit.

Self-Promotion – Social Media

4. Create a Facebook site for your writing persona (versus your personal page)

5. Always post your latest travel story on your Facebook page

6. Post your latest travel story on TravMedia.com

7. Write some updated copy for your writer’s website (You do have a writer’s website, don’t you?) If not, this article will help you get started If not, this article will help you get started

8. Pitch or write a guest blog post and send it out to a high profile writing website

9. Leave well-written, intelligent replies on other travel blogs or websites demonstrating your expertise and sparkling personality

10. Connect with other travel writers via social media

11. If you’ve authored a travel book, send it for review to someone who has an appropriate website or blog

500 Print Magazines - Current Customers

Also, if you find any links that aren't working or any magazines that are no longer published, please let us know so we can get the word out to everyone.

For those of you who have all 10 issues, make sure you've downloaded the latest Revisions list. We've also included an alphabetical listing of all 500+ magazines to use as a cross-reference for your convenience.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you about which magazines you’ve pitched successfully and what stories you've sold to the magazines on these lists.

Have You Written a Travel Memoir?

Featured Post

Facebook Tips for Travel Writers

So, use these six tips to guarantee your best Facebook travel writing posts. Here’s my take on what constitutes an image-enhancing Facebook page for travel writers, plus some advice on what to avoid posting.

READ THE ARTICLE

Upcoming Posts

Inspirational Travel Quote

Pitch Travel Write: Most Requested Links About Creating Your Magazine Distribution Lists

I get it. Searching for target magazines is perceived as an onerous clerical task and can take many hours. Yet, it’s an indispensable step in getting your articles published. After all, if you can’t find magazines to pitch, you’re not going to get your stories published.

These are some things you can do to enhance your magazine researching skills. This article shows you—step-by-step—how to create your magazine distribution lists, and where to look for them.

Where to Pitch Your Travel Stories

The process of figuring out where to pitch travel stories confounds most writers at the onset of their career. In light of this, I devoted an entire chapter to this topic in my marketing book, The Complete Guide to Marketing and Selling Your Travel Articles.

But, if you don’t have my marketing book, or you want a quick refresher, here are six ways to find magazines to pitch

Finding Travel Magazine Leads on Vendor Websites

During my fifteen years as a travel writer, I’ve created my own ‘universal’ travel magazine distribution list. It’s enormous, with more than 600 magazines of all stripes that accept travel articles for publication. 



My beady eyes are always looking out for new magazines to add to this list. One effective source is magazine vendor lists. For a long time I didn’t bother telling anyone about this because I thought everyone was using them. 



Well, it turns out that hardly any other travel writers utilize this free and simple source, and many are surprised when I mention it to them. 



So, all you have to do is follow the link to the magazine’s website. Once you’re there, you look up the editor’s name and contact details and scan through the writer’s guidelines. Voila!  

Magazine vendor lists are portals to a treasure trove of magazine leads

MORE RESOURCES FOR TRAVEL WRITERS

Featured Book: The Complete Guide to Query Letters

Well-written query letters convince magazine editors that you have an exciting travel story their readers will absolutely love.

In sixteen years of travel writing I’ve had more than 1,000 stories published in 200 magazines, journals, newspapers, in-flights, on-boards, specialty magazines, and travel websites – and they all started with a query letter. I know how to write killer query letters that work, and I wrote this eBook to show you how to do it.

This is different from all other query letter books because you get 20 sample query letters that worked for me. These are actual query letters I used successfully to get articles published in print magazines.

Each sample query letter comes with a clear explanation of the key things that sold the idea successfully. And you can use my samples to create a template for your own query letters, using the same words and layout.

LEARN MORE AND BUY THE BOOK

Want To Break Into Travel Writing In 2024?

Considering travel writing as a career or for part-time income or a hobby?

Want to visit exotic destinations for free and get paid to do it?

Here’s our entire suite of my reference manuals and guides to help you get started (or click the grapic below)

Free Travel Guides

Here’s a link to five websites where you can download Free Travel Guides

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. 

If you know someone who will enjoy this newsletter,
please forward or sign up

HERE.

Awards and Accolades

This listing helps match up travel journalists with magazine editors who are looking for specific stories.

Here’s the link to the download: PRontheGo Pitching Guide

Our website was selected for the 2024 Writer’s Digest Magazine’s “101 Best Websites For Writers” in the June issue. We’ve previously been chosen for Writer’s Digest Magazine’s 101 Best Websites For Writers in 2016, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. WD doesn’t bestow these awards lightly. We’re the only travel writing website on the lists!

Travel Writers Exchange Top 10 Workshops

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Roy Stevenson
Pitch Travel Write
www.pitchtravelwrite.com