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Editorial: How to Make The Most of Magazines You’ve Broken Into

I used my travel assignments with Lost Treasure to land some world-class press trips and Fam tours, so they’ve been gold mines for me (pun!) These pieces revolved around what happened in historic gold mining towns and what there is to see and do today in those same places.

Assignments with Lost Treasure enabled me to tour atmospheric ghost towns in Washington and Oregon, plus several towns with rich mining histories like Tombstone and Bisbee, Arizona, and Sacramento, California.



Lost Treasure assignments landed me great Fam tours in Alaska, that mother lode of 19th century gold rushes. I was given VIP treatment by my hosts in Juneau, Haines, Skagway, Ketchikan, and Fairbanks. I've stood in many an icy Alaskan mountain stream surrounded by magnificent forests, panning or sluicing for gold.

Lost Treasure assignments took me overseas to Arrowtown in New Zealand’s South Island and a fascinating 2,000-year-old Roman gold mine in Wales. I’ve visited huge gold dredges that look like prehistoric sludge-eating monsters, and fascinating museums. I’ve visited gold prospecting stores and met captivating people on these trips. I’ve been taught how to pan for gold nuggets by living history re-enactors with long white beards.

Many of the writers I’ve worked with got started by having their stories published in Lost Treasure magazine, too. These writers include Pam & Gary Baker (pictured at right), Kerrie Etson, Betsi Hill, Jessica Pickett, and Jed Vaughn. Some of their articles were cover features, too.

Sadly, this popular magazine closed its doors in December 2018. R.I.P. Lost Treasure magazine.

Magazines come and go — and your “regular” magazines may not be around forever. Make the most of the magazines you’ve broken into while they last. That includes using your assignments to land press trips to new places.

This Week's Featured Post

How To Create Your Own Travel Writing Niches

While I recommend that travel writers pursue and pitch general travel magazines, the writers who develop their own specialty travel niches become masters those topics. They’re able to thrive in many arenas.

This tactic has enabled me to sell more than 1,000 articles to 200+ magazines, custom publications, in-flights, on-boards, specialty journals & trade magazines. Apart from general travel magazines, my stories have been published about classic car museums, history & historical places, expat life, yachting & sailing , communications, museums, military vehicles and military history, gardening, film festivals, and several other topics.

From my experience, mastering multiple topics enabled me to be published more frequently.

Having several specific travel niches is important. I believe diversifying your writing genres is the best approach for successful travel writing.

When you diversify, you’ll often find editors approaching you to write articles for them, instead of the other way around.

Here’s how and why you should become proficient in writing about many types of travel topics.

READ THE ARTICLE

Upcoming Posts

PitchTravelWrite.com Success Stories

Tim Cotroneo: My Story as a Golf and Travel Writer

After the workshop my wife and I planned a trip to the Turks and Caicos Island of Providenciales. I emailed the golf professional at the island’s only 18-hole course in advance of the trip and presented myself as a golf and travel writer. I thought to myself, “I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”  On the trip I met with the pro and played the course. 

My First Yes

During our stay in Providenciales, I noticed a glossy magazine on the coffee table in our hotel room and read it. Upon returning home to Minneapolis, I pitched this magazine a story idea about what I experienced at the golf course when I played there.

 The editor said yes! 

I wrote the story and got paid $300. I was officially a travel writer and have been writing about golf and travel ever since."

Here’s Tim Cotroneo’s exotic golf and travel writing journey so far . . .

Pitch Travel Write: Most Requested Links about Dreaming up Story Ideas

It takes some groundwork to become savvy at recognizing and mining gold nugget travel story ideas.  A huge factor in selling story ideas and getting them published is the quality of your idea. While this may seem self-evident, finding an interesting story to pitch is a daunting task for novice freelance writers. 



It takes some experience to know what constitutes a viable travel story.  And deciding whether a story idea is a dog or a shooting star is an important first step in the pitching process.
 


So where, and how, do travel writers start their quest for a salable story? Here are 6 tips to help you . . .

For novice freelance writers, trying to figure out what story to pitch to an editor is a daunting task. Because of inexperience, you have no frame of reference.  Often, beginners lack confidence in their story ideas. So where do you start?

If you want to boost your bylines, try my winning system. These seven techniques can be used to constantly generate salable ideas . . .

The beauty of travel writing is that you can write an article about almost every aspect of your travels and find a home for it somewhere. Editors get tired of being pitched the same kind of roundup story. They see it all the time and it’s not what they’re looking for anymore.  They are looking for new ideas and fresh perspectives.

There are some common themes for travel articles, there are travel articles that focus on "the best" that a place has to offer, and there are travel stories based on specific areas of interest. This might include things like luxury travel, adventure travel, beer and wine, just to name a few. This post will give you some idea of the types of travel stories you can write and sell.

Inspirational Travel Quote

RESOURCES FOR TRAVEL WRITERS

Featured Book of the Month: 100 PRINT MAGAZINES THAT WANT TO PUBLISH YOUR TRAVEL ARTICLES

This compilation is far more specialized than what you find in Writer’s Market. Compiled over ten years from a wide variety of on-line sources, field resources and book references, this comprehensive listing also includes international publications for the English-speaking market.

If you want to be a successful travel writer and get your articles published in paying print publications, you need to be highly proficient at finding travel magazine leads. 

Having a solid list of magazines makes it easier to find assignments that will help get you invited on Press trips.

You can get $5 off the price of the book if you use promo code MY5 at checkout: BUY THE BOOK

Here’s what professional travel blogger Chris Backe has to say about 100 Print Magazines That Want To Publish Your Travel Articles reference manual: “The title tells you exactly what to expect. Roy introduces the concept of a ‘distribution list’ early on, his approach to simultaneous submissions, along with the need for writers to research and add places of their own to the list.

The list itself is well-organized and offers a paragraph or so for every noted magazine (though some descriptions do look copy-and-pasted from a magazine’s own page ). Look for the website, a link to their guidelines, the editor’s name, and an e-mail address – note of course that you’ll want to confirm everything’s still up-to-date before sending off your pitches.”

“Writers will be hard-pressed to find a resource as great as Roy Stevenson's, "100 Print Magazines that Want to Publish you Travel Stories." This is packed with insider details and contact information that will help any writer winnow down markets by developing target-specific lists for publishing their articles.”
Karin Leperi, Award Winning Travel Writer/Photographer (USA)

Learn more and buy the book . . .

Group Coaching Mastermind Community

If you missed out on the opportunity to join this session, you can get on the waiting list for the next session starting in June . . .

Learn more and get on the waiting list . . .

Live Workshops

Here are the 2022 dates:
June 17-20, 2022, Travel Writing & Photography Retreat
June 22-24, 2022, Marketing Master Class for Travel Writers

We've had lots of interest already. You can sign up for our no-obligation interest list for these workshops and receive our substantial early bird discounts when we open registration:

GET ON THE 2022 LIVE WORKSHOP NO-OBLIGATION INTEREST LIST HERE

Did You Know . . .

You can access the list of the top ten travel writing workshops at the link below . . .

Travel Writers Exchange workshop list: #1 Marketing Master Class

Online Travel Writing & Marketing Master Class

Who's it for?

• If you’re a novice travel writer, or you haven’t had much luck selling your articles to print magazines, this Online Travel Writing & Marketing Workshop is for you.
• If you weren’t able to travel to our Live Master Class, here’s the opportunity to attend anyway - without any travel costs and at a substantially reduced cost!
• If you work a full-time job and can’t get time off to attend the live class – you can still attend on your own schedule after working hours.
• If you’ve wanted to attend our Live Marketing Master Class but can’t get your schedule to fit with the dates it’s offered – here’s your opportunity to attend at your own convenience.

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER

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email: pitchtravelwrite@gmail.com

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Roy Stevenson
Pitch Travel Write
www.pitchtravelwrite.com