July 3rd, 2008

Job Lead: CBS Road Tripper

By Nicholas | Add a Comment »

This isn’t exactly travel writing, but it involves traveling and is totally cool, so I thought it still might be of interest to a few of you. CBS is looking for teams of two to become Road Trippers during the upcoming college footbal season. Each team will travel select routes the world of college football for the 14 weeks of the season and produce, create, and edit a variety of content from the road. These are freelance positiosn:

Requirements:
-Passion for College Football
-Some experience in sports journalism
-Some experience in video production and other technical knowledge from at least one member of the team
-Sense of humor
-Ability to read a map

To apply:
-Applications must be submitted as a pair to jobs1@cstv.com. Please reference “Road Tripper – DK” on the subject line. Individual applications will not be considered.

July 2nd, 2008

“Travels In Paradise” Accepting (and paying for!) Travel Stories

By Abha | 1 Comment »

Dumont based travel website Travels In Paradise is looking for focused travel features exploring authentic and interesting locations (no travelogues). They are open to wide variety of topics and styles of writing, but they must involve actual destination travel. Later there may be ppportunities for regular staff writing.

Current needs: Well-written feature articles about worldwide travel destinations; 500-750 words.
Pay: Pays $50 for feature articles of 500-750 words.
Photos: Require 2-3 digital photos per article, to be submitted by email (no extra pay).

Not a particularly impressive website on first glance, but it’s travel and they pay! So if you have a few ideas tossing, try pitching them to: mike[at]travelsinparadise.com.

July 1st, 2008

Books: Getting Lost & Globejotting

By Nicholas | Add a Comment »

I never heard of Dave Fox until Inkwater Press sent me his two books a few weeks ago. Fox, who won the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop Book Proposal Contest, recently published the second edition of Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad and will release Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals (and still have time to enjoy your trip) this week. Let me say I was pleasantly surprised.

Fox is a travel humorist and, I must, say is actually funny. I read alot of travel narratives tha try to be funny. Sometimes they succeed, more often than not they don’t. Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad is a collection of Fox’s travel experiences as a child when his parents moved from the US to the UK for a year, while studying abroad in Norway, being a college student traveling abroad, living in Turkey, and being a guide for Rick Steves. The book exploits every embarassing thing that happens to Fox while traveling, and there are quite a few: causing a near riot in Tunisia, getting stopped with a HAM radio at Finnish customs, and accidently busting a beer in his Norwegian Exchange schools principal’s office. He doesn’t brag about how many travel experiences he has had or the things he has seen. He doesn’t shy away from revealing what a travel nerd he was growing up or still is. It’s not macho writing at all, which I see alot of male travel writers fall into these days. He reminds me quite a bit of Bill Bryson, but, at least in these books, isn’t taking on topics nearly as big as Bryson (such as the Appalachain Trail or the History of the Universe). Fox isn’t going to win the Pulitzer from the looks of it, but he’s entertaining.

The second book, Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals (and still have time to enjoy your trip) is less aimed at professional travel writers than amateur scribblers. Any travel writer will appreicate the tips though, which will help brush up on your skills and help you set a good pace for writing while traveling. If anyone is interested he has a travel writing workshop set on a Rio to Barcelona cruise coming up next March/April. The price (under $3000) includes airfare so it’s quite a steal for the trip alone.

June 21st, 2008

Travel-Writing Competition: Adventures In Hostelling

By Abha | Add a Comment »

San Francisco based company Hostelling International, is seeking short (150-250 words), personal stories from travelers about their experiences hostelling. Stories can be funny, serious, romantic, touching, as long as they’re true.

The winners will be chosen by a jury made up of professional travel writers and other travel industry folks. All winning stories will be printed in a special 50th anniversary commemorative publication.

How to apply: Enter online at: http://norcalhostels.org/50years

Entries may also be mailed, along with name, mailing address, phone number, and email address, to:

Adventures in Hostelling Writing Contest
HI-USA Golden Gate Council
425 Divisadero Street #307
San Francisco, CA 94117
USANo fee to enter the contest.

Prizes:
-One Grand Prize winner will receive a voucher for round-trip, international travel on American Airlines.
-Three Jury Prize winners will each receive a Flip Video camera.
-Honorable Mention winners will each receive a one-year Hostelling International membership

Deadline to enter: July 15, 2008.

For more information and full contest rules, visit: http://norcalhostels.org/50years

June 21st, 2008

Job Lead: Travel Journalist For Stonesong Press

By Abha | Add a Comment »

Stonesong Press is looking for a travel journalist to be the lead author on a series of books that will detail the best movies and books that capture the feel of a foreign country/city.

The series is as much for armchair travelers as it is for globetrotters. Each title will cover a specific country or region. Capsule summaries of must-see films and must-read books for each destination will be organized by themes. The writer will be paid an advance and royalties (this is not a work-for-hire assignment) and his or her name will be on the book.

The writer should possess a keen understanding of the country at hand. Writer will need to locate and interview experts (other travel writers, people in the tourism industry, travel bookstore owners, film scouts, etc.) about their recommended books and movies. The tone should be engaging and entertaining and the writing needs to be evocative and impressionistic rather than strictly informative.

The first two titles in the series will focus on France and Italy, and subsequent titles may include Mexico, Spain, Ireland, Russia and China.

If interested in the project please e-mail resume and writing samples to Alison Fargis at afargis [at]Stonesong[dot]com.

June 19th, 2008

Job Lead: Executive Editor @ Budget Travel

By Nicholas | Add a Comment »

Budget Travel is looking for an Executive Editor for their New York office:

Requirements:
-Senior-level experience managing an editorial staff for a substantial editorial brand
-3+ years working in an online publishing environment; familiarity with web technology and emerging online trends
-Experience developing/maintaining editorial processes and standards, and building a strong editorial team
-Experience promoting a brand across media channels: online, radio, TV, print
-Fantastic writing and editing skills

The Job:
-Manage the online edit staff and online editorial calendar
-Conceive of, shape, and assign stories, multimedia packages (flash, video, audio, mobile), and blog posts consistent with the editorial voice of Budget Travel
-Develop a trusted network of top-notch writers to grow BudgetTravel.com’s editorial output
-Promote online’s efforts online, and in radio, TV, and print
-Blog regularly: 4-5 posts per month, as a minimum
-Periodically, write features for web and print

To apply: Send resume, 5 clips, and a brief cover letter to BTresume@BudgetTravel.com.

June 11th, 2008

Internship Lead: Travel Girl Graphic Design Intern

By Nicholas | Add a Comment »

While this isn’t exactly a writing job, I thought someone out there may still benefit.

Travelgirl magazine, a national travel magazine for women, is seeking a graphic design intern to work in their Atlanta office ASAP. You’ll get great hands on experience designing layouts, assisting on photo shoots and helping with production. You’ll need to play well with others, have a great attitude and be proficient in Indesign or Quark, Photoshop and Illustrator on a Mac. Laid back office and flexible hours. It’s an unpaid internship, but college credit is encouraged.

To Apply: Submit resume and letter with 4-5 very small samples or a link to your work to valerie@travelgirlinc.com.

June 4th, 2008

Writing for Suite101.com and About.com: Is It Worth It?

By Nicholas | 7 Comments »

Again and again I get questions about whether it is worth it to write for websites such as Suite101.com or About.com, so I thought I would breakdown my experience with Suite101 and what I have heard about About.com.

Suite101
I began writing for Suite101 about two years ago when very few people had heard about it. I actually learned about it from reading Jen Leo writing about it here. At the time I was looking for whatever outlet for my writing I could find. The South America Travel section was looking for a writer (this was at a time when there were only feature writers and no contributing writers); I applied and after a short hiring process got the job. Now I think you have to write a certain number of articles before taking over a feature sections that pay more.

As a feature writer I write 4 articles and 4 blog posts a month. They don’t take me long. Maybe an hour or two each for the articles, less for the blogs. Many of the articles are very general, they are on a topic I know so well that it doesn’t require much brainwork, and are not something I would have written about elsewhere. Right now I have about 150 or so articles up that get between 15,000-20,000 page views a month from readers that come from mostly Google searches. I make about $1 per article per month. You do the math. Some sections make more than others from what I hear someone makes more than $1000 per month there. It’s not a living wage by any means. Just a side gig. Will I write for them forever? Not likely.

There are both ups and downs to writing at Suite. First, the negatives. For the first year or so I really didn’t make squat, but that is mostly because they previously paid only by page views (now it is a percentage of adsense revenues). When I started it was just me writing about South America Travel, now anyone can contribute articles and many of the contributing writers don’t bother to check to see if an article has already been written about and they cover the exact same topics that I have already written about. Lastly, if I have my own website doing the exact same thing I would make significantly more.

The positives: I’ve got to network with a few of the other writers at the site. My editor is great and pretty much lets me do what I want. I have gotten a few assignments from publications because the editors found me through Suite101. Writing for Suite101 has helped me learn quite a bit about the overall web building process, about SEO, adsense revenue, etc. It doesn’t seem like much, but that revenue keeps coming for as long as the articles are posted. So, long term it seems like a decent gig. Another plus is that after one year I can use the content elsewhere, such as my own website.

About.com
I don’t know as much about About.com and I don’t write for them, but I have met several who have or have applied. It is owned by the New York Times. Here is what I gather from the site (though please correct me if I am wrong):

To begin writing for About.com there is a very long, detailed, and exhausting hiring process that includes making many sample pages. You apply for a topic with multiple applicants; therefore you may do all the work and not get the job or paid for it.

The amount of work is substantial, though, again, I don’t know the specifics. The rumor mill says that writing for About.com is a real part time job taking around 15-20 hours per week. There are blogs, forums, reviews, FAQs, tuturoials, etc. It is, by comparison, much more involved than Suite101. They guarantee $725 a month to write for them. Again, some topics make more than others.

Both About.com and Suite101.com are currently looking for writers, including travel topics.

May 30th, 2008

Rejection

By Nicholas | Add a Comment »

Rejection: we all have to deal with it as writers. Some of us more than others. I came across this article in a Seattle weekly about one writers struggle. Enjoy!

May 26th, 2008

Scarce Posting

By Abha | 2 Comments »

Sorry about the scarce posting over the last few weeks, looks like both Nick and I have been swamped with different things.

I’ve been wrapping up things here in Madrid before I leave for Dubai to spend 3-weeks with my family; I haven’t been home in 18 months. My brother and cousin arrived here two days ago and are spending the week with me in Spain, we plan to travel down south tomorrow.

I’ll be back and ready to post from 6th June onwards, so till then — keep writing and keep traveling!