Travel writing is a tricky field, but one writer explained how he navigated the “egalitarian” world of travel writing and landed a book deal.
Today’s guest on the Morning Media Menu was David Farley, talking about his recent travel book, “An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church’s Strangest Relic in Italy’s Oddest Town.”
Press play below to listen.
Here’s an excerpt: “Starting off with smaller magazines is always good … For those newspaper travel sections that are still buying freelance travel pieces, and there are less every day, one easy way to break into this is write a destination piece with a strong, unique angle and then send it to them. Newspaper travel editors don’t really want to get pitched. It’s always on spec–you’ve got to write it up, send it in, and if they like it, they’ll publish it. That’s how I got my first break in the Chicago Tribune.”
He concluded: “In theory, it’s really egalitarian. I can send something in and say ‘I’ve written for blah, blah blah.’ But someone else could send something in and they’ve never published anywhere. The editor doesn’t care what these writers have written in the past … if the editor needs the story on the other place by the other person, then the editor will take that story over mine–even though I have more experience.”