Woods - How to make money from travel writing: practical advice on turning the dream into a well-paid reality

When I was a young girl, I would curl up in bed with an old transistor radio and twiddle the dial until it found the BBCs World Service. On the pretence of slumber, I would listen to the crackling sounds of exotic-sounding foreign lands and marvel at the reportage from countries I never knew existed. With my encyclopaedia by my side, Id look up far-flung isles and continents. It wasnt long before Id pinpointed an elaborate string of nations that I felt warranted personal exploration. I drew up maps and read books detailing the earliest accounts of travel, from the vivid tales of Marco Polos forays along the Silk Road, to the harrowing escapades and exploits of Christopher Columbus and Walter Raleigh. Losing myself in Charles Darwins diaries, I dreamt of ancient indigenous tribes and unworldly beasts in forebidding jungles. Mark Twain roused an early fascination with following the equator and Henry Morgan a lifelong curiosity in journeying the high seas. By the age of ten, I had started writing fictional narratives of my own make-believe journeys across lands imagined but still unseen.

When I read Paul Therouxs first travel book, The Great Railway Bazaar, in my early 20s, I consumed each page with passion, realising my ravenous appetite for the authors cynical observations as he further fuelled my imagination for the places brought to me by my shortwave radio a decade or more before. By now, my attempts at writing had given way to priorities of adulthood yet Therouxs narratives spurred me on to book a ticket to Australia on a whim and I never looked back. Next Asia, the US and the Caribbean before criss-crossing Europe as one destination after another turned the armchair travel dreams of an infant into my coming of age. I read every piece of travel literature I could get my hands on, from Bruce Chatwin in Patagonia and records of ancient pilgrimages, to family trips in antiquity and the middle ages.

It took a while to dawn on me that I could follow in their footsteps. But once I realised that I could see the world and sell the story, it opened up the globe. I got some business cards printed and declared myself a travel writer. Viewing the planet as my workplace, I pledged that if I could get to a place, I would write about it simple as that. Employing a mix of zeal, pluck, tenacity and luck, I forged contacts and won contracts and commissions. Fortuitously, new airlines sprung up to journey to hitherto unknown places as the world began to get more easily navigable. My short hops turned to long jaunts and I was soon a perpetual traveller who searched out places on the map. I struggled with faxing copy and gathering research in public libraries, but then a new-fangled invention arrived to help me the internet. Few modern technologies have aided travel writers more.

Today, two decades on, Im still journeying for up to 200 days per year. I am also earning a decent income whilst doing something I truly, truly adore. Making a living solely from travel writing isnt easy but it is possible. In the past 20 years, Ive been paid to spear-fish in the inky-green shallows of the Amazon River, thrown pots with sculptors in Panamas Herrera Province, cruised the Caribbean waters in luxury, and enjoy a nostalgic journey on the oh-so-romantic Orient Express. I have visited over 50 countries (clocking up over three quarter of a million kilometres en route) and Ive dined with kings, queens and prime ministers in sumptuous opulence, and eaten around an open fire with tribal chiefs. Ive met Balinese healers, Cypriot cheese-makers, Tibetan chess masters, Spanish horse breeders, Chinese scribes, Sri Lankan tea growers and Japanese geisha.

I have witnessed firsthand the incredible cultural diversity of our planet and have been humbled by successive acts of human kindness. People have been generous and gracious, from the patrons of Santa Monicas glitzy sidewalk diners, to the street sweepers in the low-class barrios of Colombia. Ive made lifelong friends from Norway to Nicaragua and Ive learned a lot about the world in which we live and also about myself. Hilaire Belloc once said: We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfilment and, for me, it is thrilling to feel so wholly fulfilled.

Yet travel writing isnt just about the journeys and experiences theres the hard work of putting pen to paper to contend with. This can mean hours, or days or weeks, sitting huddled over a keyboard willing a story to emerge from a brain that is jet-lagged. Balancing time differences can also be the source of deadline conundrums. I was once commissioned by a Panamanian editor working in Spain who mistakenly assumed I was in Singapore when I was actually in Australia. It took me half a morning to work out that I only had two hours to write a piece despite a four-day leeway. After a 38-hour journey home, when all you want to do is sleep, theres the stress of looming deadlines and a constant stream of emails to deal with. Good travel writers are disciplined and business-minded its not all about talent. Finding work, retaining clients and providing good customer service are important in an editor-contributor relationship.

Much like any job, its not all glamour and glory so being timely, efficient and reliable can be as important as delivering creative copy. If you write on the road, like me, you may also need to muster up descriptions of one place whilst travelling through another. Ive written about Polands snow-capped mountains whilst journeying through the sweltering South African bush. Ive also become adept at knuckling down to 1,000 words in airport lounges, noisy internet cafes and borrowed desk space when what you really need is solitude, peace and quiet. Today, my constant companions are the writings of a new breed of travel author, from Polly Evans in New Zealand and John Malathronas in South Africa, to Charlie Connellys rhinestone-clad tales of roving in Memphis.

In this book, I attempt to provide aspiring travel writers with the tools to maximise their experiences and their incomes. Its not always about the money, of course, as travel is a currency that brings its own rich rewards. However, those keen to make a living as a wandering scribe will find plenty of tips and advice to help them profit. There are also valuable contributions from many of the UKs finest travel-writing talent, from award-winning feature writers and authors, to editors and publishers. Travel PRs add their own valuable insight into the practical help they can provide, while experts in online content, newspapers, magazines and guidebooks explore the varied possibilities travel writing offers. As a travel writer you may well be offered first-class seats on your choice of airline or a $10,000-a-night suite without charge but rarely do these happen without a credible reputation and reliable mode of work.