Louise Purwin Zobel - The Travel Writers Handbook: How to Write -- And Sell -- Your Own Travel Experiences

I was happy to be asked to update the 6th edition of The Travel Writers Handbook with Louise. We are now on the 7th edition and Im on my own. Louise passed away in June 2008 at the age of eighty-six. However, so much of Louises content from past editions is still very relevant today, and some of it is included in this book. Her style and sense of humor really came through in her writing. I like to think she is organizing trips (and writing about them) in heaven.

There have been so many changes in the travel writers world since Louise published the first edition back in March 1980. Electronic gadgets and computers have become a very important part of our lives and were in their infancy back then. Ive done my best to give you information on the digital age. As we all know, things change fast in the cyber world.

Thanks to everyone who assisted in bringing the 7th edition of The Travel Writers Handbook up to date, especially my agents Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada and my editor Doug Seibold.

Special thanks to Cathleen Miller, Georgia Hesse, Lee Foster, and fellow members of the Bay Area Travel Writers: especially to Richard Jordan, Laurie King, Diane LeBow, and Mark Longwood. Also thanks to Spud Hilton, Serena Bartlett, and David Cartwright. And to all the students I have taught and who have taught me a thing or two about travel writing.

Im grateful to my children, Laura and Timothy, and the rest of my family for encouraging me to follow my dream and become a travel writer.

Jacqueline Harmon Butler
Summer 2011

Travel Writers Expenses

Professional Fees & Dues

Association Dues

Professional Associations

Other

Continuing Education

College Courses

Course Registration

Materials & Supplies

Photocopy Expenses

Reference Material

Books Purchased for Research

Seminar Fees

Textbooks

Other

Telephone Expenses

Cellular, Land, Toll, Pay Calls

Paging Service

Fax Transmissions

Other

Auto Travel (in miles)

Between Jobs and Locations

Client & Publisher Meetings

Professional Society Meetings

Parking Fees & Tolls

Other

Supplies & Expenses

Suitcases, Totes

Business Cards

Business Meals

Computer Software

Computer Supplies

Customer Lists

Entertainment

Equipment Repair

Gifts & Greeting Cards

Online Charges

Legal & Professional Services

Office Expenses

Photocopy Expenses

Postage & Shipping

DVDs, Films, Videos

Stationery

Website Development

Website Hosting

Other

Equipment Purchases

Cellular Phone

Hand-held Devices

Computers & Printers

Modems & Computer

Peripherals

Other

Miscellaneous Expenses

Subscriptions

Donations

Home Office Deductions

Other

Travel (out of town)

Airfare

Car Rental

Ground Transportation

Parking & Tolls

Lodging

Meals

Laundry

Telephone

Gratuities

Other

It was a cold, damp January morning in San Francisco, and fog made it seem even colder as Jacqueline made her way from the car park to the international terminal of the airport. After checking in, she hurried into a caf, seeking a big cup of hot coffee.

Please hurry. Im catching a plane, she told the waitress.

Where to? she asked.

Barbados.

Where in the world is that?

Its in the British Virgin Islands, near Bermuda.

Barbados! She fairly breathed the word. Lucky you!

Well, Im a travel writer... thats my job.

Job! the waitress gulped. A job that takes you to Barbados in Januarygeez, Id love to have a job like that.

Being a travel writer is one of the most desired jobs, right up there with being an actor or rock star.

Being a travel writer can take you to Hawaii in February, to New Orleans in August, to India in time for the monsoon. If you like to write and you like to travel, if youre the kind of person whos continually captivated by new places, new ideas, new faces, you may find that this job sometimes seems less like work than play. But its always more work than it seems.

Depending on how you look at it, the travel writer never takes a vacationor lives in the vacuum of perpetual vacation. The hours are flexible, so you end up working most of them. To us, Saturday is a working day. So is Sunday. So is every day, 365 days a year. The travel writers job is ongoing and demanding. Its also intriguing and rewarding.

Being a travel writer sounds so easy and glamorous. All you have to do is write about the beautiful, exciting places you visit. You write about the people you meet, the landscape, the weather, the flora and fauna, and the wonderful food and wine you taste. You might even throw in something about history, politics, culture, and folklore.

But a travel writer needs instinct, insight, imagination, and enthusiasm. As a travel writer, you not only see and hear, you investigate and interpret and try to understand. You meet people of different cultures and different backgrounds. You learn new customs, embrace new thoughts, and absorb new knowledge.

Your main purpose is to share your travel experiences. But this is not your only purpose. Your purpose is also to write a travel article that entertains and informs your readers. As well, you want to be able to transport the reader to the destination you have visited. Your purpose might also be to convince your readers to take a trip to the destination you are writing about. Your purpose will, in part, depend on the type of travel article you are writing.

Not satisfied only to ask what, the travel writer wants to know who and how and, more important, why. He or she recreates the travel experience, lending it relevance and perspective. In his desire to enhance his readers enjoyment, he draws on his own spirit of adventure, rousing senses that tend to lie dormant and discovering that, as Herman Hesse says, The true profession of man is finding his way to himself.

New places and new faces stimulate perception, encouraging you to delve more deeply, observe more carefully, and focus more clearly. As a travel writer, you will never be lonely, never be bored, as you share with your readers the people and places, adventures and activities of your trips.

Youll find yourself behind the scenes in search of stories, and youll come across areas and information to which the average person has no access. Tell people youre a travel writer, and nothings too much trouble for them to show you or take you to. Again and again, youll be led to a front seat instead of a back one; picked up and chauffeured by someone assigned to show you around; or provided with a meal, a briefing, and a ticket to an event you didnt even know existed. Its always more fun to be on the inside looking out.