#97 - Trying selling travel stories to news editors

Or why foreign news can be a better fit than the travel section.

Which section for the story?
I've always worked on a general theory that a reliable sign of a good travel story is that it will easily slot into another section of a newspaper. For example, one that has a musical angle could be equally valid in the music section; a story about a painter could just as easily be filed under 'arts'.

Cracking the Daily Telegraph
I'm quite a happy bunny today, as I've had my first story printed in The Daily Telegraph. I've pitched plenty of ideas there before, but come up against a brick wall. Along with The Sunday Times, it's probably the most prestigious place I've ever been published. But my story wasn't in the travel section.

Travel story, news angle
I can't think why I didn't think of this before, but I decided to pitch the story to the Telegraph's World News editor. It was a story I'd come across on my travels and it was arguably a travel story with a news angle, but I decided to write it as a news story.

Published quickly
The approach worked - the editor liked the idea, bought the story and it was published within three days of my initial approach. Oh if only all travel pieces went that smoothly...

Out of the way places
It did get me thinking about how many other travel stories I could have taken this approach with. It's particularly useful in out of the way places. In my example, news from Samoa doesn't tend to travel very far. The fact that the country is switching to driving on the left from driving on the right makes for a great story, but because hardly anyone pays attention to what's going on there, it's a story that has barely been written about. OK, it's had a tiny bit of coverage in Australia and New Zealand - but not the rest of the world.

Read the papers, listen to the locals
The experience confirms my beliefs that, for the travel writer, it's worth reading local newspapers, listening to local radio stations and talking to local people about what the current big issues are. There's always almost a story to be uncovered - and one that can possibly be sold to a news section.

PS - Yes, I know Samoa isn't an island; it's a collection of them. That's the joy of sub-editors for you.

PPS - If you want more of my nonsense, you can find me at GrumpyTraveller.com and on Twitter.

#91 – Tie stories in with sporting events

Or why you should check the schedules.

Using events as a hook
This is repeating my previous point about using events as a hook for articles, but it’s one worth emphasising. A lot of people travel to go and watch sporting events, but even more importantly, a major sporting event puts a destination in the news.

Beijing, South Africa and Vancouver
Either way, it’s topical and will generate a lot of interest. Beijing got it last year with the Olympics, South Africa will get it next year with the 2010 World Cup, and Vancouver is already getting it with the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Other events
Other events that always generate interest about the destinations hosting them include obscure countries playing England at football, cricket and rugby tours, Superbowls and World Championships of any sport that gets a reasonable degree of television coverage.

Check the schedules
Given this, it’s always worth checking the schedules and knowing what events are on the horizon in the next year or so. Even if you know nothing about the sport, chances are you’ll be able to sell an article on the destination using that sporting event as a topical hook.

#90 – Resource: In Your Pocket guides

Or finding the local hang-outs.

Sources of information
There are many good sources for getting information on places to stay, eat and drink in a city. The people at the tourist board can usually give a few good ideas, while a guide book will often give a decent selection.

Off the tourist track
Unfortunately, however, these sources rarely veer off the usual tourist track. They’ll give plenty of suggestions for places that many visitors like going to, but not necessarily the places that give a real feel for the town or are local favourites.

Little secrets
And it’s these little secrets that editors want to know about. They make for an interesting story, and there’s a certain cachet to being able to discover a place that most visitors won’t know about.

Needle in a haystack
But how to find them? Well my preferred way is always to stumble across them randomly. I love going into somewhere on a whim. Unfortunately, this is often something of a needle in a haystack approach.

In Your Pocket
One tool that I’ve found really useful when I’ve seen it is the local In Your Pocket guide. These guides have quietly begun springing up all over Europe, and they’re generally written by locals. They give a view of the place from the standpoint of someone that lives there, and the listings are generally both comprehensive and honestly-written.

Interesting places
Amongst those listings, there are usually a few really interesting places that are not covered in the Lonely Planet or tourist board literature. They’re worth investigating.

Free online guides
Best of all, the In Your Pocket Guides are now available for free online (www.inyourpocket.com), so it’s possible to get a list of a few good ideas before you arrive.

#89 – Revisit disaster scenes

Or why editors love recovery stories.

Cast iron rule?
There’s no cast iron rule about what stories editors will always accept, but the closest you can get to it is that they will always take a piece on a place that is recovering from a major setback.

Two years on...
Travel sections and magazines always have pieces along the lines of “New Orleans, two years on” or Bali, five years after the bombings”. The same applies to anywhere that suffers an earthquake, gets buried by a volcano or suffers massive hurricane damage.

Mumbai and the tsunami
It’ll happen with Mumbai soon enough, and there will be a glut of stories about the areas affected by 2004’s Boxing Day tsunami towards the end of this year.

Strong narrative
The reasons why such stories are liked by editors are fairly obvious. They’ve got a strong narrative, and already have reader recognition due to the catastrophe. Even the casual reader will know what the story is about, and is likely to have a passing interest in how the place is recovering.

Good ingredients for a travel story
These recovery stories are newsy, have strong human interest, and they’re clearly up-to-date. All are good ingredients for a travel story, even if it may seem a little ghoulish pitching it out.

#85 – Observe your fellow travellers, not just the scenery

Or why people watching can create new angles.

Involving people
Most of the best travel articles have some sort of character in them. They involve people as well as the destination. And often the people to include are the ones that are sharing the experience with you.

Observe the people with you
A lot can be added to an article by observing the people with you. What they say, their behaviours, reactions and expressions can add invaluable colour to a story. It gives a real sense of place, and takes the reader to the scene.

A new angle on a much-covered attraction
This is particularly the case at attractions that have been covered hundreds of times before. A story about going on a tour of Westminster Abbey, for example, is probably not going to sell. A story about a tour of Westminster Abbey where tourists are behaving badly has a bit more to it.

Take note
So when taking notes, take note of what people say and do as well as what you’re supposed to be enjoying. It could pay off in the long run.

#83 – Milk annual events for all they’re worth

Or the joys of recycling.

Time of year
Ah, it’s this time of year again. Valentines Day is in a few days’ time, then there’s St Patrick’s Day next month and Easter following along soon afterwards. To the ordinary person, these are just part of the calendar. To the travel writer, all should be goldmines.

Recycling
I, for one, will be recycling a few pieces related to all three. A piece on the least romantic locations will sell for Valentines every year, a story about the St Patrick Centre in Downpatrick will always be welcome just before March 17th, and any pieces related to the Easter story are an easy pitch as soon as the chocolate eggs come out.

Travel editors love topicality
It’s not rocket science – stuff like this will always sell. As I’ve mentioned before, travel editors love something topical. The key is to make a mental note when you come across something that may fit the bill. It might not sell immediately, but it probably will later on.

Apply to all annual events
The same theory applies to Hallowe’en, Christmas, the Oscars... pretty much anything that occurs every year and gets plenty of media coverage. So if you go to a destination where an Oscar-winning film was shot, has a reputation for being haunted or has a link to St Nicholas, chances are you’ll be able to use the material again and again.

#77 – Make the most of your own knowledge

Or selling common sense to where it isn’t common sense.

Expertise?
As a travel writer, I am something of an all-rounder rather than a specialist. I know some places quite well (and Australia very well), but I’d hardly call myself an expert on anything. This doesn’t mean that some of my editors don’t think I’m an expert, however.

Australian knowledge
I sell a lot about Australia to Australian publications, but there are also publications in the UK that will come to me as an expert on Oz. I’m not really that knowledgeable, but my knowledge of the country is vastly superior to that of most people (including the editors). I might not have the absolute inside line, but it’s good enough for the purposes.

Budget airlines in Europe
Similarly, I write a lot about Europe for Australian publications. And a lot of what I’m doing seems like common sense to me. For example, I’ve just done a piece on budget airlines in Europe and where to look for the cheapest flights. Many Europeans will already know this – but not many Australians do.

Common sense?
The same applies to pieces I’ve done on the vagaries of the British train system. Most people in Britain know to book trains online in advance or face exorbitant prices. Aussies don’t, however. What may seem common sense here isn’t common sense there. I don’t need to be an expert on the UK rail network – the basics that I do know are enough to make me SEEM like an expert through Australian eyes.

Applied logic
This is a logic that can easily be applied elsewhere. Americans probably don’t know the best ways to find cheap car hire in the UK. New Zealanders probably don’t know anything about budget airlines in Canada. South Africans probably have zero knowledge about getting good value taxi fares in Dubai. A local in each of those destinations can easily appear to be an expert by explaining what is common knowledge in their home town, but a mystery on the other side of the world.

#75 – Use anniversaries as a hook

Or the joy of nice round numbers.

Travel editor difficulties
One of the difficulties of being a travel editor is creating a reason for running a story on a certain destination. In all honesty, there’s no real reason to run that quite nice story about flea markets in Paris – it’s just personal choice. And frankly, it doesn’t matter which issue it goes in – it’s hardly topical, is it?

Anniversaries and topicality
So editors love to have something topical. They like to have stories on places that are in the news, and they often end up running things related to anniversaries. Look out over this year, and you’ll see plenty of stories with tenuous links to some anniversary or other.

From Galileo to the Berlin Wall
I should know – I’ve got commissions to write about some of them. It’s 400 years since Galileo Galilei invented his telescope; it’s 200 years since Charles Darwin was born; it’s 90 years since the Nazi party was founded and it’s 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down.

Nice round numbers
In all honesty, most of these are not that significant, but humans buy into anniversaries in a big way. If it’s a nice round number of years since a major event, people will always find some excuse to celebrate it. And travel editors are interested in what people are celebrating. Thus 1,000 meandering words on the lovely English town of Shrewsbury suddenly takes on more urgency when Charles Darwin was born there 200 years ago.

Keeping track
As a writer, it’s always worth keeping track of anniversaries that are coming up. If you can get in there before everyone else starts writing about them, you’ve got a high chance of making a successful pitch.

73 – Read the rest of the guidebook

Or angles from elsewhere.

The bits we read
Most of us will only use the part of a guidebook that covers the place we’re going to. OK, we might read the front section about the history and culture as well, but we’ll generally not bother looking at the areas we’re not going to.

Cover to cover?
Guidebooks are not designed to be read from cover to cover, but for the travel journalist it pays to read the sections that aren’t immediately relevant to you. This for a few reasons:

Comparison point
Firstly, it gives a more rounded view of the country as a whole, perhaps offering a comparison point to the place you are going to. Secondly, you’ll probably find a place that you may wish to go to in future (and could maybe fit into the planned trip).

Round-up stories
Thirdly, and most importantly, you may discover some good angles that can be used for round-up stories down the line. Even better, they may spark ideas for those stories.

Do it in down time
I’m not going to pretend that this is an exciting task, and this is why I do it when I have nothing else to do – sat on a train, waiting for a meal to arrive when I’ve got the traditional table for one, on the plane...

Brilliant story angles
I’ve done a bit of all three today, and have been idly flicking through the Germany Lonely Planet. Amongst the brilliant story angles I’ve uncovered are a theme park at an old nuclear power station, the world’s oldest youth hostel and the German Occupational Health and Safety Museum. There’s a good story each one, and I may try and work them into a trip for another time.

#47 – Don’t be afraid to be funny

Or why entertainment isn’t a dirty word.

Dull travel writing
As I have stated before, I don’t like most travel writing. Much output in the genre is spectacularly dull, po-faced and plodding. Ironically, it displays most of the qualities that people go on holiday to avoid.

Why people travel
Yes. That’s right – people travel to enjoy themselves. They go away to have a good time, relax and not take things too seriously for a while. Yet very little travel writing seems to reflect this.

Journalism’s soft option
Let’s get one thing straight: as far as journalism goes, travel writing is the soft option. Cry and protest all you like, but the world would happily keep turning if there was never another travel article published. Perhaps it is because the craft is so frivolous and unimportant that so many writers choose to prove how vital and serious they are in their writing.

Entertain the reader
While there is certainly a place for an authoritative voice, there is a bigger call for something that many writers neglect or see as being beneath them – entertainment. That’s right – it’s not a crime to entertain the reader. In fact, doing so should be positively encouraged.

Use humour
And one of the time honoured ways to entertain is to use humour. It’s a quality so frequently absent from travel pieces, and it shouldn’t be. I’ve got no evidence aside from my own experience on this, but many editors are crying out for writers that can do funny.

Don’t try too hard
Of course, I’d better clarify this by saying that no-one’s looking for someone who is trying to be funny (see Tip 37 about exclamation marks). There’s nothing more painful to read than someone trying too hard to make people laugh (well, aside from holocaust memoirs). But if you can inject a bit of fun into proceedings without making people wince, then do it.

Lighten up
Ironic, self-deprecating, arch, wry, waspish, playful, whimsical... there are lots of different types of humour that can work for various publications. Yet you could be mistaken for thinking that many writers mistake them for swear words. Lighten up a bit, write with a smile on your face, pass on the sense of joy, fun and wonder. Chances are that the piece will be a lot better read.

Fluff
And, whatever you do, don’t take yourself too seriously. Accept that you are writing fluff 90% of the time. But there’s nothing to stop it being good quality, hugely entertaining fluff that will engage your reader, give your editor a different voice to add to the mix and stand out in a crowd of mediocre earnestness.

#43 – Start with where the action is

Or beginning an article with the key anecdote.

Strictly chronological?
One thing that often perplexes me with travel writing is that many writers seem to insist on presenting everything in a strictly chronological order. On certain occasions this is fine – and others entirely necessary.

Key anecdotes and events
But a lot of the time this leads to dull, rambling intros that lose the reader’s attention by the time they arrive at the juicy bit. Far better, I feel, to start with the key anecdote or unique event.

Adventure sports
This is particularly true for anything involving adventure sports or activities, but can be equally applicable to more sedate affairs. For example, on a shopping trip, it can be when you accidentally clatter into a market stall, or when the two stallholders start yelling at each other.

Examples
But to use some examples, I’ll stick to the adrenaline rushes. If doing a skydive, the key moment – and thus the best thing to start with – is the moment you go over the edge and out of the plane. If white water rafting, it’s the bit where you’re about to fall in. On a bike ride, it’s the bit where you nearly get mown down by a tractor.

Throw the reader into the adventure
By starting where the real, unique action is, you instantly throw the reader into the adventure. It sets the pace from the start, and grabs the attention. The back story – the preparations, what happened before the big moment – can come later.
Unless you’re writing for something written in crayon to cater for an audience of the borderline retarded, then the reader will be intelligent enough to understand the juggled chronology.
It will also make for a much better read.

#42 – Using theatre productions as a hook

Or how the big shows can work in your favour.

Rude French people
Sometimes a travel writer can have an odd experience when reading their own stories in print. And when I saw the piece I wrote about (what I believe to be) the myth of rude French people for an Australian newspaper, I did a bit of a double take.

Monty Python’s Spamalot
The editor had done a bit of editing, judiciously picked a picture and suddenly my piece was linked to the opening of Monty Python’s Spamalot in Melbourne. I guess the link was that the production featured rude Frenchmen, but it was a little unexpected.

Topical hook
But it does go to show how popular a topical hook is with editors, no matter how tenuous. And when I saw that piece, it got me thinking – theatre productions can be just as useful to hook a story to as films or books.

City-based newspapers
This is particularly true in city-based newspapers (as opposed to genuinely national ones such as those in the UK). For the readership, there is a link with something happening in their city. But how could this work with other productions?

Mamma Mia
Well, I’ll choose a few examples from recent years. Mamma Mia, the ABBA musical, could easily be used for a piece about Sweden – in particular if it includes something on Stockholm’s ABBA Museum, or the Hotel Rival, which is owned by Benny from the group.

And there’s more...
Starlight Express? A rollerskating tour of anywhere, or a something about learning to rollerskate. Lord of the Rings? Tolkien’s hangouts in the UK or the filming locations from the movies in New Zealand. We Will Rock You? Something on Zanzibar, where Freddy Mercury was born, perhaps.

Tenuous – but commissionable
All of these are ridiculously tenuous, but there’s a good chance of them getting commissioned if proposed at the right time.

#40 – Stories based around sporting events

Or how travel writers can win at the Olympics or World Cup.

Travel articles about Beijing
Anyone who reads travel magazines or the travel sections of newspapers couldn’t help but have noticed all the stories about Beijing that have been circulating this year.

Olympics as a hook
This isn’t a coincidence, of course – nearly all of them were using the Olympic Games as a hook. It makes sense – the Olympics are something people are interested in reading about and advertisers are interested in using as a promotional tool. It’s the magic combination of topicality and popularity.

Different styles of articles
Some of the articles linked to the Beijing Olympics were straight guide-style pieces, some focused on a certain aspect of the city, some more newsy about new developments, some just first person accounts of travelling in China. But loads got published. And it just shows that looking into future forthcoming sporting events can pay off for a travel writer.

Big future sporting events
The big ones are obvious. In 2010, there will be a lot of South Africa articles linked to the football World Cup. In 2012, it’ll be the European Championships in Poland and the Ukraine, as well as the Olympics in London. Get in there early, and easy sales await.

Annual events
But you don’t necessarily have to wait for an event that comes along every four years. Some annual events are great for hitching pieces about certain destinations to – Melbourne for the Australian Open tennis, Liverpool for the Grand National horse race, wherever the Golf majors are being played that particular year.

Formula One and cricket
And then there are the sports that tour the world – articles can be tied into Formula One Grand Prix venues, for example. Meanwhile articles about the Caribbean may be easy to sell in Australia when the Australian cricket team is playing the West Indies, then re-shaped for different markets when New Zealand and England go on tour.

Sporting knowledge
Often, you don’t need to know too much about the sport – just the fact that the event is happening is often a good enough topical hook.

#38 – Stay at a hotel that is a story in itself

Or sorting the genuinely unique from the PR flannel.

Unique hotels
Just about every hotel in the world likes to think of itself as unique and worthy of coverage. Very few of them are, beyond a little factbox mention at the bottom of the article.
It never ceases to amaze me, however, that the PR people from hotels seem to think that the stories I write will largely be about the hotel. I’ve seen some instances (with other writers) where this is the case, and usually they are downright tedious to read.

Somewhere to stay
For most of us, a hotel is somewhere to stay whilst visiting a city or area. It may be really nice, but essentially it’s a place to rest the head for the night. For the travel writer, in particular, the emphasis should be firmly on exploring the area and chasing down story angles.

A story in itself
But one good way to get more stories (and thus more money) from a trip is to stay somewhere that genuinely is a story in itself.
Be warned. These places are very rare, but the PR people will desperately try and convince you that their place is truly unique with some blather about a new environmental initiative or mild refurbishment.
90% of the time, this is clutching at straws and trying desperately to get unwarranted publicity, but just occasionally they have a point.

Hotel examples
There are a few examples that I can think of. Altamer in Anguilla is one – mainly because of the celebrities that have stayed there in the past and the jaw-dropping prices. Another is the Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados – again, largely because of its reputation for celebrity guests.

Sydney Hotel stories
I can think of two in Sydney, Australia – the Russell because it’s supposedly haunted, and the Stamford Plaza because that’s where INXS frontman Michael Hutchence died after his sexual experimentation went horribly wrong.

More hotels – from Liverpool to Los Angeles
The Hollywood Roosevelt in Los Angeles hosted the first Oscars ceremony, the Hard Day’s Night in Liverpool, England has a Beatles theme, and the Hotel Fox in Copenhagen has a series of mad rooms all designed by individual artists.

Genuinely unique gimmicks
All of these make for a good story on their own, and there are others around the world with celebrity links, or genuinely unique gimmicks and themes. They may cost more to stay in than a bog standard hotel, but that couple of nights can be recouped with an article sale or two.

Commission in advance
Even better, if you can get a commission to write about it in advance, the PR people may arrange for a complimentary stay.

#32 – Turn local round-ups into global round-ups

Or extending the boundaries.

In Tip 30, I suggested that a great way of recycling material was using the themes and information from round-up articles with a global scope in a narrower context.

Bizarre museums?
This, of course, can work just as easily in reverse. For example, a piece on Britain’s most bizarre museums can be reslanted slightly to become a piece on the world’s most bizarre museums. It’s just a case of finding a few more elsewhere and throwing in a couple of the British ones for good measure.

Design hotels, cheesiest tourist attractions etc
The same applies to just about any localised round-up piece, whether it’s Europe’s design hotels, America’s cheesiest tourist attractions or Australia’s biggest adrenaline rushes. Open up the parameters to the whole continent (or whole planet) and there’s another piece in it.

#30 – Turn global into local.

Or how to re-use re-used information.

Recycling material
In recent posts I have spoken about turning trivia into articles and using snippets of material from longer features to make round-up features. All good recycling, but there’s nothing to stop you re-using material that’s already been re-used. In fact, the more ways you can use one bit of information, the better for your bank balance.

Most successful idea
As an example, I’ll use what has turned out to be my most successful idea ever. It was triggered, as it often is, by a simple bit of trivia. I read somewhere that the Jenolan Caves in Australia’s Blue Mountains were the oldest caves in the world.

Oldest city? Oldest restaurant?
I found that quite fascinating and it got me thinking about other ‘oldests’. I wondered where the oldest city is (Damascus, Syria); I wondered where the oldest country is (brilliantly, it’s San Marino); I wondered where the oldest restaurant is (Casa Botin in Madrid).

Oldest possible holiday
This continued until I suddenly had a piece on the world’s oldest possible holiday, complete with the oldest theme parks, golf courses, bars and national parks. Boy did that sell well – I think it’s been published in five countries so far. I guess it’s just one of those ideas that makes for an intriguing feature.

Selling one piece many times
Now I could have just remained deliriously happy about selling one piece so many times (it rarely happens, alas). But it had further mileage in it. I went back to the Jenolan Caves and started localising the concept. I’d found the world’s oldest holiday, but what about Australia’s?

Australia’s oldest
So, tweaking the categories where necessary, I went back and found Australia’s oldest pub, building, art gallery etc. Another feature, and another one that did brilliantly well – it sold in both Australia and the UK. I’ve also written about Italy’s oldests, and I fully intend to do the same for Spain, France, Portugal and Britain. In fact, I’ll shamelessly rehash the idea for any country/ region/ city or continent.

Global round-up into local round-up
By turning a global round-up article into a local round-up article, it’s possible to milk a bit of information for all it is worth. It’s a great starting point for further research as well – and this can lead to even more stories. I’m going to Tasmania in November, and I fully intend to visit Australia’s oldest pub while there. There’s a story in that, just as there was one on Italy’s oldest hotel and just as there will be on France’s oldest museum, whatever that may be.

Never-ending cycle
And therein lies the beauty – it’s a never-ending cycle. The information leads to a story, then a round up. Localise the round-up, and you find more information. Much of which can lead to more stories. See – recycling can be very good for your environment.

#26 – Thinking laterally for film angles

Or using the story, not the destination.

More than filming locations
In Travel Writer Tip #24, I suggested that films are a great inspiration for travel stories. This was mainly talking about locations that the films were shot in. However, by thinking laterally, there is another way of using films as a hook for a travel feature.

Indiana Jones
I’ll use 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as an example. I ended up doing a round up piece on locations used across the Indy series, but looking back, there were other angles that could be extracted from it.

Stand-in filming locations
For example, much of the film was set in Peru, but filmed in Hawai’i. That could have been used as a peg to base a story about stand-in film locations around. What other films have been filmed somewhere entirely different from where the scene is supposed to be set?
Point Break springs to mind for this – Patrick Swayze’s character supposedly disappeared into the sea at Bells Beach, Australia, but due to budget restraints, this was filmed in Oregon.

Aztec and Maya civilisations
Then there’s the Crystal Skull angle. Surely there’s scope for a story on the beliefs surrounding crystal skulls in the Aztec and Maya civilisations? This is especially the case if you can get to a site where the skulls have been found and city ruins remain.

Dig sites
And what about archaeology? Every time an Indiana Jones film comes out, there’s a boom in interest about archaeology. Visit a dig site, speak to one of the chaps scrabbling in the dirt, write about the growth of volunteer holidays where tourists can help out uncovering ancient secrets.

Using the plot
It’s all about thinking in themes again. The destinations may not have a direct link, but the plot does. To use another example, it’s possible to do a spy training course in the UK, stay at author Ian Fleming’s pad in Jamaica and visit a Spy Museum in Tampere, Finland. All could use the release of a Bond film as a topical hook.

Links to upcoming movies
And, if you think about it, there’s almost certainly something you have done or somewhere you have been that has some kind of link to an upcoming movie. That could make you money, if you can sell it.

#24 - Film-related travel stories

Or taking advantage of the set-jetters.

Filming locations
One excellent source of story ideas is the cinema. If a big movie is slated to come out soon, you can bet your bottom dollar that will be a market for a story on the filming locations used in it.
This is especially true if it’s been filmed somewhere exotic.

James Bond
I’ve now lost count of how many stories I’ve sold that have a tenuous link to James Bond. I once made the decision that I was going to watch all of the films, make notes of what happened in particularly interesting destinations, and then research where those destinations are.

Multiple articles
It was a real bugger of a task – at one point I never wanted to watch a Bond film again – but it paid off. I’ve sold multiple articles based on that research, and the material is timeless. Every two years or so, when a new Bond movie is released, I can re-package it and sell it on again.
It may be as the cities of James Bond, it may be as Bond’s beaches, it may be as the lairs of Bond villains. Either way, most of the work is done.

Quantum of Solace
Quantum of Solace – the latest in the Bond series - is out in November. Which reminds me – I should really start pitching the Bond material out again, especially given that I’m actually in the film*. It’s practically guaranteed that there will be a glut of Bond-related travel articles out there at the time.
I’m already doing two pieces on places featured in the new film (Panama and Siena, Italy), and I’m sure others will be doing more.

Pirates of the Caribbean
It’s not just Bond of course – most big films lead to a bit of a travel boom. There was Pirates of the Caribbean in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Lord of the Rings in New Zealand, and all manner of plodding costume dramas in England.
I’ve ended up trotting out travel articles on Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, The Italian Job, Star Wars, Roman Holiday, Mad Max, The Matrix and probably many more.

Internet Movie Database
But how do you find out about where these locations are and which movies are coming up? Well the Internet Movie Database is a fabulous resource, but can be scant on the details. Otherwise, tourist boards are always keen to promote anything filmed in their area. They’ll almost certainly have a list of films that have visited in the past, and ones that are due to arrive.

Apocalypse Now
Then there’s searching on the internet. Want to find out where the river from Apocalypse Now** is? Just do an internet search. The results may not be accurate, but at least they’re a starting point.

----------------

*I was in Siena while the crew were filming Il Palio, the famous horse race held in the city centre. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to pick myself out in the crowd in a wide shot. And I’m telling everyone that I’m the star until they can prove otherwise.

** It’s the Pagsanjan River in the Philippines, if you must know.

#22 – Why round-up articles are more likely to be accepted

Or taking advantage of the gap in the market.

Less competition
Editors (on the whole) love list articles, but that’s not the only reason you should start thinking about ideas for some and pitching them. The other is that other writers aren’t pitching them. There’s less competition.

Not glamorous – but profitable
Putting together a round-up article isn’t particularly glamorous or exciting, but that’s precisely why you should do it. Think about it – if you prefer to be writing flowing, literary prose about one destination, then there’s a high chance that most other writers out there are too.

Gap in the market
So if most other writers are pitching destination pieces that they enjoy writing, there’s something of a gap in the market, isn’t there? If you’re prepared to do the round-ups, then you’ve got a better chance of making a sale.

#21 – Why editors love round-up articles

Or playing the numbers game

Money-spinning list articles
Round-up – or list – articles are brilliant money-spinners for the freelance travel writer. I’m afraid that if you keep coming back to this site, you’re probably going to get bored of me saying that. I’m not going to apologise for this – it is a point well worth emphasising. Even if it is with a sledgehammer.

Editor response
I will always remember the response of one of my editors when I pitched him one of these best-of pieces. I can’t even remember what it was now (probably something like Top Ten Adrenaline Rushes in Australia), but the e-mail he sent commissioning it was very illuminating.

Number on the cover
I’m paraphrasing a little here, but his response was something along the lines of: “Yep, sounds great. And it’ll keep the publisher happy – get a number on the cover and all that.”
It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But an enticing magazine cover is a hugely important factor in getting readers to pick up and buy a magazine.

Top Ten or Fifty Best?
And list articles will do that. Think about when you read through a magazine or travel section. Most of us will flick past stories about destinations we’re not interested in. But when there’s a Top Ten, Fifty Best or 100 To Do Before You Die, we’ll look. Well I certainly do, and magazine sales figures suggest that others do too.

Menu of choices
Why do we do this? It’s partly out of curiosity – we want to know which has been deemed the best, and want to argue over it. It’s also partly because we like having a menu of choices – if we fancy going to a tropical island, it’s nice to have bite-sized round-ups of a few tropical islands to look through.

Selling more copies
To the publisher, however, it’s all about the bottom line. Sell more copies, make more money. And if having a few numbers on the front (30 greatest, top 50, whatever) sells more copies, then they’re going to want articles that allow them to do that.
And unless the editor doesn’t want to keep his or her job, (s)he is going to be looking for that sort of piece to put on the cover too. The magazine can have some of the best writing in the world, but ultimately the editor’s performance will be based on how many people buy the thing.

Not an isolated incident
This editor wasn’t the first to mention this tendency to me either – another said much the same thing when I proposed 50 Things To Do In Australia For Free to her. “Ooh – that’ll look good on the cover...”