All Posts in Category: Magazines
Test Drive A Personalized Selection of Magazine Breakdowns from the Travel Magazine Database Today for Just $5
Today’s holiday trivia: On January 8, Bulgarians celebrate the feast of Babinden. A female-focused affair, the event dates back to pre-Christian times and honors children, mothers, grandmothers, and childbirth as all babies born in the previous year are anointed with honey and butter, and young mothers bring the favorite traditional Bulgarian cream-filled pastry, banitsa, along with new clothes to their midwives.
I recently received an elated email from our of our readers and past retreat attendees about an upcoming assignment.
It’s her first $1 per word piece, and it’s for a national publication that is a household name even outside of the U.S.
In the past months since she joined us for our Pitchapalooza retreat, I’ve seen an enormous change in her confidence as she’s lined up recurring gig after recurring gig, allowing her to cut out her non-freelance writing work and have the time and space to move into pitching magazines.
But this was an enormous achievement to have just six months into buckling down on her freelance travel writing career coming from a completely different line of work without clips to speak of.
Today Snag One of the Limited Spots in Both Our At-Home Magazine Pitching Programs: IdeaFest and Pitchapalooza
Today’s holiday trivia: January 4 marks a major festival in the Ryukyuan religion, a formal of Shintoism practiced in the islands between Japan and Taiwan, particularly Okinawa. The hinukan, a hearth god that guards the sacred family fire, returns to the family after returning to its own home for several weeks and is welcomed with offerings of rice and local alcohol.
For today’s 12 Days of Holiday Specials offer, we’re giving you the first shot at accessing our newest opportunity to seriously up your magazine assignment game–the At-Home Ideafest Program.
Based on our live IdeaFest retreat, this new four-week program is designed to provide a serious and lasting foundation to turn you into an idea machine, turning up dozens of article ideas every day.
Grab 11 Webinars on Everything You Need to Know About Pitching for 75% Off
Today’s holiday trivia: Today begins the southern Colombian Blacks and Whites’ Carnival, which, unlike most carnival celebrations that mark the final day to indulge before the fasting period that precedes Easter, takes place from January 2 to 7 each year. This carnival was proclaimed a UNESCO of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity for its intricate traditions and interlacing of the private home into the street celebrations.
If you woke up today, the first workday of the new year, and thought to yourself or made yourself a promise somewhere along the lines of, “This year is going to be different. I am going to make sure that my travel writing takes off,” then this one is for you.
Why December Should Be the Busy Time of Year for Your (New) Freelance Travel Writing Business
Paying dues.
Such an obnoxious term.
As an adult, with years of experience at something, anything, it feels icky to have to start at the bottom of the totem pole in a new profession.
But, I’m not here to tell you that’s what you need to do when you are ramping up or transitioning into a new freelance travel writing business.
Not exactly.
Is There a Way for You to Get Paid to Write the Exact Same Things You Write on Your Blog?
When you hear the term essay, similar to the even more antiquated concept of a “composition,” you likely think back to your school days more quickly than your bank account.
Especially if the phrase used is “personal essay,” which fills an alarming number of people with dread.
The thing is, many of you are incredibly acquainted, both as readers and as writers, with the personal essays, just under a different name: blog posts.
FAQ About the Anniversary Special for Saving $90 on the Travel Magazine Database — EXPIRING TODAY
I just got off two coaching calls in a row with writers who have been writing for low- or non-paying outlets comfortably with good relationships with their editors but are intimidated to make the jump into paying markets.
Here’s the thing.
If you have been writing for an editor who doesn’t give you edits or in some way teach you about the industry and move your career forward, no matter how low or high the pay for those assignments are, or how quickly you can get the work done, or how easy the work is because you write it off the top of your head, you’re losing money in two ways:
- you’re missing out on mentoring, which is, like “exposure,” one of the things you should be getting in a bargain for lower rates (a.k.a. anything less than $1 per work—and I even mean online)
- you’re solidifying bad habits that are keeping you from getting future work from better markets, because these editors are examining your work with a fine tooth comb
Join Us From Home for Our Landmark Live Workshop on the State of Magazine Pitching
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Due to some requests from our readers outside the New York area, we’re making this Saturday’s workshop on how to Master Magazine Pitching available to attend even if you aren’t able to join us in person.
We’ve tested the streaming in the event space and the speed is excellent, but we’ll have someone onsite specifically attending to those tuning in remotely to make sure that you can share in all the exercises and get your questions answered as if you were there in person.
Why is this workshop special?
If an Editor Doesn’t Need Freelancers Now, Should You Try Later?
Welcome to the Dream of Travel Writing–the Monday Mailbag! We often get questions from readers, folks in our accountability group, or coaching program members that we think would apply to a lot of you.
Now, with permission, agony-aunt-style, we’ll be sharing a new one with you each Monday. If you have a question you’d like to see included, please send it to us at questions [at] dreamoftravelwriting.com and make sure to include a line saying we have permission to reprint your question.
On to the tricky travel writing questions!
Five Magazines Looking for Hotel & Accommodation Profiles
Welcome to the Friday Freebie Five, a new weekly feature on Dream of Travel Writing’s Six Figure Travel Writer blog.
Each week, we comb our Travel Magazine Database to bring you five magazine sections open to freelancers around a theme–front-of-book trend pieces, long-form first-person features, short narrative postcards–to inspire your pitches.
Conde Nast Traveller (India)
“Where to Stay” is made of up about six articles all focusing on hotels and accommodation options. Most of these highlight just-opened hotels which describe the amenities, activities on offer, and the surrounding area. These are usually around 300 words long and can be written in first or second person. There is also a profile of a well-known person which rounds up their five favorite hotels around the world in about 300 words. Examples of people who have been profiled include Ayan Mukerji, film-maker; Shilpa Gupta, artist; and Dia Mirza and Sahil Sangha, an actor and film-maker couple.
Five Magazines Looking for Profiles of Interesting People
Welcome to the Friday Freebie Five, a new weekly feature on Dream of Travel Writing’s Six Figure Travel Writer blog.
Each week, we comb our Travel Magazine Database to bring you five magazine sections open to freelancers around a theme–front-of-book trend pieces, long-form first-person features, short narrative postcards–to inspire your pitches.
SilverKris
“Close-Up” is a 300-to-350-word profile of a remarkable globetrotter. It’s written in third person, and often features a range of explorers, photographers, tech giants, artists, influencers, chefs, and journalists. One recent “Close-Up” caught up with motorcyclist Lois Pryce to learn about her solo travels through Iran, covering what she encountered there, how she navigated the land, and why she chose to embark upon the journey in the first place. Other profiles have covered award-winning underwater photographer Tony Wu, Michelin-star connoisseur Any Hayler, and CNN anchor Richard Quest. These profiles are always written with a travel news peg, whether that be linked to past trips, upcoming trips, a travel book release, or an unbelievable experience endured along the road. Text is accompanied by one central image and no sidebars.