All Posts in Category: Pitching Writing Clients
The Incredibly Simple Secret to Successful Pitches
Successful pitches are the single biggest way to completely up your publishing track record.
But the sad thing is, it’s also the biggest area in which most aspiring, struggling, and even working writers with flourishing businesses flounder.
Never Say “I Just Couldn’t Get Anyone to Publish My Story” Again
It breaks my heart when I see writers go on a trip, come home, spend months waiting to hear about one story idea pitch to one magazine (and waiting for far too long to follow up with that editor) and then say with a sigh:
“I went on this great trip, saw this festival that only happens once every seven years, and got great photos. I know it’s a great story, but I just can’t get anyone to publish it.
3 Ways (You Probably Haven’t Thought of) to Land Your Next Gig at a Conference
Whatever the business occasion, I am all about looking at outside of the box ways to rock it.
- Travel media conference? Get an AirBnB and host a dinner party the day after the conference wraps where people can keep talking to their favorite new people—or finally meet the ones they didn’t get a chance to talk to.
- Trade show rife with tour companies hawking their wares to travel agents? Scout their storytelling, website and other marketing channels and pitch them on how they can improve it to close more deals by next year’s conference even for a fraction of the cost of being an exhibitor.
- Press trip? Chat with, sincerely thank, get business cards from and follow up with the owners of each business exhibited on the trip rather than just snapping photos, eating their food and trusting (or not caring if?) the CVB takes care of those things.
Can You Send a New Version of the Same Pitch to the Same Editor?
We often get questions from readers and coaching program members that we think would apply to a lot of you and so with permission–agony-aunt-style–we’ll share some of these with you on our blog from time to time. On to the tricky travel writing questions!
Join Us for Free Travel Writing Lessons on Finding Article Ideas and Powering Up Your Pitches
In the two years since we began running regular one-hour travel writing classes, we’ve covered more than 80 topics, including:
- how to land free trips
- how to get paid really, really well for your writing
- how to get on magazine editors’ good sides
- how to navigate every step of the process to land travel content marketing work, including phone calls and proposals
- how to keep your hourly rate down so your bank account goes up
- how to get work done on the road
- how to write, step-by-step, 15 different types of travel articles
- how to land guidebook and other traditional publishing deals
You can grab access to all of our past webinars (and a ton of other resources you can’t find anywhere else) with a subscription to our Dream Buffet or grab them one-by-one when you need them in our On-Demand Webinar Library for a set with the video, audio, transcript, and slides.
But we also air a free replay of one of our travel writing classes each and every weekday.
How to Pitch Five Magazines Looking for Profiles of Interesting People (Edition IV)
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.
Alaska Beyond
“In Focus” takes the form of a profile covering an interesting person at the top of their field or someone doing something new and innovative. These people are usually based in the U.S. or Canada. Profiles are written in third person, include quotes throughout, and they cover the person’s career, what they do, and any upcoming projects. Recent examples from this section include “Cooking at the Water’s Edge,” covering a chef who’s inspired by Pacific Northwest ingredients, “This Stone is Rolling,” which profiles a musician on his upcoming album and tour, and “The Great Bear Filmmaker,” about a filmmaker and his documentaries covering the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada.
How to Pitch Five Magazines Looking for City Profiles (Edition IX)
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.
WestJet Magazine
“Four Ways” details four ways to experience a city as a different type of person, for example a foodie, a music lover, an active traveler, and a history fan. For each section, the subheadings of “Where to Stay,” “What to Do,” and “What to Eat” are found with one recommendation for each. It’s written in second person and is about 1,000 words long with each recommendation giving a short description of the place. The 20-word sidebar of “Getting There” is also found which highlights flight details from Canada with WestJet. This section can sometimes appear as “Two Ways” giving two ways to experience a city. Examples include Ottawa, covering active travelers, culture lovers, foodies, and politics fans; Chicago as a food lover, wellness seeker, baseball fan, and travelers looking for style; and Nashville, with recommendations for foodies, music fans, hipsters, and history fans.
How to Pitch Five Magazines Looking for Front-of-Book Trend Pieces (Edition IV)
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
“Curators” is a collection of three opinion pieces, written by three different writers, where an expert shares their thoughts on their topic and trends in their industry. The expert is often working in Singapore. It’s written in a first-person as-told-to style and each piece runs to about 400 words long. Recent articles in this section include: a food writer on why plant-based eating is more than just a fad, the co-founder of Singaporean fashion label on how fashion brands are turning to real-life stores over ecommerce, and the managing partner of a hospitality company on the rise of private member’s clubs.
Join Us–On the House–For Our At-Home IdeaFest Program This Fall
Now that summer (in the Northern Hemisphere at least) has drawn to a close, people are wrapping up their last sun-seeking vacations and getting down to business both for the fall and the year ahead.
I’m not just talking about us writers–I mean editors.
Particularly those New York and London major-pub editors, who may have been catching the summer scene at an acquaintance’s place for the summer holidays, are heading back to their desks, getting down to business, and catching up on emails and plans for 2020.
With the big-O year, major anniversaries, and the Japan Olympics on the horizon, editors have a lot of decisions to make about what they’ll cover next year.
Shouldn’t your stories get their best shot for consideration?
How to Pitch Five Magazines Looking for Neighborhood Profiles (Edition II)
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.
Brownbook
“Cities” is made up of two articles which focus on the city the issue is based on. In 800 to 1,000 words, the articles can focus on a specific attraction, cultural site, or neighborhood. The piece describes this in third person covering the history and meaning to the city and uses quotes from several sources such as locals who live there or people or work in an attraction being covered. Recent articles found in “Cites” from the Ankara issue include “Kavaklıdere,” which describes the neighborhood with quotes from locals who living there, and “Ankara State Opera and Ballet,” which covers the history of the performance venue with quotes from those who work there.