All Posts in Category: Pitching Writing Clients
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?
A Simple Technique to Never Go Home Without the Shots You Need Again
It’s happened to all of us.
You go somewhere a.maze.ing.
You take *tons* of photos.
The light is even fantastic, even though the weather forecast was crap.
All in all you can’t believe your luck (because we all know how easy it is to plan a big day of shooting only to have it foiled by weather, equipment issues, construction, or an entirely unrelated personal emergency), and you are sure you have a memory card full of excellent shots to sell, use on social, and support an epic photo essay on your blog.
This: You Asked for Examples of Excellent Brand Content Marketing
A little while back, someone wrote me a question for the Monday Mailbag series that I wasn’t quite sure how to answer: what are some great examples of company content marketing writing (particularly blogs) and magazine articles?
Hard to answer, not because I haven’t seen them, but because there are so many!
Are You Putting Your Best Foot Forward When You Blog for Other Websites?
We all write online, right?
We write social media posts. We write blog posts. We write for other people’s websites (whether for pay or as a guest post).
On our blogs, voice matters. The “product” you’re selling (whether to advertisers, those providing free trips, or other types of sponsors) is often eye balls. And your voice and other unique aspects of your style are what distinguishes you in that race for eyeballs.
On travel company websites, the product is what they’re selling. It’s laid out there in black and white. Tours, safaris, hotel rooms, you name it.
With tourism boards, they’re selling a destination, its hotel rooms, its restaurants and its experiences.
The words are not the product.
Big Changes Are Coming to Our At-Home IdeaFest, Pitchapalooza, and TravelContentCon Programs
There are a lot of changes coming to our at-home programs–the versions of our live events, like Pitchapalooza, that take place over several weeks that you do from home rather than our location in the Catskills.
- major changes coming to ensure participants participate and finish their programs
- moving to a university-like model in many ways–your lessons and homework are when they are, and they’re due when they’re do–to move further away from the issues with online courses that people never finish
- new TravelContentCon and IdeaFest programs on the horizon
- IdeaFest (live or at-home) will now be a prerequisite Pitchapalooza (live or at-home)
- groups will be smaller and prices for some programs will change, but there will be much more personal attention as a result (in some cases more similar to a limited-term intensive coaching program, like at the retreats) and it will allow me to even run programs with just three people at a time if that’s who we have at that time (see–extra personal attention!)
- participation in group discussions (on a discussion platform for pitch- and idea-related programs or in group calls for TravelContentCon) will be a core component as it is essential to success–MFA programs are based on group critique sessions for a reason Read More
How to Sell Your Blogging Services to Tourism Boards and Travel Companies (Even When They Don’t Say They Need Writers)
Almost universally, when people start travel writing, or even considering whether it’s a viable possibility as an actual income-generating career, they google some form of “paying travel websites,” “travel writing jobs,” or “travel magazine pay.”
On a recent coaching call, a writer I had asked to assemble lists of online markets (places to writer for) that interested her around certain themes like running, New York City and the Hudson Valley, and expat life, ran into this issue. Rather than focusing on legitimate markets around her specific areas of expertise, she embarked on some general googling. It wasn’t an inspiring journey, to say the least.
How Do You Follow Up on Informal Assignments from Editors?
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!
Are You Pitching Square Ideas to Round Magazine Sections?
I’ve learned to really hate the term “angle.”
It’s so mushy. What does it really mean? I poked around, and even Google didn’t seem very forthcoming with a definition. Here’s as far as I got:
“In books, it’s called the premise (a woman works her way through Julia Child’s cookbook in a year). In advertising, it’s called the handle (“Trix are for kids!”). In movies, it’s the concept (humans invade the magical habitat of peaceful blue beings on another planet). In an essay, an angle is the controlling idea.”
– Writer’s Digest
“This ‘angle’ is the specific way a news source addresses an issue by offering one perspective or point of view of that story. “
– New York Times
“Short for news angle, it is that aspect of a story which a journalist chooses to highlight and develop. Usually the most newsworthy of its key points. Also called hook or peg. ”
– The News Manual Journalism and Media Glossary
Over time teaching travel writing, and specifically generating article ideas, to writers, I’ve found that it does more harm than good.
Unless You Plan Your Research Around Specific Pitches, Press Trips Can Be a Serious Waste of Time
After I had left my job, decided running a food blog business full-time was not for me because it was too difficult (with international internet options at the time) for my travel plans, and started doubling down on freelance travel writing, I was confronted again and again by established travel writers who didn’t actually travel.
A Very Special Webinar with Guests from Two Tourism Boards!
Photo by Cole Hutson on Unsplash
In the first webinar in our series on conducting interviews that take your stories to the next level, I talked about the very first interview that I ever did for my first blog with the editor of mega food website Epicurious.
At the time, to prepare for the interview, I read articles on tons of general journalism websites about how to prepare interview questions, and I dutifully wrote, re-wrote, re-worded, scraped, re-wrote, and re-worded all of my questions until I was sure I had the perfect set.
But when I was doing the actual interview, it lacked energy, connection, and opportunities to get great quotes because I was so focused on my prepared questions.