Should I Set Up a Care Package for You? Last Chance to Join Our Anniversary Celebrations
Today is the last day (you can read more about why exactly that is in our FAQ below) to grab our landmark workshop on the state of freelance travel writing for magazines and how to master the pitching process.
If it’s not for you, no worries! Have a great weekend!
For those of you who think, as one writer recently wrote me, this could be exactly what you need to take your travel writing career to the next stage, we’ve compiled some answers to some questions we’ve been receive about the workshop itself and the opportunity to grab the replay and associated goodies sent to your house.
These are some of the concepts we dove into deeply during the event:
- the exact mechanics of how, when, and what to say to follow up on your pitches
- why editors are never stealing your idea—and what to do if you think they are
- exactly which portion of the magazine industry has the best rates right now for the writing you want to be doing
- how **exactly** with multiple workshopped examples to put together a pitch in five minutes
- and much more about the state of the magazine industry today and how to excel in it
To read the full original description and the exact modules and ex of the workshop, head here.
Since those joining from home have missed out on the onsite goodies, we’re going to send all those who register to attend from home a special box with:
- a copy of The Six-Figure Travel Writing Road Map (if you already have one, you can give this one to
- a friend for Christmas! It’s included with the workshop)
- a new hard-to-find, independent travel magazine in line with your travel writing interests
- some other surprises!
If you’d like to get the replay and care package, just register here for $43. You’ll automatically receive an email with some questions to help us put together your package along with the link to the raw replay file.
We’ll send out the cleaned up link, connected to your email you’ve used to register, after registration closes tonight.
Why are we sending you care packages?
Because this was a special event for us (particularly with the anniversary party after) we had special homemade treats, many sourced directly from our farm in the Catskills for this event.
Part of joining the workshop from home as we were running it live was to share the experience with those attending there and not get, well, I guess it’s not FOMO if it’s past tense, but more like FLYMO (feeling like you’ve missed out).
I don’t want you to have FLYMO!
I want you to feel the energy of the special occasion right along with the rest of those who attended in person and remotely during the workshop itself. That’s why we’re sending you a care package with both work-related items and a special treat for joining for just the replay.
What those who joined us live had to say about the workshop:
- Thank you Gabi and the other ladies! learned a lot!
- Thanks for a great day Gabi :o)
- Thank you for a great workshop. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make it in person as I had originally intended, but it was fantastic that I was able to listen-in from my sick bed. Cheers all!
One attendee couldn’t join us live because she came down with a bad flu, but she was enjoying the workshop so much she was right there with us chiming in on every exercise!
Why do we need to know by end of day today, Friday, if you are purchasing the replay?
The magazines that we shared live with workshop attendees in New York and have already sent to you freelance colleagues who joined us from home for the workshop are not easy to find.
You simply can’t get them reliably, in a wide selection, outside very major cities like New York and London (I couldn’t even find a place to get them in San Francisco this week looking for ones to send to those that joined us from home for the workshop on Saturday!).
These independent magazines don’t have the distribution network for shops to have them in stock, though they can special order them, and they are primarily available through direct subscription, which is quite costly as they typically run $20+ a pop.
To pick out an independent magazines that is a fit for each of you, I need to be able to go to a store in one of these really major cities, and that’s not possible with my schedule until February after the next week or so.
So to make sure I can put together a really special care package for you, I need to get it done next week, specifically on Monday, when I’ve cleared my schedule in the afternoon to head into central Manhattan and go magazine hunting.
Why is this workshop a special one-time event?
We mentioned that this workshop was held in honor of the one-year anniversary of the official launch of the Travel Magazine Database (along with several other things we offer, like our webinars and retreats in the Catskills), but something that was only shared with attendees in particular was a never-before-seen analysis of the magazine industry, as it relates to travel writers, that we have been able to put together based on the information in the Travel Magazine database.
With each entry in the database (of which there are no more than 500), we break out each individual section that is open to freelance writers along with the make-up of that section (round-up vs. feature vs. profile; how many words; exactly what type of topics are covered).
We also look at the size and make-up of the editorial staff, the pay rates, the parent companies, if multiple magazines are edited by the same editor or company, allowing for more assignments for writers with less work on the pitching and relationship building side.
One of my jobs is to look at those trends as they emerge in the database and share them with you all in our regular webinars.
But for this event, I did a few more things:
- Just before the workshop, I attended one of the largest travel trade shows in the world and interviewed both editors and freelance writers about changes they’ve seen in the industry in the past year in terms of assignments for writers and how editors are working with writers today.
- While in London for the trade show, I also spoke directly to magazine distributors and publishers based in London about what magazines are succeeding, starting, folding, increasing frequency, or selling well and likely to grow in the near future.
- On my own, I also performed a huge spreadsheet analysis of the number of opportunities for freelance writers in terms of different types of articles (i.e. features vs. news briefs, or narrative vs. reported pieces) and how those vary by type of magazine.
Since those stars don’t align often, in terms of my ability to have all of this information on hand and top of mind while teaching a workshop, this is not a workshop that we can offer regularly, in a shortened version (we actually went quite over as the discussion was so rich!), or on location (because I couldn’t even fit the number of magazines we had on hand in one suitcase if I tried–let alone lift it).
If you’d like to join the party with us and get your care package, just register here.