travel writing and publishing

experiment

2011-01-29T14:01:00.000-08:00

I am trying to see if I can make the hyperlinks work.

Lonely Planet ad for authors

2010-09-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

If you've ever wondered how Lonely Planet gets their authors then check out this blurb from their site. Of course they are always looking for someone specific for a line they are promoting at the moment. No book proposals please.

Become an author

Guidebooks
Updated September 2010

Each month we receive many applications from people who want to be authors for Lonely Planet. We read them all, then invite those with promise to submit a writing sample. We set the bar high. Last year out of over 500 applications we recruited eight new authors. We have more than 200 skilled and experienced freelance authors working on guidebooks from Sydney to Senegal and currently all our needs are met. If you’re interested in being an author for LP, come back to this part of the site in October for the latest update, and if we’re recruiting for someone with your expertise, please drop us a line.

Naked vacations -- the new way to go?

2010-08-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

I received this PR release and thought it was so funny, just had to share it:

Skyscanner USA Reveals the Five Best Naked Vacations
From: "Skyscanner"

During January to April of 2010, the U.S. airline industry raked in over $760 million in baggage fees alone*. Holidaymakers who are fed up with paying excessive baggage charges should consider a “nakation” – the ultimate way to pack light! In fact a recent poll revealed that 2% of holidaymakers took a nakation just to avoid paying baggage charges.

With no bulky clothes, packing for a naked holiday is simple. Just remember ample supplies of sun block! Cheap flights comparison site Skyscanner.com reveals the top five places to strip off.

Naked Sauna – Kotiharju, Helsinki, Finland
Finns have long enjoyed getting hot and naked with their friends and the country boasts an average of one sauna for every household. The Kotiharju Sauna in Helsinki claims to be the only remaining public sauna in the city that is still heated by a wood burning stove and is highly recommended as a place to strip off with up to 30 other strangers and steam yourself silly.

Naked Golf – La Jenny, France
Easily reached with plenty of cheap airfare to Europe, La Jenny naturist resort in South West France offers Europe’s only naked golf course. With six holes spread over 22 acres, as well as an indoor and outdoor driving range, golfers can forgo the sometimes-tacky, plaid pants in favor of of a more natural look!

Naked Village – Costa Natura, Spain
This cosmopolitan village on the Costal Del Sol has nearly 200 apartments and was the first naturist settlement in Spain. Fans of nakedness enjoy the freedom of roaming in their birthday suits in a quiet, secluded place with fellow nude enthusiasts. Holidaymakers can grab flights from New York with a connector to Malaga and get naked with the villagers in no time.

Naked Festival – Japan
Every year in the town of Okayama, 9,000 scantily clad men take to the streets to celebrate Hadaka Matsuri – Naked Festival. An important Shinto tradition, the event has become popular with tourists who also join the locals dressed only in loin cloths. The festival cumulates in a giant naked scrum where participants try to touch a ‘special naked man’ who is believed can absorb all bad luck.

Naked Scuba Diving
If coming close to creatures of the underwater world isn’t exciting enough – why not take skinny dipping to new depths with a naked dive? Buff Divers is a company that offers ‘clothing optional’ scuba at sites all around the world. Cold water dives are obviously out, so expect tropical locations and warm seas. Naked divers should watch out for stinging creatures, spiky sea urchins and stray conger eels.

About Skyscanner:
Skyscanner is a leading travel search site providing instant online comparisons on flight prices for over 670,000 routes on over 600 airlines.

PR Contact:
Scot Carlson

Are Travel Guidebooks obsolete?

2010-06-26T07:30:00.001-07:00

It doesn't look like they are according to the following AP article. But this is topic number one among guidebook writers on gather and discuss stuff on various writers lists. One thing is certain...books are being written with more and more apps in mind.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20100513/ap_tr_ge/travel_cybertrips_evolving_guidebooks_1

Travel Writing Prize

2010-06-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

This announcement was forwarded to me from another travel writer - so if you have ever been to Heidelberg or plan to go, make a note.

Heidelberg Announces World's Largest Travel Writing Prize

New York City, June 14, 2010---Dr. Eckart Wuerzner, the Lord Mayor of Heidelberg, announced a new prize, the Heidelberg Mark Twain Award, for travel writing about his famed German city. The prize, which will be awarded every three years, includes a prize of Euros 5,000 and an all-expenses paid trip for two to Heidelberg in September 2011. This is the largest single travel-writing award in the English language, to the sponsor's knowledge. The contest is administered by the Heidelberg Club of New York, which is also selecting the judges for the event. The contest invites articles, books, videos and movie submissions, but not still photographs. First submissions due December 15, 2010, second and final submissions are due by April 1, 2011.

Full details and Official Rules on Heidelberg Club International website, www.hcionline.de, click on HCI Awards program. Questions? Email marktwain.heidelberg@gmail.com.

Robert Haru Fisher, Columnist & Contributing Editor
www.frommers.com
email bobharu@aol.com
www.bobharu.com, www.travelwritingworkshop.org, www.madtravelwriter.com

Samuel Adams Beer Tour

2010-06-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a short vacation in Boston. Took a few tours -- inside Fenway Park, the Boston Public Gardens, a visit to Concord and the skywalk at Prudential Center. Will get around to writing about them at various article repositories since this blog is not meant for travel articles as much as articles about travel writing.

Anyway, here is my first -- the Samuel Adams beer tour which features free beer!
http://massachusetts-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/free-beer-on-the-samuel-adams-beer-tour

Travel Writing Class

2010-04-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a press release about an online travel writing course. Don't know if it's any good or not but the Gotham Writers' Workshop has been around for quite some time. Of course newspaper and magazine writing gigs are shrinking so I hope they include a list of paying gigs from the online world.

Learn Travel Writing Online with Gotham Writer's Workshop and the New Yok Times Knowledge Network

New York, NY (4/6/10) Gotham Writers' Workshop to present online Travel Writing workshop in collaboration with The New York Times Knowledge Network.

Aspiring travel writers can now learn their craft from any location on the globe - so long as they have an Internet connection - when they enroll in Gotham Writers' Workshop's 11-week travel writing workshop presented in collaboration with The New York Times Knowledge Network.

This comprehensive online class will be taught by Colleen Kinder, author of the guidebook Delaying the Real World (Running Press), and features a week-long online visit with Michelle Higgins, the "Practical Traveler" columnist for The New York Times.

During the first 10 weeks of class, the instructor covers the full spectrum of travel writing from newspaper and magazine articles to guidebooks to travel memoirs and essays. Students learn how to choose destinations and story angles, research ideas, utilize travel resources, craft compelling travel pieces, tailor work for the marketplace, and more. During the final week, the guest columnist answers student questions in a week-long Q&A.

Gotham's online writing classes, selected "Best of the Web" by Forbes, feature everything one would find in the school's popular New York City workshops-lectures on craft, class discussions, writing exercises, and personal feedback from a professional writer. The small class size, only 16 students, facilitates discussion and extensive student-teacher interaction.

Appropriate for the beginning travel writer or an experienced professional, the school's travel writing workshops help participants take their writing to the next level. Busy writers and travelers appreciate the online format that fits any schedule, allowing students to participate in class from home, the office, or an Internet caf? in some distant land.

This Travel Writing workshop begins on May 11, 2010. Early enrollment is recommended as class size is strictly limited.

Interested students can obtain additional information or enroll by visiting NYTKN.WritingClasses.com or calling 1-877-974-8377 toll-free.

Gotham also offers a five-week How to Freelance online seminar and eleven-week Article Writing I, Advanced Article Writing, and Food Writing workshops in collaboration with The New York Times Knowledge Network.

The New York Times Knowledge Network was launched in 2007 to deliver lifelong learning programs on timely subjects, pairing a rich array of Times articles, archives, graphics and multimedia content - and the participation of Times reporters, columnists and editors - with faculty course material at participating colleges and universities. These online programs are a significant expansion of a program that has provided copies of the paper, accompanied by curriculum guides, to faculty at colleges and universities for several years, bringing the resources of The Times into classrooms as part of the learning experience. With this Knowledge Network, Times resources are readily available to students online, whether they are enrolled in an on-campus course or continuing their education through a distance learning program

###

For additional information, contact Andre Becker, President, Gotham Writers' Workshop via email andre@write.org or by calling 1-877-974-8377.

Attention, Travel Writers -Bootsnall now paying!

2010-03-01T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well, it was bound to happen. What with content mills paying writers (albeit not much)for all sorts of articles, including travel articles and pictures, Boots N All couldn't keep going on free submissions forever. They've always had a staff -- now they are taking applications for writers for specific places. Something like the About.com guides. This would entail a base payment (something like $100) plus a share in ad revenue. So they want someone to cover Italy or New York or Tunisia. Anyway, it's a step in the right direction.

http://www.bootsnall.com

Top travel guides

2010-01-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

Haven't had much time for my blog since I've been writing for Associated Content, Suite 101 and Examiner.com.
I did do an article for AssociatedContent about the top travel guides. Of course I think there are many interesting guides that are not done by brand-name travel books.
From what I hear on the travel writers talk lists, guidebook publishers are cutting out royalty payments altogether (Fodor's did years ago)and just paying flat fee. That means Moon and others although there might be exceptions.
Here's the article. Hope this link works.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2440218/top_travel_guides.html?cat=16

Travel writers as curators

2009-11-04T17:37:00.001-08:00

Now that travel writing in newspapers and magazines is a shrinking market and even guidebooks seem to wobble at the competition from the internet, there's a whole lot of speculation about the future on travel writers websites and community lists. Here's a pondering from Rick Steves as it appeared on worldhum.com a popular travel site.http://www.worldhum.com/features/rick-steves/travel-writer-as-curator-20091102/

Local guide expands coverage

2009-10-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

A friend of my daughter's, named Amy Lamperti, started a playground guide for Morris County New Jersey. She did an initial printing of 2500. She has already reprinted. But she also has expanded the line with two new books, written by other authors, that cover other counties in New Jersey.
This is an example of a local travel guide that can be done better by a local self-publisher than by a big press. Shows that there is still hope for the local writer. She also sold adspace in the guide for local kid-oriented shops to counter the cost of production (which was high since she used many color photographs in the pages.
I did a review of the book at:http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8862-New-Jersey-Day-Trips-Examiner~y2009m9d30-Want-to-go-on-a-cheap-playdate-Check-out-the-Playground-Guide

Emerging Writer: How to Write the Perfect Travel Article

2009-09-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

Emerging Writer: How to Write the Perfect Travel Article

A Great Review

2009-09-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

It's always nice when someone reviews your book--even after it has been out a year or two. This one is from Brad Grochowski who has become a strong advocate of independent books. Brad's very active in the Baltimore cultural scene also. Here's the review:

http://www.indiebookman.com/2009/09/crafting-travel-guidebook-and-healthy.html

List of travel magazines

2009-08-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to Matador's list of travel writing magazines. It's a freebie. Can't vouch that you'll get a paying assignment out of it, but a freebie's a freebie so it can't hurt to get the list. Of course they want your name--you have to fill out a form. But it's a legitimate outfit. Everybody needs new eyeballs nowadays.
http://matadoru.com/freebie

And speaking of eyeballs, I think I make a penny, every time someone reads one of my New Jersey Day Trips articles over at www.examiner.com. Just type in my name--Barbara Hudgins--in the search space. At least one of my articles should come up. My latest ones were on the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

2009-07-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

Doesn't this just always happen? You buy a stock in August and then September the market collapses. You buy a dress on Wednesday and it goes on sale for half-price the following Friday.

The BBC bought Lonely Planet Guidebooks and magazines (I didn't even know they had magazines) at the height of their popularity. Then the recession hit and travel plans shrunk, while free online travel websites and blogs seduced a lot of readers away from guidebooks. Read the story here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/14/bbc-worldwide-magazines-lonely-planet

2009-07-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how travel writers find writing gigs for guidebooks? There are professional groups that you have to pay to join where you can often find information. Also subscription lists like travelwriters.com. But many writers simply comb the websites of known travel publishers. I was surprised to learn that Craigslist was one place where a writer can find an assignment.

I have opted for Google alerts for the words "travel writing" and "writing a travel guide" Most of the links that pop up are for blogs from other travel writers or simply people journaling about their trip to Thailand or some college kid boasting or moaning about the girls/pot/rooms/rides he did or did not get.

But today I happened to see a link to a joblist website that had an ad for a guidebook writer for Williamsburg, Virginia. I never heard of the company, but new ones pop up all the time. The advance money is no great shakes, but they offer 10% of the retail price of the book which is a lot better than 10% or even 12% of the net price.

The publishers are obviously interested in someone local and someone who has the time to do the job. Check it out, even if you are not interested just to see what some publishers want. And if you do get involved check out the contract very carefully. There is always room for negotiation in some areas. And check out the company to see what other books they have published and who their other authors are.
Here's the link:
http://www.telecommutejoblist.com/travel-writer-wanted-williamsburg-travel-book-williamsburg.html

travel writing: the good,the bad and the ugly

2009-07-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how a travel article is received? Here's a funny anecdote from David Farley on the reaction to his article about a tiny, hillside Italian town that landed in the NY Times and landed him in trouble--for awhile.

http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-stories/on-the-perils-and-popularity-of-travel-writing-20090704/N2/

Want to Travel and get paid for it?

2009-07-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

Want to travel the world and get paid for it? That’s the tag line for any number of courses and workshops. But sometimes opportunities appear in the real world. Take, for instance, www.oyster.com. That’s a new website that’s rather like a web magazine. It concentrates on hotel reviews and they are using professional writers as reporters for the site.

By professional I mean the writers will get paid or at least it seems that they will be paid. The ad for jobs mentions medical and dental coverage and it certainly sounds like the company will pay for the writers to stay in the hotels. That’s a step forward because most guidebook publishers expect their authors to shell out expenses from their own pockets using the advance money to cover the costs.

Oyster seems to have a good idea. Have people who know how to write and take photographs (another essential of the job) cover hotels at specific destinations and write about them honestly. In other words, mention the problems as well as the privileges the venue provides. Rather like Trip Advisor as done by professionals.

If you have ever read most travel e-zines (or regular travel magazines for that matter) you know that the emphasis is on the breathtaking views, the wonderful service, the sugary white beaches and so on. They never mention the croaking frogs, the stale muffins, the erratic telephone service or other problems that pop up when you travel. Oyster is looking for the whole picture—including authentic pictures of rooms, pools and lobbies that have not been Photoshopped.

So far Oyster has gotten a roster of reporters—all fairly young and proficient at taking photographs. They have submission guidelines and at the moment they are looking for regular reporters not one-shot feature writers. Don’t know about the future. They definitely want some writing experience but they don't seem to have any taboo about writing from the first person point of view. (Actually, I doubt anyone under the age of forty knows how to write from the third person POV anymore.)

I have looked at the Jobs section and although it mentions plenty of perks I don’t remember an actually salary being discussed. As you know, many content sites do not offer salaries. Not for writers anyway. The SEO people and other techies get paid. Writers often get profit sharing. That means that if the site gets ads, the content provider will get a share.

Guidebooks were originally meant to fill the particular need of unbiased reporting. Unlike travel magazines, guidebooks are sold direct to the customer so there is no need to sugarcoat the truth. In reality, many travel writers get freebies from airlines and hotels so their write-ups tend to be slanted. But lately guidebooks have become either a pile of statistics or a venture into narcissitic exploring.

Will Oyster succeed? If they tell the truth about hotels, how will the owners get ads from hotels to pay the bills? At this time they have a bunch of investors to keep them going. I guess like AssociatedContent.com and Examiner.com they are waiting for big Daddy Googlebucks to come along and buy them out. Since I write for both Examiner and Associated Content let me clue you in that they pay very little—although writers who know how to promote themselves and are SEO savvy can make some freelance dough.

The two owners of Oyster seem to have an interesting rationale for their website. I think guidebooks can still fill much of that need and I hope anyone interested in writing a guidebook reads my “Crafting the Travel Guidebook.” Because one thing I have always believed in is telling the truth to the reader. Your loyalty should not be to the state or the country or the attraction you are covering—but to the ultimate traveler who will visit there and should know what to expect and what to look out for.

An Interview with Liz Hamill Scott, author of Moon California

2009-05-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCTION: Liz Hamill Scott loves her overpriced home in the Silicon Valley just
as much as she loves escaping it for a weekend getaway or a month-long vacation. A full-time travel, food, wine, and lifestyle writer, Liz is the author of the all new Moon California travel guidebook. She’s also written numerous articles for magazines and newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, Living Without Magazine, Coastal Living, and Cabin Life. She blogs about her adventures in traveling, cooking, and gardening at her blog, Eats, Writes, and Leaves—www.eatswritesandleaves.com.

BARBARA: You are the author of Moon Handbooks California. How did you get the gig? Did you find a request on the publisher’s website? Was it through a subscription travel market newsletter that lists openings for particular destinations? Was it through your own blog or website?

LIZ: I got this gig by answering an ad on Craigslist. Seriously. I saw their ad on the SFBay Writers/Editors Jobs board. I knew that Avalon was a reputable publisher, so I cross-checked their Acquisitions web site to make sure the ad was for real. It was. So I submitted all the materials they requested. They liked my submission, so I made it to the phone interview phase. Based on the interview, I (along with 2 other candidates) was selected to submit a full book proposal, which I was given about two weeks to put together. The Acquisitions editor chose my proposal as her favorite, and I won the contract.

BARBARA: Congratulations! Is this a later edition of a previous work?

LIZ: Yes and no. This is officially the Second Edition of Moon California.
The first edition was written and updated regularly by Kim Weir. The “second edition” is 100% new content, by me. I’ve never read the first edition or any of its updates.

BARBARA: With Moon handbooks (published by Avalon Travel) do you have to do your own maps and index?

LIZ: Index, no. Avalon provides professional indexers. Maps, I provide a “rough draft,” with destinations plotted on an existing map of my choice. Avalon has a cartography department that draws new maps based on my draft submissions.

BARBARA: Are you allowed to use photographs from the public domain and ad agencies or does the publisher insist they be your own? Some publishers do not allow public domain photos. Others commission the photographs separately. How does Avalon work?

LIZ: Avalon lets me use public domain photos, though they prefer that I submit as many original photos as I can. (Some places it’s just not possible for me to do it myself, such as Disneyland. Uncle Walt keeps a tight grasp on rights to his images.)

I don’t have to source my own public domain images—-I have a photo editor to do that for me. Something like 80% of the photos in Moon California are mine, taken
either by myself or my ex-husband Lance Scott.

BARBARA: California is a big subject. And Moon has guidebooks to particular parts of
California like the Monterey peninsula. How did you apportion the several parts of the state? Who does the selection—you or the editor?

LIZ: I did most of the selection, though my editor had the final veto and selection
power.(I would not have put Santa Cruz in the Central Coast chapter.) That was one of the fun parts of working with Avalon—they really wanted my take on the state.

BARBARA: I see on the Amazon site that you are also writing the California Coastal Guide. Is this a later edition of a previous work?

LIZ: Avalon is trying something new with the upcoming Moon Coastal California, Moon Northern California, and Moon Southern California books. Like Moon California, they are new editions, not updates of Kim Weir’s guides.

Instead of having me write these guides from scratch, they are sourcing most of the content for these three guides from my new edition of Moon California. I provided new itineraries and keynotes for each new book. I also beefed up the Wine Country chapter.

BARBARA: In my book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook, I spend a lot of time talking
about constructing a guidebook from scratch. Moon Handbooks and many other
“branded” guidebooks work from a preset format. How did you adjust to that?
Were you in close contact with an editor or editors?

LIZ: Because I have a 10-year background as a technical writer, I was
not bothered by following a preset format. In fact, I found it helpful. I didn’t have to worry about formatting—I could concentrate on content.

I worked very closely with my editor, Sabrina Young. She was awesome! She took great care of me, was patient when I needed deadline extensions, and helped me make Moon California a better book.

BARBARA: Aside from the general descriptions there are dozens of short descriptions
of restaurants, nightclubs, attractions, etc. Here’s a question every travel guidebook writer gets asked (I know I was). How many of these places did you actually visit?

LIZ: This is the dirty little secret of the travel guidebook industry.
No, I didn’t visit every single spot I list in the book.

BARBARA: Many travel publishers, such as Fodor’s, pay their authors on a
write-for-hire basis, rather than a royalty basis. How does Moon work?

LIZ: Avalon offers a traditional advance-on-royalties and royalty payment
to its authors. I receive 12% (twelve percent) royalties on Moon California. The advance was paid in two parts—half on signing, half on mss acceptance. Your published readers will know that this is a pretty good deal!

I have the same deal with the three new books that are sourced from
Moon California. Though I’m a new author, I feel good about working for Avalon Travel
Publishing. They ask a lot of me in terms of work, but I think they’re taking pretty good care of me, that they value their authors, and offer us a fair cut of the profits for our work.

BARBARA: Well, they certainly sound good, compared to some others. I also see you are on Examiner.com. I tried it for awhile. Everybody and his brother seems to be an examiner. How do you like them?

LIZ: I’ve only been the San Jose Weekend Getaway Examiner for a short time, so I don’t have a good feel for them yet.

The good news for me is that Examiner.com lets me cross-post from other blogs. Because I’m currently contracted as a blogger on Moon.com to support Moon California, I write posts for Moon and cross-post them to Examiner and to Eats, Writes, and Leaves. Three blogs’ worth of exposure for the price of one article works for me!

BARBARA: That makes sense. By the way, have you even thought of doing a book from scratch—i.e. not a branded-name book?

LIZ: I am thinking about writing a niche guidebook (or series) especially
for folks with food allergies and “hidden” physical disabilities. (I am a chronic pain patient.) That would require creating my own guidebook structure and working more independently.

BARBARA: Thanks so much Liz, for giving such honest and informative answers. I’m sure many prospective authors have learned a lot from you. And good luck in the future with all your guidebooks—to California and beyond!

Writing for clicks--the pay-per-view alternative

2009-05-02T14:44:00.000-07:00

I've had a few articles published for various online e-zines and newsletters. Most were given for free as a way to promote my book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook. However, I've actually received money for some articles. The first was a ordinary, old-fashioned check. For the second, I had a choice of getting the money through Paypal right away or waiting 30 days for the check. I chose to wait.

But increasingly, for many websites and ezines, Paypal has become the only method of payment. And there is also a growing tendency to pay per click rather than paying a set amount (e.g. $125 for a shorter piece, $250 for a 3000-word piece and so on).

Associated Content and Examiner.com and two of the many "writer-collective" websites where the author is paid per click. The pay for individual is very small--one cent or less in many instances. So you have to get 1000 clicks in order to make ten dollars. But if you have a popular subject and know how to use search engine optimization and/or run around all the social media sites pimping your piece, you can build up a respectable salary.

Well-known travel-writing sites like Bootsnall still attract good writers without offering any type of payment at all. Epinions.com which covers reviews of everything from hotels and restaurants to electrical appliances now offers a pay-per-click option.

I started writing for Associated Content a few months ago. So far I've put up about 12 pieces. Someone on my publishers list mentioned Examiner.com as an alternative. I looked them up and figured, why not, although I always have trouble with new templates. They also have a strange set-up: there are national examiners who can write about almost any subject they want (for instance, there is a Dancing with the Star examiner) and there are local examiners based in various cities. Because I live in New Jersey and the guys who thought up Examiner.com live in Colorado, they made Newark the main city in NJ. Well, Newark may be the biggest city in NJ but is certainly not the cultural capital. In fact, New Jersey doesn't have a cultural capital--Princeton come the closest. And I guess Atlantic City is the entertainment capital. So I became the Newark/central NJ examiner which means I can cover quite a bit of territory.

Here is a link to my first article for examiner. There is no photo attached. I had a photo but I was not able to upload it according to their template. Now they've changed things so there is only room for a slide show--not a single picture. Maybe they will change back soon. They are a fairly new enterprise and I think there are still a lot of kinks to iron out.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8862-Central-Jersey-Examiner~y2009m4d25-The-USGA-Golf-Museum

Is there money to be made this way? I don't know as yet. I did buy 100 shares of EBay when it was down to 11.50 a share because they own Paypal. Just as UPS makes scads of money when publishers ship books to bookstores and bookstores ship returned books back to publishers, and customers buy books and other items from online stores, Paypal makes money when the writer is paid by the ezine or the buyer buys an item from EBay. The guy in the middle always seems to make money!

Spelling the Names Right--Steven or Stephen Colbert?

2009-04-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have a wonderful book at home called Copyediting and Proofreading for Dummies by Suzanne Gilad. One thing she recommends is to create a style sheet in the beginning to cover all the names, abbreviations,and other words that may be used in a book so that you have a reference to go by. Although this book was written for nascent copyeditors and proofreaders it should also be read by authors. Naturally, one thinks of using a style sheet for a book. But sometimes even a short article needs a run-through.

I recently wrote a funny article for Associated Content on the Stephen Colbert confrontation with NASA over the naming of a node on a space station. Unfortunately, I called him Steven Colbert. Why? I guess when I Googled the name to get some facts on the controversy one of the articles that came up mentioned Steven.

Well, luckily Associated Content allows for editing one's posts even after they are up. However the original title, which has the spelling Steven, is embedded in the html code. Therefore if I want to send someone to look at the article I have to send it thusly:

www.associatedconte nt.com/article/ 1631168/the_ steven_colbertna sa_dispute. html

Now, one thing about the article is that I managed to sneak in a reference to my book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook, into the text. Will that help sales? Who knows? But it was fun.

Names in travel books can be a major concern, especially when writing about non-English speaking countries. Most travel publishers have a style sheet which they give to their authors. This would include whether you use English usage: the Tate Museum or foreign usage: Musee d'Orsay. Street names, lakes, mountains, all may have two or three names--one for the country of origin and one for the travel guides.
Naturally, personal names should be checked from the outset and put into the style sheet. If I had done that with Colbert I would not have the problem. Luckily Google picks him up whatever the spelling is.

Who Rates those who rate restaurants?

2009-02-17T22:28:00.000-08:00

Just looked over Zagat's Top Restaurants in the US book. Naturally, I looked for New Jersey. Although most entries were for cities (NYC, LA, New Orleans, etc) NJ doesn't have one single cultural or gastronomic center. I checked out the NYC listings also, but they are dominated by the new and trendy (and needless to say pricey) restaurants. Of course the Four Seasons and 21 were listed also.

As for New Jersey--I was surprised by two omissions and one inclusion. I expected to find the Fromagerie in Rumson (I actually ate there), Rats in Hamilton Twp, Chez Catherine in Westfield and 410 Bank Street in Cape May (where I have also dined). But I live near Bernardsville and the people at the Bernards Inn are always touting how great they are and how they win all the awards and polls. Well, apparently not in this Zagat guide--they weren't included. Neither was the Petit Cheateau, another top-notch Bernardsville eatery.

On the other hand, the Trap Rock Brewery was included. Now this place has good food and is very popular with the drinking crowd, how did they get into this book and not the Bernardsville Inn? Apparently, their beer selection is the reason!

It would be simpler if these places were rated for particular reasons: best value for the buck, or best ambience. I often wonder if restaurants urge (or even pay) customers, and perhaps, employees, to send in laudatory notices to the Zagat editors.

Writing for travel websites

2009-02-01T10:58:00.000-08:00

In my book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook, I mention a number of websites and newsletters that accept travel articles. Most of these do not pay and those that do pay tend to do so very frugally. Most writers use these outlets either as a way to get a foot in the door (if they are new writers) to promote their own books or expertise,or to get an assignment for a free travel trip (if the website is known well enough).

Here are a few places that will accept articles. Check the writer's guidelines on each site.Many of them expect photos as well as the written piece.

www.gonomad.com (small payment)
www.bootsnall.com
www.travellady.com
www.worldhum.com
www.52perfectdays.com
www.mrbellersneighborhood.com (NY area only)

There are also general sites that take articles and stories on all subjects,
including travel. These may pay-per-click (and it takes a lot of clicks to make any money)or not at all.

www.associatedcontent.com
www.suite101.com

It's a good idea to have a paypal account since this is the most common form of payment for international sites.

I have been paid by check for articles or excerpts I've written for WOWwomenonwriting.com and www.writersweekly.com--but these were targeted at travel writers not travel readers which is a much larger community.

Travel Writing Podcast

2008-12-26T18:30:00.000-08:00

What's a podcast? Frankly, I wasn't sure myself before I went on one. It is just like a radio interview that is done by phone, only you don't have the time constraints (if it isn't a live podcast). So all you need is a good old telephone.

Luckily, the one I was on was pre-recorded, which means that after I finished discussing travel writing and how to construct a travel book with my hosts, Irene Watson and Victor Volkman, Victor went on to mix the sound and music and a few days later it was up on the website for anyone to download. The date of the interview was December 4, 2008.

It is accessible at: www.authorsaccess.com. The title of the podcast is Crafting Travel Guidebooks.

I probably should have timed my answers a little more carefully because there were some topics I never got around to discussing. Funny, whenever I did radio or TV interviews for my book New Jersey Day Trips I would ask the interviewer to signal me when she was ready to go on to another theme. Because I listened to a few random podcasts before I went on, I made sure there were no chiming clocks or barking dogs in the background.

Sales of Crafting the Travel Guidebook certainly went up afterwards. It's hard to tell whether that was because of the podcast or because the book was listed on About.com's Freelance Write website as one of the top ten books for writers in 2008. Both occured the same week.

Associated Content

2008-12-20T13:13:00.000-08:00

I've uploaded a few articles on the site of www.associatedcontent.com. The link is:

How to Climb the Upscale Food Chains: Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, McCormick & Schmick and P.F. Chang's

Wish I was more of a techie. Had a bit of a time getting my two articles uploaded. And I can't seem to find any author by name over there--you really have to have a title to find the piece if a link doesn't work. I plan to use Associated Content for several non-travel articles I have on the back-burner: opinion pieces, book reviews, etc. This particular piece: How to climb the upscale food chains, is a restaurant review of sorts.

I have also posted content on Author's Den, but over there they start charging you after the first few posts.

Want to be a Travel Writer?

2008-12-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

This question comes up all the time. People dream of traveling the world and getting paid to do it. And there are plenty of online courses that promise to fulfill that dream for you for a mere $149.00. My book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook, is a pretty honest, down-to-earth analysis of travel writing,geared particularly to those who want to write books rather than magazine or newspaper articles. However, the best column on the realities of travel writing is by Tim Leffel at the Transitions Abroad website. Here is the link:

http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/travel/travel_writing/seven_myths_of_being_a_travel_writer.shtml

Travel Writing Book makes Top Ten List

2008-12-02T19:33:00.000-08:00

Just learned that Allena Tapia the About.com guide to Freelance Writing has picked my book as one of the top ten choices for Christmas gifts for writers. (Or for writers to buy for themselves for that matter). Okay, it's listed as number 10, but with such standards as the Writers Market and Stephen King's book On Writing, I'm not going to complain about position--I'm just glad the book is on the list.

Luckily she saw that although it is targeted to the travel writer, the bulk of the book, which talks about knowing your voice, your audience and your category and explains the specifics of the book publishing industry, will be of help to almost any writer, especially a non-fiction writer.

Also, I will be on a podcast on www.authorsaccess.com on December 4th. The podcaast can be listened to later, as they are all archived.

Travel Talks

2008-11-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

The other day I went to a meeting of a woman's organization in town. It took place in the conference room of the local library. After the business meeting and some very nice snacks, we settled down to hear the featured speaker. He was a photographer who was promoting a new book about New Jersey. Although the title was about the byways of the state, many of the photographs were mood pieces set in back streets of Newark and Trenton or in the interior of typical Jersey diners. Of course there were also many tableaus of striking landscapes that ranged from trees clutching the sides of the Palisades to surf stealing up on the beach at Asbury Park.
Surprisingly, the speaker did not try to sell any books at the meeting although a sample copy of both of his travel pictorials were on display. This may have been because of library policy. But the other surprise was that he did not speak loud enough for those is the back row to hear him. Now I was sitting in the back row because the women I came with prefered to be back there. As we drove home I mentioned that I missed many of his remarks. The other woman said she thought she couldn't hear him because her hearing was not the best. Turned out the third lady also missed most of his speech. Luckily, his photographs were striking enough to keep the audience interested.

Moral: Even if the room is not large, it is always a good idea to ask for a microphone. If you don't need it, fine. But some people have voices that do not carry terribly well, or they may not be used to speaking to a crowd. Most well-paid speakers have received some training or have joined the Toastmasters Club in order to learn public speaking. I found out this man was paid $250 which was not bad for a small local library--although the club paid the fee, not the library.
Naturally, people who receive several thousand dollars for their talks ae usually better prepared.

Baltimore Book Festival

2008-09-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

My book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook, will be among the many independent press titles featured at the Authorbookshop booth at the Baltimore Book Festival taking place on Friday, September 26 through Sunday, September 28. For more information check my other blog, www.writersandpublishers.blogspot.com for the article, Are Book Fairs Worth the Trouble.

Travel Writing Contests

2008-08-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

Lets see. There are not only travel writers' conferences, travel writing lessons and hundreds of blogs about the subject, there are also a couple of bona fide contests around. They have qualifications of course, and some are yearly affairs.
So here goes:

1.Journeywoman.com: This female oriented newsletter features tips and stories written by traveling women for traveling women and told from first person point of view. Two stories are selected each year for a monetary prize. December 31 deadline.

2. Transitions abroad: Yearly contest with different categories selected each year. Go to website for details. www.transitionsabroad.com

3. The Guardian of Britain has a contest going on right now (Aug. 22nd deadline) but it's only 500 words so that should be easy. Limited to citizens of the U.K. Send to travel.writer@guardian.uk/travel. Check website for details.

4. 52 Perfect Days. U.S. only. Contest for articles about one perfect day, any destination. Cash prizes. My book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook, was used as an extra prize in the closed contest (which was held for past contributing writers) and may be an extra prize in the open contest later on. October 31st deadline. www.52perfectdays.com

5. Traveler's Tales also offers a yearly prize for the best of their selected tales. Check out www.travelerstales.com

Details vary as to whether each contest wants you to include pictures or not,length of article,whether the work should be written in first or third person or include sidebar facts and so forth. Usually limited to writers 18 years of age and over.

Writer's Conferences

2008-07-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

The current (July) issue of www.WOW-Womenonwriting.com, an online e-zine, has an article by me on travel writing. The issue concerns writer's conferences and retreats although the editors rolled both topics into a general "Writer's escapes" format. Anyway, because of this particular article I began to remember my few forays into the strange territory of writer's conferences.

My first conference was a simple one-day affair in NYC. The ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors) used to have a reasonably-priced one-day jaunt that included all sorts of panels and a lunch that featured a well-known speaker. I ended up listening to a panel of travel writers because there was nothing else of interest that particular hour. One of the men mentioned that he had so much trouble placing an article about ski areas in the West that he ended up writing a book instead of an article and getting a regional airline to back the printing. It must have struck a chord in my subconscious because a few years later I was self-publishing a regional travel book without even bothering to go to a traditional publisher first.

Other one-day conferences were sponsered by the New Jersey Press Women's Association. Since they didn't pay their speakers (except for their keynoter) they would often have a local author, literary agent and sometimes an editor come out to do a talk. Agents often have the most intersting stories--they certainly have the most up-to-date information--while authors often know little of the publishing world beyond their own limited circle.

My four-day conference took place at Southhampton College and I was talked into it by a family friend who lived in Southhampton Township (a poorer cousin to the snobby enclave). The conference was very reasonably priced but I found out why when I got there. The college was actually several miles away from both the town and the public beach and the architecture there consisted of rock-bottom construction. The dorm rooms were small and the whole dorm was made of concrete-blocks. A frugal way to build but unappealing to the eye. Walls were white-washed. I had a single room which was narrow with very little air circulation. They had warned us to take along an electric fan since the place was not air-conditioned. I had not heeded their warning.
Since it was so hot, the writers at the conference tended to meet and mingle at night in the one square lounge room available. The two top egotists in the group took over and since both writers(a male and female, both married to others, but apparently quite friendly from previous conferences)were into minimalist fiction that tended to be the main topic of conversation.

I had opted not to take the workshop section of the conference. Most of the conferees had sent in material to be evaluated in order to be accepted. There was even one poet, a strikingly beautiful woman, who was there on scholarship. These people spent every afternoon reading their material aloud, and letting the teacher and other attendees critique the material. I had expected to spend my afternoons lounging on the beach, but because the promised jitney did not arrive as expected I only had two days on the open Southhampton beach. Enough to give me a sunburn while the others were hunched over their typewriters (laptops had not made the scene yet).

Mornings were devoted to open sessions at the college auditorium. The starring line-up included Joyce Carol Oates, Mona Simpson, Gordon Lish-the famous Esquire editor, and a man-and-wife literary agent team.

The quality of the performance by these lecturers was in inverse proportion to their star quality. Each day a diffent one appeared at the podium. The literary agents were quite professional and gave both sage advice and publishing news. "Angels are out--true crime is in," they let us know (this was obviously quite a few years ago. Today, true crime is out and eccentric sleuths are in--along with memoirists).

Joyce Carol Oates didn't give a fig for our concerns but simply asked us to help her out in giving her ideas for her latest book which was either about twins or boxing or perhaps both. Mona Simpson, who had recently made a splash with "Anywhere But Here," simply asked everyone in the room to introduce themselves, explain their background and what they hoped to gain by writing. This wouldn't have been so bad if the coordinator of the conference hadn't done the same exact thing the first morning of the conference. She also read from the short story that had gotten her attention in the first place, but I can't remember if she did that during her "presentation" or during a later reading we had one evening.
Gordon Lish, at least, gave an impassioned speech. I think it was about why people who couldn't write shouldn't waste their time at writer's conferences. But at least it was impassioned, and not one of those "I have to fill up 60 minutes according to my contract, so I'll just throw out any garbage that happens to come to mind" talks.

My other memory of that conference was of the food. It was like airline food--maybe worse. I remember that the vanilla pudding came out of huge tin cans, and of course had a tinny taste. We (that is the conferees) did escape the confines of the drab college on two nights when no activity was scheduled. We drove to the middle of Southhampton town on a night when all the art galleries were open and were serving free wine and cheese. The streets were packed with colorful and vibrant people and the wine was plentiful. Another night a group of women went out to celebrate someone's birthday at a local restaurant. Just to see linen tablecloths and small vases of roses was enough to make us feel we had been paroled from prison.

I've been to other conferences since that time, but most have been publishing conferences where the talk is all business. Writer's conferences still have that tinge of creativity mixed with egotism that make them unique.

The Unkindness of Strangers

2008-06-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

Flashback ten years: I am visiting my cousin in Berkeley, California. He takes me to the nearby BART station so that I can stroll downtown San Francisco without forcing him or his wife into the obligatory position of tour host guide. (I saved that for the next day with a jaunt to the Napa Valley.)
He carefully explains the BART system which is based on the length of the journey (much like the Paris Metro) and not an overall fare like the New York subway system.
The train comes whizzing in and I sit down on the leatherette seat. Two seats one way, two seats facing. So urbane, so clean! I marvel at the ease of the commute—only thirty minutes to downtown SF!
Somewhere along the route, a thirty-something woman comes in and sits in the seat diagonally opposite to me. She is dressed in the obligatory suit with skirt (pantsuits had not yet made their comeback) and carries an important looking attaché case. In the other hand she carries a Starbucks coffee and a bun. She takes a sip of the coffee, and then places it on the seat. Not the empty seat next to her, mind you, the empty seat next to me. She never looks me in the eye as she is absorbed in some papers or whatever has come out of that black case. She munches on the bun. The coffee remains on the seat next to me, untouched for the moment. Is it hot? Is it scalding?

In my mind, I rehearse several options. I could:

1. Take the coffee in my hand, sip it, and say, “Thanks for the caffeine boost!” After all she’s only taken one sip out of it. But that would be more brazen than my bravado could muster. Besides, I have always had trouble drinking out of those damn containers.
2. Place the coffee cup on the seat next to her without saying anything.
3. Murmur, “Pardon me, would you mind removing your cup from my seat?”
4. Pick up the cup and move to another section of the train, letting her figure out what to do next. Putting the ball in her court, I believe is the expression.
5. Do nothing, and silently pray the train will not swerve erratically and douse me with a full portion of double latte or whatever it was.

Of course, I do nothing. The coffee never spilled. She never touched it again until she left the train with all her accoutrements in tow. And I glowered the rest of the day in San Francisco wondering whether it was me or had the whole world turned into a cauldron of inconsiderate beings who considered assertiveness training to be the ability to put your own needs and desires ahead of anyone else’s.

About a year later, I notice a news item—San Francisco has passed a law banning the eating of food and drink on the BART system! Pundits mention it as a laughable bit of government interfering. I don’t laugh. And I wish that governments, municipal or otherwise, did not have to legislate what should be common sense and common manners. It doesn’t make sense to take hot beverages onto public transportation. Not unless the beverage is in a thermos bottle and you are not drinking it at the moment. But since courtesy no longer counts as part of any value system, the government has to step in and make laws. They don’t make those laws to protect the common good, but merely to protect themselves from possible lawsuits in the case that some bystander does get doused with a cup of hot java.

Are there rules for travelers who encounter discourtesy? It depends on the country and whether there is any innate hostility behind the act. I would obviously not argue with some desperado over a parking space in the wrong side of town. But when it comes to people who consider themselves a part of civilized society, why, yes, one should take a position.

I’m only brooding about this because of a recent incident at a resort hotel in Orlando, Florida. My family and I have already checked out of our room but had the whole day at the resort pool before our plane took off at 7 p.m. We had rented a small cabana where we could change from our bathing suits to our traveling clothes. Everything was fine—a pool full of whirling waters for the kids, an arcade, and a lunch spot with tables. There was even a shower in the ladies room, my daughter told me. I rushed in to get the chlorine off my body before I changed only to find the shower was taken. A twelve-year-old girl was soaping herself under the cascading water. Her mother came in and scolded her for taking so long. I’ll be out soon, she said.
I waited. Two teenagers came along and waited behind me. After a while, they left. I peeked in the shower. The girl was soaping herself. She was Indian, did I mention that? Okay, I’m thinking maybe this is some sort of ritual cleansing. But no, the mother had already come in to tell her to hurry.
I looked in again. She was still soaping herself.
Why would she be taking such a long shower when all the rooms in the hotel had showers? Maybe they were day guests. Maybe they came here to take showers because the one in their house didn’t work right.
Finally I said, “Are you through yet?”
“Yes,” she said.
I handed her a towel. She had tried to outwait me and failed. I finally stepped into the shower. It took me all of two minutes to rinse all the pool water off me.
By this time my daughter had returned to see what was taking me so long.
I don’t know how long the whole incident took—twenty minutes? Half-an-hour?
I’ll never know why that girl thought she had the right to hog a public shower for so long. Was she shy? Was it some cultural thing?
By this time, I didn’t care. And I wish I had asserted myself sooner.

Interview with Brandon Wilson

2008-06-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

Here is an interview I did with Brandon Wilson, author of Along the Templar Trail: Seven Million Steps for Peace. Brandon is an adventurer and a trekker who has walked over several continents and written several books.

His type of book is often called a travel memoir, a travelogue or a travel diary and follows both a chronological and geographical pattern. The Templar trail journey
starts in France and ends up in Jerusalem. On the way, the travelers hike through Germany,Austria, Bulgaria, Serbia, Cyprus, Turkey and a few other spots. They meet an amazing assortment of characters, eat a strange conglomeration of foodstuffs and travel over wooded hills as well as deisel-fumed highways. It is a pilgrimage in that it follows a specific trail and is done in a quest for peaceful dialogue with citizens of other countries.

I asked Brandon a few questions about his methodology.

1. You travel very light. Do you write each night in a journal?

Yes, on this latest 2600-mile trek I carried just fifteen pounds (seven kilos) of gear for nearly six months. I've always found it best to write in my journal each night while the events (and aching muscles) are still fresh. In that way, I capture the passing thoughts and fleeting nuances along the way; events that otherwise melt together if you attempt to reconstruct it all months later.

2. Do you take notes or write general impressions at the time?

I write an hour or so each day, no matter how late. Along the Templar Trail is constructed from three books of daily journal entries. I keep copious notes, actually a running narrative that becomes a first rough draft.

3. Do you glom onto internet cafes at various stops and get your notes online? You did not seem to have a laptop with you on your journey.

No, my journeys whether across Europe, the Middle East, Africa or Tibet are strictly low-tech and I strive to make these journeys as traditional as possible. I don't carry a laptop or cellphone. I handwrite all my notes, although I have been known to check for any pressing emails at Internet cafes along the way. That said, my trips are an exercise in simplicity--a reflection of a simpler life.

4. Does one have to be Catholic to stay at a monastery? Where did you get the contact letters from?

I was never asked whether I was a Catholic or not. (There's no secret handshake.) On my walk to Jerusalem, I carried a letter of introduction as an authentic "pilgrim" from a Monsignor at the Vatican and also the head of a monastic order in Italy. They were both arranged by Italian friends and my wife's cousin who is a professor of theology.

5. You have a lot of historical background in the book. Did you do your research before, during or after?

My research was conducted at all three times, although most of it was done in the field and afterwards. I knew about the general route of the First Crusades ahead of time and we tried to stick to those thousand year old maps as much as possible within a sometimes narrow margin of safety.

6. You mention a personal friend, Emil who took the journey with you. Was that his real name? Did you send him a preliminary copy?

I labored over those issues while writing the book. Our 2600 mile trek was full of challenges and the constant need to improvise and overcome odds along the way. This was sometimes more successful than others. Basic food, water, shelter, language and stamina were always concerns--not to mention the outbreak of war and an Ebola-like virus. As far as my friend, I certainly respected his sometimes superhuman efforts, especially considering his age (68) and his prior health problems. However, in the end, I decided it was best to change his name so I could more freely talk about the challenges we both faced, without causing him any unintentional embarrassment.

7. Did you map out the structure of the book beforehand? Did you define the geographical sections before or afterwards?

True to my initial objectives, I wanted Along the Templar Trail to not only chronicle this historic journey, but also provide a blueprint for others who'd like to walk this path of peace. As in all my books, the structure is fairly straightforward and follows the actual timeline. I wanted to engage the reader, to make them feel like they were actually walking beside us and experiencing both the good and bad, the minutia, small miracles and moments of discovery along the way. On the other hand, this experience built upon six other pilgrimage treks I've taken over the last fifteen years. I call them "traveling outside while traveling within." So this book is my most personal and surprisingly philosophical. It interweaves observations, koans and brief encounters that are metaphorical in nature. Some readers will hear a resonance in these--others will see only the adventure. Fair enough. Even still, the story unfolds at a walker's pace, since a journey such as this forces one to slow down and savor the beauty and tranquility of life. If I can accomplish that with my writing, perhaps I can inspire not only those who would eventually follow in our footsteps--but also those who travel in mind and spirit.

Anything else you can think of or expand on.

I want to see this trail become another Camino de Santiago, the legendary trail across Spain, where people from around the world have a chance to walk together, share a bottle of wine at the end of a grueling day, and share their lives and dreams. Nowadays, 60-70,000 peregrinos from around the world each year share that common experience, one reminiscent of Middle Ages. In doing so, they eventually realize we're sot so different, regardless of our nationality, culture or beliefs. By walking together, they find a personal peace within and carry it home to their families, jobs and communities. Peace is shared--one person, one step at a time. Who could ask for more?

Thanks, Brandon. As someone who has analyzed all sorts of travel books for my own work, "Crafting the Travel Guidebook," I have found each travel memoir to be very personal and very different. Whether the author journeys by foot, by sailboat, by train or by car the emphasis is most often on personal discovery as well as interaction with other people throughout the world and of course vivid descriptions of the lands that are traversed. I enjoyed Along the Templar Trail very much and wrote a review of it on Amazon and bn.com. You can see a sample at Brandon's website: www.pilgrimstales.com

How to Get Book Reviews

2008-06-02T10:22:00.000-07:00

For most authors a book review is a necessity but recently newspapers have been shrinking their book review section. In the meantime, both the number of books published in the U.S. (around 400,000) and the number of online book reviewers have burgeoned. The "pay for play" review has also gained traction even from such respected review sources as Foreword Magazine and Kirkus Reviews.
What's the future of book reviews? Mayra Calvani has sent the following press release. It should be of interest to any author who is contemplating receiving that coveted review. Her first interview is with Jim Cox of Midwest Book Review (a non-profit outfit that does not take payment). By the way, Jim gave "Crafting the Travel Guidebook" a terrific review which can be found under The Writer's Bookshelf on his website.
Here's Mayra's post:

June is ‘Book Reviewing’ month at Blogcritics Magazine!

To promote the release of The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing, co-author Mayra Calvani will be interviewing 15+ reviewers and review editors during the month of June. Learn all about the business of book reviewing and what’s in the mind of some of the most popular reviewers on the internet today. Some of the guests will include: Alex Moore from ForeWord Magazine, James Cox from Midwest Book Review, Irene Watson from Reader Views, Andrea Sisco from Armchair Interviews, Magdalena Ball from The Compulsive Reader, Sharyn McGinty from In The Library Reviews, Lea Schizas from Muse Book Reviews, Linda Baldwin from Road to Romance, Hilary Williamson from Book Loons, Judy Clark from Mostly Fiction, and many others!
To see the complete lineup, visit: The Slippery Book Review Blog.
Between June 1st and June 30th, stop by Blogcritics and leave a comment under the reviewer interviews for a chance to win a Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tour (coordinated by book marketing guru Dorothy Thompson), OR, as an alternative to a non-author winner, a $50 B&N gift certificate!

2008-05-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

And Now It’s an E-Book!

I’m happy to announce that Crafting the Travel Guidebook is now in e-book format and is available from www.Booklocker.com. I have always felt that the book would have a readership in Canada, Australia and England where it is so expensive to order the physical copy. Of course Americans who want to buy it at half-price and like the convenience of e-books on their laptops can also download it for a mere $8.95.
There is a treasury of material in the 288 pages of this book. Chapters on writing, editing, slanting, construction, understanding markets, and a 15-page list of publishers that welcome travel writers (and lots of other non-fiction writers) are included in this easily-digested book. Very little hoopla (the usual curse of writing-related books) and lots of helpful information are inside this guide. Read an excerpt on the Booklocker site.

Travel Brochures

2008-05-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

Newbies are always asking where can they find a writing assignment that will actually pay something. There are so many travel articles out on the Internet that are posted for free that it is difficult for a writer without a name to gain an assignment from a newspaper or magazine (including e-zines) that offer payment.

Writing a travel brochure for a company or Chamber of Commerce is one way to enter the travel field. Of course you have to emphasize the positive angle rather than analyze the best and worst of the place, but it does give you a chance to learn travel writing skills. For one thing, you will probably have to interview one or more of the movers and shakers behind the territory or attraction. And you will learn how to paraphrase what they say. For another thing you may have to research some history of the place by digging out old newspaper files and checking local histories in the library.

I thought of this because of some recent e-mail correspondence with a food writer. Although she had concentrated on recipes her books had also included ones about restaurants in a particular area. This put her into the travel/food & wine category I talk about in my book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook.

Well, it seems this woman hooked onto writing a travel brochure for the town where she recently resettled. Since the town is across the bay from a well-known tourist destination, it does pick up quite a bit of the overflow and sports some good antique shops and restaurants to attract said tourists.

A bright, smart brochure not only gave the writer a decent paycheck it provided the research background for other possible travel articles in the future.

Philadelphia's great PR moment--the Obama/Clinton Debate

2008-04-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

Who won the debate on April 16th? Apparently no one. Neither Hillary nor Obama made smashing points and the so-called moderators came off as silly, sniping gossipers rather than mature, reflective journalists.

On the other hand, the city of Philadelphia had a Public Relations dream fall in its lap. Stephen Colbert reported for four nights from a studio at the UPenn. But that included footage of his tour of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and various displays at the Constitution Center while twitting the hapless tour guides who were trying to go through their speils with a straight face. Naturally, he half-ran up the steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in a takeoff on the famous Rocky Balboa sprint.

The April 16th debate, which was televised on prime-time ABC was filmed in the theater of the National Constitution Center which already has enough symbolic backdrops of the American flag that it was not necessary for any of the candidates to bring their own flags or pose them artfully in the background.

I wrote an article on the National Constitution Center several years ago, when it first opened. I really had to wonder if the place would get much traffic after the initial opening. Obviously, school classes would be visiting, but would the two-day tourist bother with it when they had the authentic historic buildings, the Philadelphia Museum, the Franklin Institute, the zoo and so many other attractions to fit in?

The political debate featured not only the Center's 350-seat arena but the statues of the original signers and this should certainly boost attendence. And of course Stephen Colbert's shenanigans when he visited the place (he tried to slip a copy of his book into a crafted statue of 18th century books while the hapless curator tried to fend him off without openly offending him) will make the place interesting to his legions of fans. (This consists mostly of all those kids who managed to get out of Civics class in the few schools where they still study the subject at all.)

Anyway, here is the original article I wrote about the NCC. Some of the displays, such as the aluminum people tree may have been replaced by other, newer attractions. But the multi-media theater and the upstairs interactive exhibits seem to still be in operation.

National Constitution Center, Philadelphia
By Barbara Hudgins

How important is the Constitution to the way America works? It is the balance of power between the three branches of government that is the centerpiece of our democracy. And a museum/learning center in the heart of Philadelphia is dedicated to that document, its history, growth and meaning. In fact the huge museum building anchors the south section of the grassy mall and has a level view of Independence Hall across the green. Since the framers of the Constitution lived in an era when many monarchs held absolute power, it was their primary aim to make sure that no one person could ever control the whole country. Only Congress had the power to tax and the power to declare war. The president on the other hand, had veto power, and it would take two-thirds of congress to override his veto.

Justices of the Supreme Court were appointed for life, so that they would not be swayed by popular opinion. As for the Bill of Rights (the one thing everyone remembers about the Constitution) they were actually the first ten amendments to the document, since many states refused to sign until they were enacted. In fact most early arguments about the Constitution were about how much power the individual states would have to give up in order to form a “more perfect union.”

You can learn about this, get a short history of the growth, extension, wars, and culture clashes of this country and much more at the privately-operated National Constitution Center. The Center is housed in a handsome concrete, steel, glass and limestone building that anchors the lower end of Independence National Historic Park. Although it is modern in design, the building is low-slung and set back in a landscaped setting so that it does not clash with other landmarks in the historic area. The two-story grand lobby contains open spaces with banks of exhibits along the sides. An aluminum “People Tree” in the main lobby has branches that sport the pictures of 100 important Americans. There is also a huge area allowed for special displays such as the 2008 exhibit brought in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. At the Information Desk you buy a ticket designed as a Delegates Pass that allows entrance to the amphitheater and the exhibits on both floors. Tickets for the 20-minute multi-media show called “Freedom Rising” are timed. As you wait, you can peruse the walls that set the scene in 1780s for the formation of the document that would bind together the original thirteen colonies.

The show is produced in a 350-seat star-shaped theater, and features a single actor who presents a brief dramatic history of the founding of the country with music, videos and lots of voice-overs coming from the walls. It is when you exit onto the second floor from the darkened theater that you discover a host of innovative exhibits that circle the entire space.

Historical periods are divided by landmark events and Supreme Court decisions. So we start at 1765, pass on to 1824, then 1865, 1882 and 1952. There are videos, blown-up photographs, excerpts, banners and interactive stops along the way: the Revolutionary War, the convening of the Constitutional Convention, Shays Rebellion, the War of 1812, and various court decisions including the Dred Scott, which hastened the Civil War. Then there is full-blown display on the Civil War, followed by eras called “The Age of Invention”, “The Great Immigration” and onto the 20th century.

Of course a one-day visit to Constitution Center cannot supplant a half-year course in American History and Civics, but it certainly can supplement anyone’s education in the basics. For interactive events, you can sit at a Judicial Bench and hear oral arguments before the Supreme Court, or sit at a senator’s desk in the Capitol, or take the Presidential oath of office. There is also a voting booth where you can vote for your favorite president.

Next is the Signers Hall, a large room full of bronze, life-size sculptures of the constitutional convention delegates from each state. There are forty-two of them (39 signed, three dissented). Boy, were those guys short! Madison, Adams, and lots of others were not men of great physical stature. You might want to track down the signers from your own state’s delegation and take a photograph (non-flash only). When you leave Signers Hall, be sure to sign your name on the signing page there. You will need your signing page number to get into the computers that are set up on the tables in the adjoining café.

I neglected to do this and found myself stymied at the computer. There are helpers that come around to assist the techno-challenged among us, but I did not have the time to wait. This second floor café also serves coffee and croissants (self-serves, that is) but for fuller meals of hamburgers, salads and fast food, there is a larger restaurant on the first floor. This is a family friendly place, although it is clear they have structured some of the exhibits for the fifth grade through high school students who will undoubtedly visit. But there is also food for thought for adults, who visit the rights and wrongs, the passions and prejudices of various eras. And then there’s the straight educational value. I had no idea there were so many amendments! One recent amendment limits the president to two terms. Just in the nick of time!
Location: 525 Arch St. Independence Mall, Philadelphia.Telephone: 215-409-6600. Website: www.constitutioncenter.org. Check website for exact hours and admission price and special exhibits. Copyright, Barbara Hudgins

Guidebook Plagiarism

2008-04-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

What's happening with Amazon

2008-04-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

There have been so many changes in the last few weeks especially in respect to Amazon and its relationship with small publishers that it is difficult to think of anything else. For a rundown on the dynamics of this situation, see my other blog: www.writersandpublishers.blogspot.com

A Hiker's Viewpoint

2008-03-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

Susan Alcorn, a backpacker and guidebook author had these thoughts she sent to me.

Musings on Travel Writing

Most travel writers stay in hotels or motels and eat in restaurants when pursuing a story away from home. I am not the typical travel writer; I am a long-distance hiker. I spend weeks each year backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile trail that goes through the mountain ranges of California, Oregon, and Washington. Most nights I end up eating freeze-dried dinners and sleeping in a tent.

I also spend a few weeks each year hiking in Spain, France, or Portugal on the various pilgrimage Camino trails. There the accommodations are usually hostels or small hotels — a step up from sleeping on the ground, but not generally boutique hotels.

Yet whether staying in upscale digs or wilderness settings, a travel writer seeks to capture the mood of the place in which she finds herself. She must bring the reader into the story. To do this, the writer should call on all the senses — the smell of bread baking, the taste of lemon curd, the sound of carriage wheels turning, the feel of the hot sand, and the sight of swaying palm trees. When writers use vivid descriptions, readers start packing their bags for the destination that's been brought to life.

Susan Alcorn is the author of Camino Chronicle: Walking to Santiago and We're in the Mountains Not over the Hill: Tales and Tips from Seasoned Women Backpackers. Visit her at www.backpack45.blogspot.com or www.backpack45.com

Thanks for those insights, Susan. In my book “Crafting the Travel Guidebook” I have a chapter titled “Travel Writing 101”. In that chapter I talk about the importance of physical description. There is color, (is the sea blue, azure, turquoise, green with algae or brown as the sand) texture (rough concrete, burnished wood, the smooth brass rail of a ship) and taste (whether it’s real whipped cream in Vienna or a pungent sauce in Vietnam) sound, smell, light and the view.
I also go into other subjects such as: Basic research, what goes in and what stays out, opening paragraphs, structuring your content, understanding your audience and so forth. Whether you write in the personal travelogue style or go in for straight journalistic coverage of a particular destination, there’s always plenty to learn when it come to travel writing. Visit my website at www.woodmontpress.com.

Assassination Vacation and the author's voice

2008-02-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

I had to cut about 30,000 words out of my book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook, just to get it down to manageable size. Lately, I have discovered bits and pieces of the cut material in the various documents folders on my computer desktop. This particular piece was cut from the chapter called “Your Voice, Your Tone, Your Style”. Here, I talk about Sarah Vowell’s satirical take on celebrity assassinations, historical tourism and Bush, George Bush, in her hilarious travelogue, Assassination Vacation.

“In Assassination Vacation, author Sarah Vowell visits President McKinley’s Tomb in Canton, Ohio and describes it as 'a domed edifice on top of a hill. It’s a gray granite nipple on a fresh green breast of grass'. She also mentions that halfway up the stairs to the tomb there is a bronze statue of McKinley with an inscription underneath. Although the inscription is supposed to be inspiring, the joggers running up and down the stairs hardly notice it. The author remarks, 'I bet it’s his portly girth rather than his citizenship that inspires them, if only to do more laps'."

As you can see here, the individual voice is used not only to fashion a distinct physical description but also to add an observation that places the scene in a social context. In the case of McKinley’s Tomb, if another writer had visited on a rainy day, he or she might never have noticed joggers that use this public edifice as a free running track nor have remarked that this once famous president was now just the object of a fat joke.
Of course, Vowell’s book is more than a tour guide-- it belongs in the literary travel genre (or the biography category where the publishers placed it). However, any travel book should contain some touch of the author’s hand, or else it is nothing more than directory festooned with second-hand prose.”

Interview with Write for Travel

2008-01-21T13:53:00.000-08:00

Had a nice e-mail interview with a young woman from New Zealand for her blog called Write for Travel. She's interviewed lots of travel writers and maintains a very busy blog with loads of links and pictures. Wow! Citizens of NZ and Australia all seem to take a year off to travel the world, so it's no wonder there are so many travel writers who emerge from that part of the world. The fact that Lonely Planet was hatched in Sydney Australia and still has headquarters there (although now that BBC has bought the company who knows what changes might occur) may lend substance to that mystique.
Anyway, check out the interview, posted January 16, 2008 at www.writetotravel.blogspot.com. Thanks!

Freebie or not Freebie?

2007-12-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

That is the Question

One prevalent ad on the Internet is for courses that will teach you how to get free travel perks—whether by writing travel articles, giving lectures on cruises or other twists. However quite a few guidebook publishers as well as such respected article venues as the New York Times state categorically that they will not accept work that is based on a freebie trip. The concept here is that a journalist’s judgment will be swayed by the fact that he is getting special treatment at no cost to himself.

How does this work out in real life? If you received a freebie trip to St. Lucia last year, does that mean that you can’t mention the any of their attractions in a roundup article on the best festivals in the Caribbean you are doing this year? And how much does the freebie really distort your coverage? It depends. Certainly, getting free tickets to a Broadway show never stopped a theater critic from tearing the play to shreds. On the other hand, most newspapers pay for their restaurant critic’s meal for obvious reasons.

As a day trip columnist for a chain of weekly newspapers in north central New Jersey I regularly got free entrance to many attractions I covered. It never clouded my judgment, although I must admit when I had a public relations person or the owner of the facility at my elbow the whole time it added some insights into the place I might have overlooked. It also made me more sympathetic to the position of the owner, although I always felt my true allegiance was to the ultimate customer. I would therefore word things carefully. Was the public afraid to park in Newark because of car-theft fears? I took pains to mention the guarded parking lots at city attractions. Did the amusement park fail to mention the $20 parking fee in their sparkling PR releases? I added that to warn the day trippers.

However, the one time I got a real perk it was slightly different. The newspaper called me to say that the owners of a conference center/hotel in Westchester County wanted publicity for their hotel as a weekend attraction for families. (Did I mention that this newspaper chain services a very wealthy area in New Jersey and most towns are situated about an hour away from the New York side of the Tappen Zee Bridge.) Since Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate had just opened that year, the PR firm had decided to make a Kykuit/conference hotel connection. I jumped at it. It was difficult to get tickets to the Rockefeller estate and here I was going to get free entrance to Kykuit plus a weekend in Westchester County.

Well, I went with a friend, and after getting lost in Greenwich Connecticut for half-an-hour (this was before cell phones were everywhere) we arrived at the sumptuous mansion. They were very nice and said everything was covered except alcoholic beverages. Dinner was quiet, refined and quite good. This was the sort of place where men wore jackets without being told, while the women had on their “good” clothes. After breakfast, the next morning, we set out for Tarrytown which was actually twenty minutes east of the hotel.

I wrote up a full article on the opening of Kykuit and what one could expect from the three hour tour. But then I had a problem. What was I going do about the hotel? It did have a golf course, but I didn’t golf. It was close to Kykuit, but there was another conference/hotel that was right in Tarrytown much closer to both the estate and to New Jersey residents who would be driving over the bridge.

So I wrote a complete article about doing a Westchester weekend, mentioning several other attractions in the area and suggesting the hotel as a place to use as a base. I also mentioned all the amenities—pool, weight room, golf and restaurant on premises. Unfortunately, I also mentioned to the newspaper editor that I felt obligated to say something nice because they had treated me so well. Well, that was the end of that! The publisher was dedicated to true journalism so next time such an opportunity appeared, they simply threw the request into the circular file. Drat—that’s the price of honesty!
I

Researching Facts at the New York Public Library

2007-11-25T14:24:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that the main branch of the New York Public Library is one of the great research facilities in the world. Anyone can come in and use its resources. Books do not circulate but you can sit down and delve into an incredible array of media. You can also buy copies of reference materials and purchase slides and photos from the extensive collections (for a goodly price).

What most people do not know is that there is a guided tour of this magnificent marble masterpiece, built by the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings in the early 20th century. There is also an exhibition hall that features first-rate offerings equal to those in any museum in the world. A few years ago, I had written up the NYPL tour as part of an article about Manhattan landmarks for my local newspaper. I decided to update the piece to add to the travel articles that appear on my website,www.woodmontpress.com.

The article, which included the Central Park Zoo, the Frick Museum and the library as three attractions to visit before the theater, needed only a small rewrite. I deleted hours and prices from most of the entries, since I have found that they change constantly, while anything posted to the Internet seems to remain there forever.

Since I had written the piece back in 2002, I deleted my description of the Utopia exhibit I had visited because it was too old. I also wanted to make sure that the tours through the library were still taking place. I turned to www.nypl.org website and found information about the library’s hours and exhibits--but not a word about the tours. I had taken the tour about five years ago and found it quite interesting albeit a bit heavy on statistics. In my original article I stated that the tours were given at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Should I simply repeat that information? Should I check? Did the fact that there was no mention of the tours on the website mean that they had been discontinued?

Well, I’ll give them a call, I decided. I called the handiest number. This one was the switchboard. A woman answered but had no idea of the answer. She switched me to another line. It was a recorded message which offered a whole list of options and urged the customer to visit the website instead. Of course none of the options mentioned the tours and it seemed to take forever to get through the recorded spiel. I pressed number two, the option that seemed mostly likely to offer an answer. Number two, it seemed was one of those prompts that sent you immediately into Limbo—which meant that within a minute I heard a familiar buzz and a voice that said: “If you would like to make another call, hang up and try again.”

Okay, Alexander Graham Bell had failed me, so it was back to the website. I went to the “about us” page. Surely there would be a telephone number that would lead to a human being and an answer. One of the first ones I saw was for the Press contact. I called the number and was told it was disconnected. I tried again, thinking I had dialed incorrectly, but no, it was still disconnected. On to the next number—again it was a recorded message. If I had kept trolling down to the bottom of the page I might have spied the number for the public relations director. But I was still at the top of the page when I noticed the telephone number for the gift shop.

“Eureka!” I shouted, “The gift shop! Somebody will be at the gift shop.” Sure enough, after calling the number I was able to contact a human being who was positively cordial. I asked if the library tours were still operating. Why yes, she said, they were given twice a day. But she wasn’t absolutely sure of the hours. The tours were run by volunteers and their desk was quite near to the cozy little gift shop on the first floor. She gave me the telephone number of the volunteer desk.

I dutifully punched in the numbers I had been given. The phone was answered by someone who immediately told me she could hardly hear me. Was it the marble halls? Was this whole runaround somehow the phone company’s fault?

“I’d like to know about your library tours,” I said.

“How did you get this number?” she asked.

There’s nothing like feeling as if you are a telephone stalker when you are trying to track down information. Why shouldn’t I get this number? Was it meant only for other volunteers to call in when they are sick? Obviously the official library bureaucracy was doing nothing to impart any information about the tours, but you’d think that the volunteer organization would be happy to talk to an actual customer.

“I got it from the gift shop” I admitted guiltily. “Do you still run tours and at what time?”

“Oh, sure we run them-daily at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. on Sundays.”

Hooray! The information in my original article was still correct. I could now put it on my website without fear of incrimination. But I wonder why the NYPL makes it so difficult to discover this tiny piece of information when they are such a great repository of knowledge when it comes to everything else. And imagine going through this in a foreign country where you hardly know the language. No wonder so many guidebooks slide over important information!

p.s. The NYPL is re-doing their website at this very moment (Nov. 2007) so perhaps the new site will be easier to navigate—or at least have the proper telephone number to call.

copyright 2007, Barbara Hudgins

Wild Safari at Six Flags

2007-11-15T13:25:00.000-08:00

The Wild Safari at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey has changed tempo.
Too bad for the customers,but the monkeys don't climb over the cars anymore-they now have them cordoned off. They used to scramble all over the hoods, windsheilds and roofs, looking for a peanut or any kind of handout. Now they are stuck behind a chain-link fence screaming at the passing autos like inmates in Attica.

But the camels and giraffes still come over to the cars. The tigers and lions of course have always been behind a fence. New rules in 2007 attempt to crack down on people who open their windows to feed the animals. What happened? A lawsuit? One of the animals get sick?

Boston Weekend

2007-11-15T13:12:00.000-08:00

September, 2007

Just came back from a weekend in Boston and what a young town it is! Now that the school season is in full swing the population expands by 250,000--and they all seem to be walking in the streets in their sweatshirts and cut-off cargo pants. Of course there are thousands of 20 and 30-somethings who work in Boston/Cambridge too so they are all out cruising --on foot. New York streets are crowded, but there, everyone seems to be in a hurry to get somewhere. On this beautiful September afternoon, crowds were sauntering and ambling. There was a fair going on in one park, and many strollers wore the T-shirt of a charity walk that had occurred the day before.
When dinnertime approached, this mass of young blood converged on the pubs and eateries of the city—mostly the cheaper ones. The pubs were showing the Red Sox-Yankee game on wide-screen TVs that you could see through the windows. You could also hear the shouts. Since the men in our party had departed to watch the actual game at Fenway Park (one of the last of the old-time baseball stadiums)I, along with my daughter’s mother-in-law and our 3-year-old granddaughter, went out to rustle up some grub. By the time we left the hotel, my granddaughter who had been dancing all over the place, was now soundly asleep.
Imagine if you will, two ladies over 60 and a 3-year-old asleep in an umbrella stroller trying to get a table at Legal Seafood and/or the Cheesecake Factory in the Prudential Center Mall on a Saturday night. It was like swimming downstream through a crowd of salmon going upstream (actually just milling about) in front of the food factories. The host smiled ruefully and whispered above the din of young voices: "50 to 75 minutes wait."
Back we went through the Sheraton corridors to our home at the Back Bay Hilton where the dining room was practically deserted. After we demanded the other menu (almost all hotels have a pub menu with cheaper prices) we settled on a ten-dollar hamburger and a cup of clam chowder. After a while the room began to fill with other tourists who had returned from the Yankee/Red Sox game to find every eatery in town filled to brimming.
Moral: The hotel restaurant may not be the greatest but it's a haven when there's no room at the "in" places.

Independent Bookstores Fading Away

2007-11-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

When I first wrote New Jersey Day Trips in the mid 1980's there were many independent bookstores around. I was able to place my book in about 15 bookstores right in my area--and that's not counting the chain stores. I finally got a regional wholesaler to take over the business of distributing to both the chains and the indies. As more big box bookstores opened the smaller ones closed. There was a small chain called Encore books--about ten in NJ that all took my book. The chain closed as did indies in Summit, New Providence, Chatham, Springfield as well as the Little Professor in Morris Plains. Finally the wholesaler went bankrupt. Why?

Villain number one: Book returns. While book returns make sense when a potential bestseller doesn't pan out (I just read that a biography of Hillary Clinton only sold 57,000 out of 275,000 printed) when it comes to the typical small run printing it doesn't make sense. For instance, Barnes and Noble would return 200 copies of New Jersey Day Trips in January, and then order 300 copies in March. The independent stores would hold on to the copies they had and wait until Spring to sell them. So the big box stores (B&N and Borders)could lower their costs by deducting the returns from the payments they gave in January and then wait 90 days after their spring order to pay again.

Villain number two: Paid promotional placement. Years ago the ABA sided with the little stores against the chains when it came to preferential discount buying. That screwed the ABA for all time. But the real reason the big box chains make money is not that selling books is profitable. It's selling space to the publishers that brings in the dough. Publishers for those endcap spots and those big round dumps that take up the front area of the store.

What can the small publisher do about this? Very little.They cannot compete for the preferential space--it's too expensive. Many have become more and more dependent on the online stores such as Amazon and the others. For the independent bookstores (who were never really terribly supportive of small press titles except for local authors and regional titles), the ones who survive are usually located in intellectual areas where the bookstore is regarded as a social gathering spot or are owned by those who have other means of financial support and keep the store as a labor of love.
Posted by Barbara Hudgins, author, Crafting the Travel Guidebook

Posted by Travelauthor at 2:22 PM

Labels: independent bookstores,

Traditional publishing, self-publishing & subsidy publishing

2007-11-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

Barbara Hudgins

Lately the terminology of publishing has gone through a cement mixer-- with various groups using the same words to mean different methods. This is my take on the different paths to publishing and is edited down from a chapter in my book, Crafting the Travel Guidebook.

Traditional Publishing
The traditional publisher receives hundreds of book proposals per month and some will only accept a proposal from a literary agent. But there are many independent and university publishers who do not require agents. All these companies pay the author on the basis of royalties or on a work-for-hire basis once a manuscript is accepted

What is the typical royalty? It’s hard to pin down “typical” because publishers are closed-mouth about what they give and authors rarely share their earnings. Royalties are a percentage of the take. They can range from 15% of the list price for a hardcover book to 10% for a trade paperback. But very often the author gets 10% of the net income rather than the list price. Royalties for mass market paperbacks (such as the ones in drug stores) are less—maybe ^ or 7%, but these books sell in great quantity.

Publishing process: Once a contract is signed, the process begins. An editor takes over the reins and oversees the direction of the book. In some cases the editor may ask for additional material or rewrites. The publisher pays for the book to be copy-edited, designed and formatted. The copyright may go to the author or to the publisher depending on the contract.

The Work- for-Hire Publisher
Many well-known travel publishers pay on a work-for-hire basis. The editor for a series simply hires one, two or three travel writers to do a book on, say, Croatia. Romance paperbacks are also often bought on a flat-fee basis. This means a straight payout for work, which then belongs to the publisher.

What About Self-Publishing?

In true self-publishing, the author arranges for the typesetting (or does it himself) and the printing, buys his own ISBN number in the name of his company, arranges for his own warehousing, or more often, stacks the cartons in the garage, and of course has to find a way to distribute the book, whether through the internet or through retail stores. One can also self-publish using POD technology.

Because traditional printing requires volume to get the cost per unit down to a reasonable fee, the standard print run is a minimum of 3000 books, and more often, 5000. This means an investment of several thousand dollars and requires a place to
stack all those cartons. There are people who will help—book designers, cover designers, typesetters, website designers, book coaches and publicists but they all come at a price.

The biggest problem for the self-publisher is finding a distributor who can get his title into the bookstores. However, local titles can be distributed by the publisher himself or by local “jobbers” who go into bookstores, newsstands and shops. Books that cater to a distinct niche audience can also be successfully marketed by
using specialty shops, the Internet. Some self-publishers sell primarily through lectures.

Like all authors, the self-publisher is expected to market his book by making appearances at stores and signings. He also has the extra task of trying to get his book accepted by bookstores, including the chain stores, whose portals are guarded by
guard-dogs known as buyers. Internet stores such as Amazon will take any published
book as long as it has an ISBN number, a cover, and adheres to basic rules of taste.

The self-publisher must also establish a business identity, print out invoices, collect sales tax (in some states) and of course, accept returns if he sells to bookstores. He also has to
buy a string of ISBN numbers from R.R. Bowker, get a Library of Congress card number, register his copyright and learn to announce his book.
If his book is accepted in major bookstores he then has to deal with the problem of returns. All bookstores expect this privilege and nowadays, returns are sent in any shape or form--banged up, coffee-stained or obviously thumbed through. Traditional publishers must accept returns but they figure that possibility into their list price and projections.

Vanity or Subsidy Publishing
Vanity is simply a common term for subsidy publishing. Vanity publishers openly advertise for writers. When the author submits a manuscript it is “accepted”. The reality is that vanity publishers accept just about everything they get. However, the editors flatter the writer and make him feel he has passed several hurdles to be part of the publishing pantheon; hence the term “vanity”.
In the old days, the vanity publisher printed hundreds of copies and charged the author for the cost of editing, book design and printing. The quality was not high, but the price for the services was. The cost ran into the thousands of dollars because the author had to bear the brunt of everything plus the shipping of hundreds of books. Most booksellers would not stock titles with known vanity imprints. Therefore, the author ended up selling the books to friends and relatives and to any traffic he could drum up.
Nowadays the subsidy market is dominated by large, well-funded corporations who use the print-on-demand process to manufacture the books. This lowers the cost of producing each book and has resulted in thousands of subsidy books flooding the market.

What about POD?
Basically Print-on-Demand (or POD) is a method of printing that differs from traditional printing. Traditional offset or web sheet printing is based on volume, so that a print run of 5000 copies costs less than a run of 500 copies per copy — but of course the total cost may be seven or eight thousand dollars. POD printing is done with a large press that prints, collates and binds the book in one operation. In other words a complete book is produced in about 5 minutes.

Because each print run consists of one book, there is no savings in printing 3000 or 5000 copies. The author saves by writing a shorter book because aside from the set-up fee, the
charge is per page. So if it costs .015 cents to print one page (plus
90 cents for the cover), a book that is 150 pages long will be cheaper than a book that consists of 200 pages. Obviously, the total cost is more expensive per unit than offset.
But since print-on- demand means that only one book is printed at a time (after a setup fee) the total cost is cheaper than offset printing if you decide to print only a few copies. Fifty to 100 is common for a first “printing”. If you went direct to a POD printer the cost for a 240-page book might be around $4.50 per book plus a setup fee. You also save the cost of warehousing 5000 books.

POD Purveyors or Publishers
I am calling them POD Purveyors and some people call them POD publishers, but they call themselves “Self-Publishers”. Whatever you call them, they have managed to muddy the waters so well that the majority of people lump all self-publishers into this one
pool. The best known ones are Xlibris, iuniverse, Trafford, Lulu, Booksurge and Infinity although new ones and variations on the theme are popping up all the time.
These companies openly advertise for authors on the Internet and in writing magazines. Although they call themselves “self-publishers”, they are really subsidy publishing companies that use the new technique of Print-on-Demand. However they do little in terms of editing or proofreading (unless you pay extra for these services). If you want anything extra such as photos or maps, you have to pay for them yourself. The same book that would cost you $4.50 if sent direct to a POD printer like Lightning Source will cost up to eleven dollars (depending on the page count) with a POD “publisher”.
There are also all the many services you buy. For instance, one company charges $150 to register your book with the Copyright Office. If you did that yourself it would cost you $45 plus the cost of the two books, plus cost of mailing.

So you see there is a markup on everything as well as the printing cost. POD
purveyors make much more money selling services to authors than they do in selling the author’s books to the public. Even though most POD publishers refer to their clients as “self publishers” that is not really the case. Their advertising stamps
them with the dread stigma of the Vanity Press and bookstores and distributors resist stocking them. However, the general public has accepted them as “self-publishers”.
Because POD publishers will accept any manuscript of any quality, they are considered suspect. This is a pity, because there are many quality works buried within the mass and there are some POD publishers who maintain standards of acceptance.
Most authors buy copies of their book direct from the POD publisher (at something like 35%off) and then re-sell them to friends and relatives or at talks. This may work if the author’s intent is to let his friends and relatives read his memoirs. It also works for self-empowerment or business authors who sell primarily through lectures. POD publishers do take a lot of the grunt work off your hands, but the problems remain:

1. The physical quality is not as high as traditional offset printing. The editing is up to the author. Misspellings, questionable grammar and inconsistencies stamp the book as amateurish. (You can solve this problem by hiring a professional editor).
2. The book covers are often cheesy. (Authors most comfortable with POD publishers have commissioned their own covers.)
3. The POD publisher retains the ISBN number. This means that they are the publisher, not you. This only becomes a problem if your book starts selling well and you want to take over the reins yourself or interest a “real” publisher in your work.
4. Although many of them tell you they can get you into bookstores, what they really mean is that they use Lightning Source as their POD printer. Since Lightning Source is owned by the same company that owns Ingram (the largest book wholesaler in the USA)
your book automatically goes into Ingram’s database. But that is all it does. The bookstores have the ability to order from Ingram, but that does not guarantee that
they will. The fact is bookstore managers don’t like to stock books from POD publishers.
6. The POD publisher puts the price on the book. It is almost always too high in relation to competing titles in the field. The cost to profit ratio is skewed. Even if a
bookstore does order your book your take is very small.
7. The traditional reviewing community will not bother with a POD publisher. However, many online reviewers will cover them.

If you are determined to use a POD purveyor anyway because you don’t want the bother of setting up as a publishing company, be sure to pick and choose among the companies out there. Some are better than others and new outfits are popping up all the time. Whatever you do, look over their contracts very carefully. And remember, whether
you self-publish the old fashioned way or use a subsidy press, the marketing of the book falls on your shoulders. Even traditional publishers expect you to go out there and hustle.

Copyright, 2007 Barbara Hudgins

2007-11-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

Barbara Hudgins
Travel author

My book
Great for travel writers!

Blog Archive
▼ 2007 (3)
▼ October (3)
Independent Bookstores Fading Away
Editors don't do facts!
Welcome

About Me
Travelauthor
New Jersey, United States
I am a writer, both published and self-published. Although I have had satirical articles published in magazines, my primary market for the last 20 years has been travel. I wrote New Jersey Day Trips both a column and a book that sold well over 110,000 copies. My most recent endeavor is "Crafting the Travel Guidebook" a 288 page book that covers the writing, constructing and publishing a travel book. View my complete profile

Friday, October 26, 2007

Independent Bookstores Fading Away
When I first wrote New Jersey Day Trips in the mid 1980's there were many independent bookstores around. I was able to place my book in about 15 bookstores right in my area--and that's not counting the chain stores. I finally got a regional wholesaler to take over the business of distributing to both the chains and the indies. As more big box bookstores opened the smaller ones closed. There was a small chain called Encore books--about ten in NJ that all took my book. The chain closed as did indies in Summit, New Providence, Chatham, Springfield as well as the Little Professor in Morris Plains. Finally the wholesaler went bankrupt. Why?Villain number one: Book returns. While book returns make sense when a potential bestseller doesn't pan out (I just read that a biography of Hillary Clinton only sold 57,000 out of 275,000 printed) when it comes to the typical small run printing it doesn't make sense. For instance, Barnes and Noble would return 200 copies of New Jersey Day Trips in January, and then order 300 copies in March. The independent stores would hold on to the copies they had and wait until Spring to sell them. So the big box stores (B&N and Borders)could lower their costs by deducting the returns from the payments they gave in January and then wait 90 days after their spring order to pay again.Villain number two: Paid promotional placement. Years ago the ABA sided with the little stores against the chains when it came to preferential discount buying. That screwed the ABA for all time. But the real reason the big box chains make money is not that selling books is profitable. It's selling space to the publishers that brings in the dough. Publishers for those endcap spots and those big round dumps that take up the front area of the store.What can the small publisher do about this? Very little.They cannot compete for the preferential space--it's too expensive. Many have become more and more dependent on the online stores such as Amazon and the others. For the independent bookstores (who were never really terribly supportive of small press titles except for local authors and regional titles), the ones who survive are usually located in intellectual areas where the bookstore is regarded as a social gathering spot or are owned by those who have other means of financial support and keep the store as a labor of love.Posted by Barbara Hudgins, author, Crafting the Travel Guidebook
Posted by Travelauthor at 2:22 PM 0 comments
Labels: independent bookstores, publishers
Saturday, October 20, 2007

Editors don't do facts!
Remember when cleaning women announced they "don't do windows". Well, sometime within the last 20 or 30 years, editors stopped looking at facts with an critical eye. Line editors primarily, but any kind of editor when you come down to it. If the author was controversial the manuscript was sent over to the lawyers for "vetting". But as for plain ordinary "facts" that the author might insert into his memoirs, his novels or his travel guides--those were assumed to have been checked out by the writer. Line editors were told to keep to the grind of spelling, punctuation and grammar and forget anything else.A few years ago I met two women who were free-lance editors. They worked for Ballantine and other paperback companies. But back in the 60s one had worked inhouse for a prestigious house (now defunct). She told me she had edited a book about historic houses in New Jersey. The book included driving directions from one house to the next with the mileage given for each trip. This editor actually got into her car and calibrated the mileage for each of these historic houses to make sure the numbers were accurate. She also walked the streets for a walking tour guidebook of Philadelphia to make sure directions were correct. Talk about dedication!Nowadays, editors simply do not do that sort of thing. Some travel guide publishers hire "writer/researchers" or fact-checkers to cover such angles. But that is usually for a series that is now in its 6th edition and the original writers are long gone.For most writers, travel or otherwise, it is best to give your manuscript to people in the know. That means for historical fiction a history teacher or college professor. A travel guide to China should have a once over by someone who is very familiar with the territory--someone who has lived there or traveled extensively in the region.As I mention in my book, "Crafting the Travel Guidebook" errors can occur in the best of guidebooks. But you sometimes wonder where the editor's head was when you see certain statements. Here, for instance, is a quote from a guide to Revolutionary war sites published by a prestigious press. The author is talking about one of the Founding Fathers and says:" Benjamin Franklin is an enduring figure from the early days of American independence, the only nonpresident on our currency."I don't know if "nonpresident" is the best grammatical usage, but the real error is the factual one. I've gone through enough ten dollar bills to know that the face that leaves my hand and slips into the cash register belongs to one Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton is now more famous for getting shot in a duel than for his contributions as Secretary of the Treasury or as the author of the Federalist Papers. But if there was ever a non-president it was Hamilton.
Historical fiction, travel guides, cook books...there are so many categories where a slip of the wrist, a simple typo can hurt the sense of the piece immeasurably. One memoirist complained that out of his entire book, the reviewer chose to harp on the fact that a character in the book was driving east on Highway 56 when that highway happened to go north and south. Just his luck--the reviewer grew up in the town and knew the details intimately. Too bad his editor didn't! That's why you need at least one outside person to go over the manuscript before you hand it in to anyone--including the editor.