 who knows the quote there is no there there who can tell me he said that Gertrude Stein what was she talking about Oakland there is no there there the same can be said about becoming a travel writer I think I'm sure there are at least a few of in the room who thought I want to find out how to be a travel writer well there's no there there there is no such job there's no job there there's no nobody looking to hire a new travel writer full time gonna make your living and I'm here to dispel your myths whatever you think it may be it isn't there is no sitting under a palm tree with a notebook waxing poetic about the breeze and the the tropical rain it doesn't exist online publishing has really decimated the field and everybody wants free content now so there's no so there's diminishing returns for those who already are in the field it's not what it was 20 years ago it's not what it was even 10 years ago or even five years ago publishers are still trying to figure out how to make money in an ever-shrinking market there are publishers such as Lonely Planner who have a growing market share in say America I think Lonely Planner remain though now in American company they were for a long time an Australian company and they were and I believe still are the largest publisher of English language travel books in the world and though they have an expanding market in America the overall travel publishing market is shrinking so what has travel writing become it's no longer about long-form prose if you open magazines you don't see long travel articles you don't see a lot of prose that's it's about curated lists by experts theoretically experts in big quotation marks curated lists by experts in a field the top 10s listicles you see these things all the time top 10 best beach vacations you know top 100 hotels you know Condi Nast is always out with its hot 100 list so the work that they want those publishers who are hiring they want dense paragraphs if anything they want 50 words they want a hundred words or 30 words but they want dense punchy paragraphs so you can't say you have to be really tight with the way you word things every word has to count assignments now pay pennies on the dollar compared to what they used to because now they want another right another air quotes writer to fill in templates writers now are very often just filling in data their data monkeys transporting information from one thing to another thing creating listicles and you don't leave your desk a lot of the time if you're if you're really a contemporary travel writer there's less travel in travel writing than they used to be this is the current state of travel publishing now that's not true for everybody there are still glamorous assignments and they're still great magazine jobs but they're fewer and fewer and they're harder and harder to come by so you understand the difference in market share and market that I just explained that all made sense to you okay that's super important to understand magazine writing is now largely driven by PR people please come in there's room I'm sure we can make Brian will help you find space to sit gentlemen magazine writing is now largely PR driven there were a few up until I think Condi Nast may have been in the last holdout that financed its its authors and its writers to go out into the field and dine or sail or whatever it was they were writing about but now they don't do that now they take comps to everybody lonely planet they don't allow comps more quotes but what is a comp a comp is you know what I say something as a comp it's free and this is the question how you finance travel writing who pays for it a lot of travel writing is now funded by PR people PR agencies local municipalities for example visit San Francisco has huge budgets to fly in a travel right if you show if you call whatever the I forget what the CVB is called now what's it called visit San Francisco no it's called only in San Francisco that's it only in San Francisco dot travel that is the official agency of travel for the city of San Francisco the official agency for the state of California is visit California visit California dot com every municipality state country has its own tourism agency and in other countries they're really big fields you can study tourism for example in France and become a tourism professional and work in in tourism development here it's more hodgepodge it's people mostly from PR backgrounds and marketing and so marketing people are now in a lot it's a little travel writing has in many ways become what food writing had already become if you look at what restaurants are popular in San Francisco they're the weather the ones that oh I want to go that place I read about that place oh that one's famous oh that one's in Michelin why is it famous why is it covered why is it in Michelin because there's a huge PR company or they're paying a powerful PR company to get their name out there they're not necessarily the best chefs they're not necessarily the best food but they're the most famous and the most covered and that's where the dollars go and that's what this is about it's about where the money goes so how do you underwrite a profession nobody wants to pay for you get municipalities to cover airfares if I call San Francisco and say I'm coming from Seattle I live in Seattle and I'm covering San Francisco for such and such magazine or such in such book if I have enough line space for five enough readers the first question is always going to be how many readers how many column inches how many pages and then you get into this very delicate business of well what do you they'll say well we'll cover your airfare if you can mention the airline we'll cover your hotel if you can mention the hotel well you may have any idea in your head that you want to go to San Francisco and find the best hotel for your readers so there's a you have to know how to deal with PR people if you really do get into this and I'm getting ahead of myself but the magic words you say to any PR person if you ever confronted with a PR person is thank you very much I'm grateful for your assistance however you must understand that anything you offer is for editorial consideration only that's how you keep from becoming a whore okay memorize that line anything you offer me is for editorial consideration only if it's a fit for my readers I'm happy to give it coverage but I cannot guarantee coverage in advance now most magazines will guarantee coverage in advance to hotels airlines providers of of services you know how when you watch Jeopardy or all those shows travel furnished by and promotional consideration provided by American Airlines that slate of the of the plane and the American Airlines ad is because American Airlines flies the contestants to Chicago for free or wherever they're going in exchange for that slate so Jeopardy or whatever TV broadcast or come in I'm sure there's plenty of room I'm sure there's a seat where's a seat there's a seat yeah there okay great welcome anyway this whole business of this and this is about maintaining editorial integrity how if you want to speak about a destination in clear frank terms how are you going to do that where's who's the publisher you're going to fit with well this is complicated let's not worry about that right now let's worry about how do you get a toehold in the field you're never going to get a job solely as a travel writer okay and if you do you're going to hustle hustle hustle you're going to work 60 80 hours a week you're going to work for way less than minimum wage but you'll live a life of subsidized luxury you'll be flown here maybe if you're lucky you'll have to cover many of your own expenses unless you're writing for magazines in which case the PR firms and the municipalities cover costs but it's not what it appears to be it's not what you think so I for example I don't I don't really do much traveling more because there's so much I don't want to be a whore for the municipalities or for the magazine that wants that has you know something they want to say because they they know they want to cover Rio so they're having they got this free thing and this free thing and the person who goes to cover it's basically just filling in the free things that were offered it's not necessarily the best thing to do so if you really want to have your own independent strong voice there are fewer and fewer publishers who allow that but you can always do the blogging you can do it with your own website you can create your own brand and here's where you have to stand out now if you really want to get into this field you have to have more than just writing nobody reads anymore people don't read I know you're here I know in the library I know that's heresy to say but people don't read the way they used to they scan they scan so it's really important you have to be a writer a blogger and now a video journalist now video journalism it's the future videos the future as pictures we live in a world of ever decreasing attention spans attention spans I say that yeah attention spans people just they don't want to read they want to see the video they want to you know even instructions for how to get benefits from social security they say to understand how to fill out the form watch this video not just read this page so if you can learn video journalism which is a very specific branch of video it's it's about telling a story with simple frames and you can do it as a one-man thing that actually is a really great if you have some extra money and have some extra time the thing that I would suggest to do is to study with Rosenblum TV in New York or London there's a three-day crash course it's called video journalism bootcamp I think and it's about twenty two hundred dollars and you have to find it lodging in New York and you have to get your butts in New York but you will learn how to shoot edit and deliver broadcast quality video using your iPhone oh my iPhone is not my pocket if you have an iPhone 6 or better you have a broadcast quality high-definition camera in your pocket it's a super powerful tool yes that video okay how do you how much do you think travel writing pays from a magazine it's not changed in 25 years what do you what do you guess per word it pays by word what do you think for a magazine it was a dollar a word and it hasn't changed in 25 friggin years but it should be forms used to pay up to five dollars a word but that's you know it's really good the five dollar word assignments are over they don't exist anymore they're one and maybe two dollar word assignments but a good paying job is a dollar a word online publishing if you're lucky you get 20 cents a word it's more like $20 for 200 or 300 word article it's just not worth it so it's like scabs and union employees like people saying oh I'll do it I want to be a travel writer coming in and sawing the legs off the people really know what they're doing so what do you think video publishers will pay for video per minute a thousand dollars not travel publishers but in general you know pub you one minute video will perfectly produced there can be no flaws of sound there can be no no moving camera there can be no fuzzy mic in the frame but if you learn to shoot and broadcast and deliver how professional grade material it's a thousand dollars per finished minute and they the Rosenblum's Lisa Landon and Michael Rosenblum really teach you how to do this I don't want to make this a commercial for them but I took their class because they're on the board of the company that now owns the only planet so I had this total that's how I heard about them the first place my mother was in New York and I was in New York and I just happened to do it anyway but it's quite fabulous and you will really learn how to shoot and edit and deliver broadcast quality video but you have to know how to tell a story if you don't know how to tell a story now we're back to writing and here's why it's always good to begin with writing because if you know how to write you can tell a story it has to be an arc of a narrative in writing and video however whatever story you're telling there has to be a beginning a middle and an end you can't just sort of go here and there and so what is travel writing ultimately what is it let's talk about what in its purest form travel writing is please come in sir travel writers are folklorists this is after doing this for almost 15 years or more that's really what travel writing is you're a folklorist you're freeze-framing a culture in a specific moment in time what are people eating what are they doing for entertainment where they sleeping how do they sleep what are they what do they do for festivals how do they celebrate what are their sacred days and this is always in flux cultures are always in flux and travel writing therefore is extremely perishable which is another reason publishers don't want to pay top dollar for something that's not going to be valid a year from now the restaurant landscape changes the night clubs change so fast it's a nightmare to cover bars and nightclubs because as soon as it published because paper publishing has a nine month lead time nine to twelve month lead time so what I'm researching say now if I were turning in work right now if I were I do the San Francisco book for Lonely Planet for example if it were publishing next March I would be turning in the work coming up in these next couple weeks these next four six eight ten weeks and because it has to go to editing and then it has to go to layout and then it has to go to design and then it has to be printed and that has to be packaged has to be shipped and all this stuff takes a tremendous amount of time so just understand what you're doing if you're a travel writer you're a folklorist so the lens through which you look at this task is sort of anthropological and this sort of noble viewpoints help you in the work when you are faced with PR people and editors who are just out of college and don't know anything about the subject matter you're covering or and are trying to speed through the data and cutting out the most important stuff that you've submitted and say why am I doing this so you have to have some sort of higher-minded drivers in your head propelling you and keeping your heart pure and alive so as far as I can tell being a folklorist is the most helpful because it's a special role to be able to see through that lens because none of us really notice anything changing but when you see how slippery life is it I don't want to get too caught up in philosophy but it's a helpful view you have to have a few strong philosophical things anchoring you to who you are otherwise you just a whore for the PR people don't be a whore for the PR people remember that I'm not a whore for the PR people this is for editorial consideration only I'll gladly accept what you're offering thank you so much but it's for editorial consideration only okay how do I get started how do you get started first you have to find your voice everybody has a voice everybody has a story and everybody knows something different everybody's got a different view on life so the only secret to writing is to write so you must write this is what you do but you have to have good mechanics so if you've never studied grammar now is the time it's very important to have good grammar even if publishers aren't necessarily paying attention to that even what you read online sucks and says you know it's full of cliches you must have excellent grammar and excellent mechanics with the language that's every little thing that can put you ahead matters because there's such competition and to be able to write with color and flair and texture and a really great exercise I there's something called morning pages there's a book called the artist's way which is a very good book on it comes out to two basic things really that you do every every day and every week the first thing is get up every morning and write longhand ten minutes just write longhand ten minutes and if you can't think of what to write write your name say I can't think of what to write but you never move backwards on the page you never correct you never say oh I should have said that then just write any line I just wrote that but I meant to say this and just keep writing for it it's about pushing the pen it's about hand I brain connection so you're doing this don't type it you can't type it you got to write it longhand ten minutes and then when you're done you're done throw it out burn it save it have a ritual whatever you want doesn't matter the exercise is the exercise and you will find in very short order that this unlocks your ability to create on the page or to to think in broader terms or to assemble ideas it's it's as if by magic this really works so well it's the most potent thing I know and whenever I'm stuck or have writers block this is the exercise that I always go to and it works really fast so every morning first thing before you eat shower and you might okay have some coffee if you want but immediately no reading no TV no computer longhand writing first ten minutes next you must know your talents what are you good at I got hired by Lonely Plant and by photos in the beginning because I had a background in luxury travel I had worked as a five-star hotel concierge and I had studied cooking in Paris so I had all this food and hotels background and they were interested in that because most of their writers hadn't any of that knowledge so they were glad to have someone who could walk into a five-star hotel and understand what distinguished one from another so that was my toehold in the industry it's still it remains so because a lot of people say well I don't know what's the dream scene business class in first class well there's a very big difference but not everybody knows even the passengers on the airplane or in the hotel don't know but the answer that question the dream scene business in first class business class gives you everything gives you a list of amenities there you go first class looks at you and before you even ask for anything they size you up and they say oh she has wet shoes I bet she wants slippers so you show up with beautiful silk slippers and say hi notice your shoes are wet I'm sure you might find these more comfortable as we sit on this airplane for 12 hours and give you slippers before you ask it's anticipating what someone wants before they know they want it that's first class business class is the list of amenities yes they have slippers yes they have umbrellas but they don't hand them to you because it's raining out so anyway I'm sidetracked so what is your talent surely you must know something that's marketable in the travel industry hi welcome come on in hey are you hey you see you and then you really need to start a blog and don't not a meandering blog travel writing is not journaling you're not saying oh I woke up this morning and orange juice click goodbye nobody wants that be what's the word astute you want to say something that's fresh dynamic new you don't have to struggle you just look around town there's always something to talk about in San Francisco it could be homelessness it could be I walked in the library and this guy said hey man how you doing I said hi I'm sorry I'm on my way somewhere I knew the guy's gonna ask me for money and he said no no nothing I asked you for money actually I was wondering if you wanted some acid okay okay I like that this is different I could write about that if you send us about walking to the public library to give a lecture on somebody tries to sell me acid that's funny you all laughed so your blog should be yeah if you're gonna write about San Francisco or you know you want to write about something topical and timely blogs you just kind of turn them out but I would say because you if you want to be a true writer you're not gonna have typos you're not you're gonna reread it and you're gonna proof it and after you post it if you catch an error you're gonna correct it you must be impeccable with your word everything must be super tight if you're really gonna frame yourself as a writer and actually be a writer you must be super tight above everybody else blogging you can look at WordPress this is all done with WordPress I hired somebody to get this layout to get this template I like this slide so it's nice it's good for people who just like to zip through things but there is content there's tons of content here if you dig around but you have to go through it you have to go to blogs and cycle through it and I won't bore you with looking online right now but I like that it cycles through and you can be sort of grab someone with an image and have a lead line all right so you can also get into editorial by taking an editorial job but there are few and fewer of those if you've noticed there are fewer and fewer editors in the world you think content just gets posted it's you submit the content and whatever content provider posts it they don't even read it they don't proof it mistakes are constantly posted that's why you have to be your own editor you have to be your own fact-checker and it's really really hard to write Molly Ivan said that the only thing harder than writing is coal mining I think she's right but you have to hold yourself to the task because no one else will and if you don't make yourself a better than everybody else you'll never get anywhere in this which leads me to the importance of style nothing will make an editor happy then clean copy because if they get the copy and say oh my god this is disastrous but I don't have time to do anything with it they have to post it because there are no more editors like they used to be and the editor thinks Jesus that looks terrible and I'm never gonna hire that person again it happens all the time people get these one-off jobs that's why you don't see consistent bylines because there's so many bad writers and so much bad writing I spent a ton of a ton of time on my first assignment they were really short and really easy but I just spent so much time laboring over every detail and lo and behold I got hired again you should do the same you should also read work by writers that you like and read if you want to write for particular periodicals you should be reading those don't just think I'm gonna write for them without reading them you lie you may think that's surprising but lots of people do that they say oh I want to write for food and wine without ever having picked up a copy if you don't have a favorite writer pick up a copy of best American travel writing that's prose that's long-form prose that nobody wants to buy but the by established authors but at least it gives you an idea of how to talk about place because it's hard to talk about place you need an in-road you need a lens you need you need an angle and remember the primary rule of writing show it don't say it don't say it was a beautiful day say the fog broke early the Sun whatever the Sun was the sky was blue the the the there was no fog the beach which is normally empty was full of people something like that you demonstrate it you show it you don't say it don't just say it's beautiful because it's empty it doesn't mean anything how is it beautiful why is it beautiful show it don't say it and use all five senses this is really important with travel writing particularly so because people want to place themselves you're the proxy there's a lot of people read travel writing who actually never go anywhere but they just want to know what it's like in Timbuktu or wherever they want to they want to read about it because they want to place themselves so you must use your senses in your writing and a good exercise to do this is go to the ferry building or go to the civic center market right outside what's it called the farmers market I forget the name downstairs on what is it Wednesday and Sunday Sunday Sunday and just walk around and describe the scene you know the people pushing each other jostling or or the flower salesman or the you know the drunk beer guy or whatever and and write about it with your senses what it smells like what it tastes like what it looks like what you hear and what you touch and always always always avoid cliches do you know the cliches we'll cross that version we come to it a cliche is we'll cross that version we come to it anything any phrase you've heard before that's been used don't use any language anybody's ever heard before and I have a list from a I can't really say what publisher it's from but it's proprietary it's an international publisher it's not only planted but it's a name you all know it's a name known worldwide and here is their banned list of things you can't say if you write for their magazine avoid tired stock phrases that you'd never actually use anywhere other than travel writing also avoid trying too hard and purple prose which is a British thing anyway our favorite phrases to avoid are number one foodie to blank lovers like a food lovers guide or an art lovers referring to people as if they're defined by one thing urbanites will love referring to the reader as a potential tourist quote visitors will find XYZ referring to travelers most travelers bypass and travel in general while this approach is practical the writer should be a writer should be about the places and people in front of you not how they might be viewed by a visitor or a third person that makes sense you don't want to say the visitor will see or the you get that just say second person always works well you will see because you're talking to someone potentially although certain publishers don't like you to use the second person either and nobody likes you to the first person and that's the first person for those you don't know speaking at I so much blogging blogging is always an eye it's always in the first person because there's a blogger but why should we care there's someone I know who I met once at a cocktail party and she found out that I travel writing sick oh my god I love you I want to meet for coffee it's like okay I'm here for coffee and I made you a dinner party near a friend of a friend well I met her once for coffee I met her in dinner party and she's been traveling around the globe and keeps sending me like these 500 to 1500 word first person essays and she's a really nice person in person but I don't know anything about her and why should I care this is the question when someone is saying I why do I need to know who you are can't you tell me about Carmel without telling me who you are unless of course you're this funny person who goes to places and dances and you were trying to dance on the cobblestones and Carmel and you fell and you got a ticket for wearing heels or whatever it is because they do that in Carmel then it's funny then you need to know the eye but otherwise avoid the first person it's really slippery slope back to this list I'll just zip through it quirky a blank for the senses an assault on the senses must see a blanks paradise like a shopper's paradise trendy or funky we're loving blank blank has it all a blank of contrasts eye opening oh so although oh so can be fun like I like oh so oh so has its place if you're saying something like it was oh so over-the-top queer that the leather coins had high heels on something like that we are a little playful I'm like setting something up spurious references to celebrities like we heard Kate Moss had recovered from a facelift at such-and-such a hotel don't ever talk like that it's tacky nobody wants to hear that alliteration you know where you repeat certain consonants a doggie diner dingo whatever you know avoid alliteration good for the soul mouthwatering awe-inspiring a blank to remember fresh comfy spotless referring to food is tasty a gem particularly a hidden gem both my personal favorite to hate if the thing doing the boasting is an inanimate objects e.g. the hotel boasts a pool and spa it cannot be so okay nothing boasts only people boasts and writers who say boasts are trying to boast and don't do it the hotel oozes charm hotels don't ooze sores ooze puffs oozes award-winning another one award when he's meaningless on its own because what's the award they won and even if you cite the award if it's a obscure award it's not relevant to the reader remember you have very few words and every word counts referring to fair instead of food aching an achingly hip culture vulture or the underline the place for a blank to be seen the or chic when used excessively shabby chic boutique chic etc. adrenaline junkie default adjectives like lush for any type of verdant landscape sleek for modern architecture cozy for pubs bustling for markets you get it default adjectives airy and then think when asking a reader to imagine a place like think sleek architecture so that's from a famous publisher it was attached to an assignment I had recently and I thought it you would like to know this avoid cliches I spoken too much about cliches but I can't overemphasize it enough don't write in cliches and most everything you will read that somebody's been paid for is packed with cliches don't fall into that trap because they probably won't really get anywhere in their career and the publisher probably knows it sucks but they had to post it because they paid the person and they had a day to get it in don't let this happen okay so whenever possible speak in the active voice not the passive voice think of these two sentences memorize these two sentences the barn was struck by lightning lightning struck the barn passive active we speak a lot in the passive voice conversation is passive but in written language you must be active as much as possible it active has its place especially when you're trying to avoid responsibility mistakes were made versus George Bush made mistakes get it mistakes were made by George Bush is still passive but such and such made mistakes I made a mistake saying mistakes were made as an evasion so you use the passive voice to evade so if you want to be clever and you're showing underlining evasion then you can use the passive voice and then you're sort of giving a dublon tonda for the educated reader but get good reference books and use them if you don't have any reference book the easiest one to get and the easiest one you can carry in your bag is the elements of style it's whatever a hundred years old or 50 years old and it's fabulous it's still got all the basics of how to use a comma how to use a semicolon what's a comma splice super simple you can read through and there's a new addition that has pictures in it that's really great I can't remember who was done with you know that elements of style with the drawings I'm sure it's in the library here the elements of style by strunk and white and there's a new addition that has drawings to accompany the text that are really quite fabulous check your facts because publishers don't check facts but if you they used to but they don't have the staff anymore because they don't have the money because of shrinking budgets and shrinking market share so you have to turn in factually correct work so that means if you make any claim whatsoever 500 room hotel you pick up the telephone and you call the hotel yes the telephone is faster than the email usually how many rooms in your hotel well we have 497 how many are suites 32 how many actual standard bedrooms you have to break it down you have to be very clear when you make a claim in print you're making a claim in print so if there's a problem libel laws in America are different from anywhere else in the world because we have the First Amendment what do they call that when you accuse someone of there's libel if slander libel on slander if you accuse someone of slander in America only in America is the burden of proof on the accuser that means you say to me you called me blank you have to prove that I did that and that's not up to me I just wrote it every other country in the world except for America the burden of proof is on the accused that's to say if I write Donald Trump XYZ Donald Trump sues me it's not up to Donald Trump to prove it it's up to me to prove that I didn't do so you have to prove a negative which is all but impossible so those hi welcome come on in this room those cases are always settled out of court overseas because there's just no way to prove a negative so just the same it's a and a lot of publishers are overseas you know they could be owned by a conglomerate that's based in Germany I think Random House last I knew had been owned by a German company I don't know if they still are and photos is owned by Random House if they still are so you may be writing for a German conglomerate and if you put something in that's libelous or slanderous or factually incorrect you're in trouble and they may not indemnify you that's always in a contract they always have indemnification for the publisher but most people who get a travel running contract just get the contract and sign it and you should never ever do that you should never ever do that they're lawyers for the arts you can have review it welcome hi and you should always make on this I won't get into contracts but you should always make indemnification mutual if you ever sign a contract that has an indemnification clause it should be mutual so that you're both off the hook that's very important and if you have the chance to write your own contract if somebody says well you want to have a contract you wait the contract you've got the edge let's not talk about contracts let's just talk with your beginners so let's talk about beginning blogging oh one last thing you have to be able to tell a story I would look up if you really want to do this I would learn craft I would learn something you know what's that great book on writing I think talks about writing and so it's called on writing famous yeah on writing well yeah thank you anything that's got anything it's about craft and teaching you how to how to tell a good story you should definitely learn to tell a story otherwise you're kind of it's not gonna work blogging because you will have to blog you didn't have to do ten years ago but you do have to know you should have a blog that's your own name see John's lajitas.com if your name is Bob Smith I'm sorry but I find you know Bob Smith writer or something like that but it's good to have a proprietary website that's your name it should be your name not like itchy feet I mean a lot of people do that because they're trying to create a brand but if you it's better to have a proprietary name site so you can people can see your portfolio because that's what they want to look up your portfolio when you write a blog post it's good to answer something that people may not have thought about it's in your chosen field like I know about travel and luxury travel and I was on this business class flight dinner flight wherever it is there that one I blacked out on an airplane it's a long story it's really funny and I only know about it because I had just gotten a new iPhone it's like five or six years ago and it first came out whatever it was and I had it in my pocket and it fell out of my pocket and the flight attendant picked it up and said oh does this have a camera and I was only in a blackout because the flight attendant insisted I stay awake because she figured out that I was a travel writer and I she said I want to talk to you after my service it was an empty plane and I won't go into too much detail but she said after my service I'm gonna come and get you and I want you to come to the galley and just talk to me about travel writing I said okay but come and get me before I take my sleeping pills and she said oh no I know I'll be back so what I she never appears I watch a movie I eat my dinner I brush my teeth and I lie down and I'm about to go to sleep and she comes running back I said oh I just took my sleeping pill and she said that's okay I'll give you some wine and anyway I won't give away this story but I only know about it because she took pictures with my phone and I forgot about the whole thing until I got home and it's a really funny story so that's that so that answers a question that immediately as soon as I posted that as soon as you write your little blog posts whatever it is you go into Facebook because you have to have a Facebook account whether you like it or not and you go into Twitter and you go would you have to also have whether you like it or not and you don't post your story on those outlets or becomes their property so what did I do on Facebook I wrote considering if you have something like considering taking sleeping pills on your next long-haul flight question mark you better read this first period and then boom next thing I know if you Google ambient and airplanes not only am I the first thing that comes up my picture is the first thing that comes up to in a blackout hi mom so that happened really fast like within a few hours like 72 hours suddenly on page one of Google and I'm there a year later so but when you do that you have to search before you post something you have to look at your title that you want to use search for the title you want to use has anybody else used it nobody had used that and it's the kind of thing that's kind of catchy it's a negative people don't write you know they say why to do blank very few I mean it's kind of catching on now why not to and I only had the idea because Condi Nast hired me to write a piece called why not to oh 10 things not to do in San Francisco and I thought it was such such a good idea it came and immediately came up first so you want to search Google before you actually post anything or commit to any story title or tags that you search for them so that you can fill a void on Google and that you can be higher in the page rank you should write in short paragraphs online short like two to three sentence paragraphs because people scan and if you have big blocks of text people read the beginning in the end and they'll miss the entire middle but if you break them into shorter blocks they'll read the beginning of each block generally so you'll have and don't wait till the end front load your story so you need a good lead line which is another mechanical piece the first sentence has to collar the reader and grab them and you know I will open this because we're talking about writing online and this is online so here's the stand first should one take sleeping pills on board and airplanes I examined this question and essay I read it litquake fine take your own photographs and you should watermark them which I haven't done you have to be a photographer to tell you that but you have a broadcast quality camera in your pocket so you should watermark your photographs because now this is on the internet but it doesn't have my name on it even though it's a fabulous picture that I took at SFO so here's my lead line I had started was started with something else but I read it to a friend who's a writer Carl Solmite who's also read his library and he this line was buried in the middle and he said no that's your first line two shots of Jack Daniels one milligram of adavine and 10 milligrams of Ambien you're all listening now aha that's a good lead line because so what are you gonna do with these drugs and alcohol this was the cocktail for sleep suggested to me by a medical doctor I once met on a dinner flight from New York to San Francisco then into the story and if you look at the layout of this you can scan and you know there's quick breaks the conversation then there's the pictures I won't give away the pictures it's really funny yeah yeah you have to read it as your homework okay so that's about blogging so don't post your story on Facebook or it's no longer your story it belongs to Facebook okay you post a link to your story and you post a link that can be copied by others because and be careful with pictures you post because I'm in a blackout and there's a little kid sitting in my lap and I posted that and BBC travel published that worldwide and my web person said John you can't have a child sitting in your lap in a blackout in the back of an airplane sitting on the floor of the galley I said oh my god why not I guess I think it's a really funny picture though and she said you can't do that in America people I know it's not your intention but it's people will have the wrong idea I was like oh my god you can't take it back it's you can take it down I put up a different picture that's equally funny but if you Google it's still buried in there somewhere I'm not a child molester but somebody could like you know who knows what people think of you so you and you're going on to the worldwide web it's not San Francisco it's not this nice room in the library we can make jokes about Donald Trump or sleeping pills or acid in the lobby this is the worldwide web and you are talking about your worldwide reputation so be impeccable with your word and your pictures pitching I'm going to give you some really quick tips on pitching we got about 15 minutes and I want to plow through these because it's important number one find an angle for your story travel ratings not journaling I know I said that know the publications you want to write for study them cover to cover editors want to know how your work will fit into their publication who's the publication gear to what are readers letters indicate about the readership how could your work enhance the material that already exists in the magazine suggest to the editor you pitch where in the magazine your pitch will fit which is to say if you want to write a feature you say I'm pitching a feature but if you're a nobody who's trying to write a feature it's not going to happen so you should always be pitching in the beginning for front of book that's the terminology front of book using that phrase will make it seem like you know what you're doing and they'll be more inclined to hire you so you can shoot for something in the front of the book so look at the structure of the magazine look at the front of the book then the features and then the back of book most essential thing about pitching pitching someone is the three questions you have to answer in any pitch letter why this why now why you let's say you want to something on South America and what's what's everyone talking about in South America now Zika virus so well I'm a woman I'm a childbearing age but I'm not pregnant should I be worried how to like you know something about women's travel to set that would sell right now if you can come up with something about a woman of childbearing age traveling to South America not being afraid of Zika it will sell I guarantee it somebody will buy it so you want to be timely why this why this subject is because it was everybody's talking about or it's why now because well the CDC is investigating Zika and coming up with some why you well you happen to be a woman of childbearing age so why this why now why you it might be the great story it might be the great time but you may be the wrong person to tell it and a lot of times your job is to convince the publisher or the editor that you are the right person to tell it which is why you have to know what your strengths are so always play off of your strengths like what like I said the hotel background the food background the luxury travel and you should always build a backup pitch into any letter that you write when you're pitching if you don't want to feature on Zika virus and women of childbearing age how about something on for the front of book about mosquito repellents a short thing on mosquito repellent it's also of the same topic or something like that so you have a backup pitch built in and if you if you're pitching a feature also pitch something for front of book and if you're pitching something for the front of book come up with a second choice for the front of book make sense okay pitch 9 to 12 months in advance for magazines it sounds really long online publications are a shorter lead time but they still have a lead time of a few months because they have editorial calendars another term you need to know editorial calendar where they map out well April we're going to do the pot issue because it's 420 and sure may we're going to do travel because it's spring and June will do whatever flowers who knows but they all have an editorial calendar and you don't know that and they're not going to tell you because they don't like this way to release that information but you can look at magazines and know sort of what their editorial calendar is by what they're publishing this year and if you're pitching 9 to 12 months out go look at Condi now's traveler in June and it's going to be about Europe usually as so if you want to cover Europe then you know that you're pitching for the June issue so you say I'd like to submit an idea for the June issue or you know you don't want to be vague you don't say hey I have this great idea I'm hoping you publish it because I won't you have to let them know how you are helping them you are here to help the editor and if you have nothing to offer them except your own sparkling good looks they're not going to call you they're not going to write you back so you're helping them how are you helping them what's your area of expertise what's your strength make sure your contact information is right before you query an editor because editors change all the time and magazines particularly always being relaunched and rebranded and target your queries to a specific heading in the magazine so if you want to write San Francisco magazine you want to do something about weekends in Marin then say I'd like to suggest a piece for your weekend or section again know the magazine set yourself apart know your talents play off your strengths if you're really obsessive create an excel spreadsheet with all the titles that you're interested in working for websites whatever it is and know what they're doing when and keep track of it when to pitch who covers what like Condi Nast Europe and summer and a good little fun little exercise go over here the stacks in the magazines go through 10 of them in 10 minutes give yourself one minute with each magazine and then when you get home right 10 1 in yourself 10 10 10 10 magazines 10 minutes to review and 10 minutes to write 10 pitches 10 pitch ideas like you have to elaborate but just come with the idea it's good just to get things moving and how you might do this also look at media beast Joe's web page on pitching media beast Joe MEDIA BIS TRO two words media beast Joe has a whole section if you join them I don't even know if you don't think you have to pay just taking your email address on how to pitch specific magazines title by title from a far travel magazine to yahoo auto I look today a to y and they're in their career advice section and if you're serious about freelancing and want to know the legal issues buy a copy of working for yourself law and taxes for independent contractors no low-press NOLO you know there's a lot of different ways I was gonna talk about on the road we only have about five minutes I was gonna say you know don't rely on your memory always take notes if you're sitting and having a lovely meal you'll forget it you will forget everything either snap lots of pictures and use evernote or write longhand and keep moleskins but you must make notes look beyond the obvious at the Golden Gate Bridge everybody's so busy looking at the towers and the cables nobody notices there's a nude beach at the bottom of it or that if you go to the bottom and crawl through the fence it says do not trespass you can walk around to where Kim Novak jumped in the water and what's the film what's the film no very go don't rely on memory see talk and the other thing is if you're gonna go out and explore and you're gonna be on the road find the maven find the expert who knows things there's always an expert find the expert don't trust anybody who says everything's great if somebody says this is good this is good this is good oh I love that place other places good they're worthless you want the people who are discriminating intelligence get multiple stories out of one trip if you go to Sonoma to do something about wine also go to a cheese place and get something about cheese they have to read any contract you get because sometimes publishers won't let you do that so again read any contracts you fees I won't talk about fees the people who do best are really the ones who have a solid handle on their time and know how to stay out of debt so don't go into this if you're debt-prone and if you're a spend-thrift and if you can't make small budgets work because freelancing and this is freelancing it's feast or famine it's chicken or feathers and website I told you a media bistro their local organizations like left-coast writers they travel writers and if you don't know how to make a website you can look on craigslist for people who work for cheap or just at a college or go to your local school or somewhere we have an affiliation your alma mater no no it's it's San Francisco you can make a website send thank you notes this is so important in life in general but especially with editing or anybody who helps you do this helps you get anywhere in this field you send a thank you note not electronically I mean okay you can send an email but I guess so many frigging emails nice stationery and long-hand neat writing and a hand-addressed envelope because everybody opens hand-addressed envelopes they don't open stamp address you know the machine address so if you send it it will guarantee be remembered it will be opened and you will be remembered so get nice stationery have a card with your name on it and a good book that you might want to consider getting is Don George's travel writing he worked he's one of the only planet senators and the book is called travel writing by Don George and it's published by Lonely Planet and it's probably the single best source I can think of for this topic that we've been talking about I've been talking about for the last hour you've been so gracious to listen so intently and I think that's pretty much everything you get back what you put into this sort of and remember my Ivan said the only thing harder than writing is coal mining so but if you want to do it why shouldn't you just try just try and you start start little and see if it doesn't grow so if there are any questions I think we have a couple of minutes are there any questions please go ahead oh many fire oh the second thing oh yeah the first thing is get up and write longhand the other thing is once a week take yourself someplace you wouldn't otherwise go that inspires in you creativity and imagination and something you wouldn't otherwise do and you do it alone it's called an artist's date so you take yourself out for two hours you go climb a tree and write poetry or you go something you wouldn't otherwise do that inspires creativity and you go along thank you for reminding me number two you had please go ahead yes if the editor does not bring up the question of comps if they want you to go do something you say do you have a budget if they say no while we work with the tourism authority mm-hmm some complications will not accept your story the Chronicle won't take it because it's but doesn't but only spot I mean most people take it no no no no no you just have the story you have the story if you know you got the story you made it work but don't be a whore say this is for editorial consideration only not to suggest but it's very important that you maintain your integrity is on trying to say because there are a whole lot of people out there you go to various I won't say what famous travel writing group but the definitive long-standing travel writing group it's all these fat old people who just constantly just want to be flown here and fed this and they just sit there and they sit on the van and they sit on the bus and they occasionally take a note and that's old-style travel right that's dead and those people are dying and that world is dying and you do not want to enter into that world you will have to take comps but you need to do it ethically and you need to be lean and need to say I'm my own person and my own mind know your mind keep your own console and don't get confused yeah the best will disclose if there's been a calm and you should disclose if there's been a calm unless it's like a national park or something that you can't make a bad hotel good but it's good to disclose that's the publishers matter more than yours yeah you had a question yes please oh no they have very fancy contracts they are very much contracted but all those places you know a lot of that it's TV is a different matter I was going to talk about TV and your demo real but don't worry about demo reals and don't just get the story part get the story and craft first yes sir about flogging oh I can't really speak to that because I don't do it it's not my thing I mean I can't really speak to it I would really you know I point you to Michael Rosenblum and Lisa Lambden for their crash course and video journalism because their thing is very simple five they only get you never move the camera you have five frames I won't tell you what they are because I signed a contract saying I wouldn't share but it's a really simple way to shoot and edit and if you have an extra three thousand dollars to go to New York and spend on this class it's if you really want a career in this it's a no-brainer you have to take this class because soon other people will catch up but people don't realize that these broadcast quality cameras in their pockets they don't nobody's putting it together and so much bad video where the camera gets moved and you know no fix the camera don't move the goddamn camera and make sure your frame is perfect and beautiful but we digress any other questions yes please I look really great on paper and I've kind of done it I feel like I've done it already I don't want to go backwards I don't want to keep doing what I've been doing so I may move more into video but I don't like TV people I don't like their world the TV world I just don't like how they their motivations are very venal and base and I think I I want to make big public art projects that's what I want to do I want to move in I want to make big public art projects I want to expand in art rather than sort of get smaller in technical ability I want to do something bigger and broader and because if you do well if you have a really great Google profile people look you up and say wow what can I help you with say well fine you should ask so you can establish and it's the other thing at the power of the World Wide Web is you're creating your own reputation we all laughed when the teacher said this will be on your permanent record thinking there's no permanent record and the joke is we're all making our own permanent records so be careful what you put online any other questions did answer your question did that help well because it's a field of diminishing returns what's the first thing I said to you when I walked in the room for those latecomers there is no there there Gertrude Stein on Oakland but it also applies to travel writing there is no job as travel writer it's gone you can do it if you really work really hard and like why am I exhausting myself for $2 an hour it's not worth it so but it can be fun and thrilling and it can give you a great online profile and people will say wow you're doing the thing I want to do and then you get asked to speak at the library yes sir well that's interesting people don't really steal writing in the same way you can kind of it is technically okay anything you publish if if you really are worried about copyright you put at the bottom copyright symbol with the year and your name and that legally it states copyright 2016 John Lahitas and anytime I do anything I I don't know if it's on here but it should be on here I should have probably something else you need a lawyer okay if you're in video or television or anything you know everybody thinks you need an agent you need an agent you all know Ted Allen he's on what's that first chopped he's the host of chopped and he used to be on queer art for the straight guy and he's a friend of a friend through a former publisher at Lonely Planet and when I got this gig with National Geographic I said oh my god do I need an agent what do I do and my publisher friend said well I've tied out on that question and I he said I'll put you two in touch here's his email address so I wrote him a note I said should I get an agent and he said you don't need an agent you need a lawyer Ted good luck Ted and I wrote back and I said really a lawyer sounds so expensive and he wrote me I don't offend anyone's sensibilities but what he said was I shouldn't use this language to the library get a fucking lawyer if you don't get a fucking lawyer a stupid fucking idea I never fucking want to talk to you again because you're a stupid fuckhead that's what he said to me Ted Allen and I quote loosely but that was the gist and apologize I'm so sorry I've never in my dreams I apologize for offended anyone sensibilities inappropriate but it's a quotation so it's okay so get a lawyer if and if you don't if you have a contract if you get your first contract and you want to take it to someone call California writers for the arts whatever they're all sorts of called a local bar association and they all have pro bono time they're it's part of the profession so you can usually get someone's eye for half an hour to give you some direction and then if you do get a gig that pays you well and you're talking about five ten thousand twenty thousand dollars if you don't get a lawyer then you are stupid I won't call you what Ted called me but he was right it's the best thing I ever did was get a lawyer so the lawyer told me just put copyright John Blahita 2015 any other questions you want more yeah two more catchy phrase that people may forget or may remember everybody miss spells my name everyone but it's your name and it's your lucky to have a name that nobody can spell because it means that it's available as a URL and it's the proper spelling of your proper name so get it and if get it get it any other questions anything else well thank you so much again to Brian we were to the private public library to all of you for coming out I'm so grateful you did and I've had a blast I hope you did too