Course Details

Travel the world and get paid for it? Sounds too good, but you can do it simply by building a base as a freelance travel writer. Whether a long weekend in Mendocino or a long walk across Nepal, there's a market out there for your stories, and a proven path for successful travel writers to follow. With a sense of adventure, an open mind, an eye for the offbeat and some basic writing skills, you're well on your way toward getting your travel pieces published- and having editors chase you down with repeat gigs!

In Introduction to Travel Writing, we'll reveal all you'll need to successfully break into the travel publishing world. This informative, engaging seminar will reveal the inner workings of the field, showing how travel editors think and what they want from their writers. We'll detail road-tested tips on ways to break in, diagram the many different styles of travel writing, survey the market (from magazines to newspapers, guidebooks to blogs), study the critical role of pitch letters, analyze key components to successful travel writing, and show a successful formula for turning your travel journals (and photos!) into sellable work.

So pack your bags for the glamorous life, whether that's poolside mai tais at boutique hotels or chicken-packed buses bouncing along Andean backroads.

• How anyone can break into travel writing-concrete ways to get started
• Where to find story ideas in any place, and how to pitch them successfully
• Which specific tools and skills will help you sell your work more
• How to turn one trip into dozens of sellable story ideas
• Where to pitch travel articles besides travel publications
• Ways to sell, resell, and resell your pieces again

Instructor Bio

Thomas Kohnstamm's Courses

Thomas Kohnstamm first wrote for Lonely Planet in the late 90s. He has since worked as an editor in the New York office of Rough Guides, contributed to over a dozen Lonely Planet titles and written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Time Out New York, and Travel + Leisure, among others.

For work purposes, Thomas has surfed in Barbados, paraglided in Venezuela, scuba dived off Brazil, and skied in Patagonia. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese and holds a MA from Stanford with a focus on ecotourism. Thomas lives in Seattle and is at work on his first book, The Low Road, for Random House.

Testimonials

Writing up your travel stories is one thing, but setting up your story so others will want to read it and act on it is another story. In this course you will learn to develop the pitch needed to get that foot in the door to travel writing stardom. With Thomas, you can find out about that road first hand, as he is one of the more experienced travel writers in the country. Have notebook, will travel ... anywhere" has never sounded so real." -- Jessica Wawoe