Travel writer Chuck Thompson’s new book, Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer, blows the lid off the glossy brochure, luxury resort world of travel publishing. His work has appeared in publications such as American Way, Esquire, Men’s Journal, Atlantic Monthly,National Geographic Adventure, Islands,and the Los Angeles Times. He was also the editor of Travelocity magazine. Below he shares some of the pitfalls of the travel writing industry. He knows because he’s done it himself.
What’s the background for the book? It seems to me that a large part of it was that you wanted to tell the stories that never made it into print. You also had a bone to pick with the travel writing industry.
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That’s definitely part of it. It’s not an f-you to anybody, but it’s definitely my reaction to writing this kind of stuff for five or 10 years and getting frustrated with never being able to write the way I wanted to. I didn’t get into the racket to be a travel writer; I got into it because I wanted to write. But when you start writing for travel magazines, you adopt certain conventions. You write the way your editors are instructing you to write. After awhile, you sort of start figuring out what they want, so it’s this kind of organic process that turns you into this kind of writer. You know without being told to end all of your paragraphs with a Web site or a phone number or a price point. So that got kind of frustrating, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of room to be a good writer in any of that of stuff. That was definitely when I started thinking about putting the book together. Definitely some of it comes off as an angry reaction to the travel press and the travel industry, and that’s true. But I certainly don’t hate all of it. I say nice things about a lot of people and places. But it’s the negative stuff that you remember.
Have you had any fallout with your magazine editors?
For the most part, it’s been really very positive, particularly with people I’ve worked with and even a lot of people I didn’t know. I think all of this stuff really does resonate with a lot of editors and writers who are sick of being shackled by the demands of advertisers or the pressures of publishers.
However, I don’t want to give the impression that it’s been entirely positive. I’ve gotten some angry emails and. There are a lot of Web threads that use the book as a jumping off point to discuss travel writing. And a lot of those topics are not very complimentary to me at all. “Who is this asshole?” “Who does he think he is?” A lot of people professionally have weighed in, and it hasn’t been entirely positive.
What’s the next step?
I’m working on another a travel book for Holt [Paperbacks] that will come out in 2009. The magazines I’m writing for now are non-travel magazines, like Men’s Journal, Esquire, and
Maxim. And those are the kinds of magazines where it’s much easier to write about travel because there is no real pressure from travel advertisers.
What about travel publications that have a no-freebie policy for their writers? Does that maintain more journalistic integrity?
Here’s the deal with no-freebies policies. They make high and mighty sanctimonious claims that, “we do not accept freebies.” The implication is that copy is pure and unadulterated. Well, that’s fine, they may not be taking the comps and the junkets, but they are taking a hell of a lot of advertising from the places that they cover. You can go right now to the news stand and pick up a copy of any magazine. Look at the feature well and what is that magazine covering? They are covering Singapore this month. It’s an eight-page spread on how Singapore is emerging as a fashion capital with a nice sidebar about all the cool and hip neighborhoods in Singapore. Cool. Flip in the back of the book and there are four full pages from Singapore airlines and Singapore.com. And they’re portraying Singapore as the fashion trendsetter of Asia. I don’t know what the going rate is, but I can tell you that in a major mainstream travel publication, they are probably getting six figures for those four full pages of ads. They don’t need the comp.
So now you’ve written the book, you’ve been very outspoken about [the ills of the travel industry], but you are also at a point in your career where you now have another book deal coming. Personally, you don’t have to worry about the fallout. But what about someone who is new in the field?
The larger implication of your question is that “you’ve made your money, you can go shit in the bed now.” The fact is that every freelancer struggles…I do have to worry about selling to magazines and keeping a decent reputation and not being the big asshole that is going to flame you after I write for you. I’m scrambling for work like everybody else.
| If you want to be a travel writer, expect to compromise on what you consider to be good writing. |
But you are more established.
I agree, totally right. When I people ask me for advice, or they tell me that they want to become travel writers, I tell them don’t become a travel writer if you want to become a writer. And don’t become a travel writer if you think are just going for the fun or the free trips. It’s research, it’s collecting facts, and talking to a lot of people that you really don’t want to talk to.
One thing that a lot of people miss about this book is that it’s really a memoir disguised as a travel book. And that’s kind of how I look at it, and that’s how I look at the type of travel I’ve done. If I was that mythical young writer you are talking about, I’d travel to Stockholm and write about the music scene there or go to Mexico and write about the food or the politics. If you want to be a travel writer, expect to compromise on what you consider to be good writing. If you can live with that, cool, and you know what, I don’t think that’s all bad. I lived with that, I did that myself for a long time. I am still doing that. Any writer has to admit that, particularly working with magazines and newspapers, that there is always a sacrifice. It’s never exactly how you want it.
I’m not really condemning people that are doing this, because I did it. If you want to pay me enough, I’ll go do it again. I’m just saying how it is. The other thing, talking about reasons for writing the book, is that I kind of wanted to talk about the travel racket and the travel writing that I’ve done the way that I talk about it to my friends.
Most of the interest in this book is around my critique of the travel industry. I marketed it that way, and it’s definitely a running theme of the book. But, really, my absolute main goal for this book was for it to be entertaining and to get someone to turn the page. For me, [entertainment] is humor, maybe a little bit of insight and once in awhile a poignant moment or two.
Your book includes a chapter on getting Travelocity off the ground and your grand plans about really doing something different. Is there any room today in the travel industry for a publication that does something different? Or maybe another way to look at it is if you were relaunching Travelocity now, what would you do differently?
I used to be very bullish on that proposition. I used to think there was a lot of room to do a travel magazine in the way that readers deserve. Immediately after Travelocity went under, several people involved with that magazine rallied around and, as they do at all magazines when they die, they started thinking about how to resurrect this idea. As the years went by, I’ve grown much less confident that such a magazine would succeed in the marketplace. The economic model for travel magazines is such that without the major advertisers, it just can’t happen.
Every few years, a new travel magazine will pop up. Escape was one of those. Printing costs and travel costs conspire to bring them down. With the way that the market is set up right now, even for a really good kick-ass news stand travel magazine, I wouldn’t want to be the one putting money behind it. I want to read it, but I don’t want to have a financial investment in it.
One last thing. You talk about something you call the travel writer’s imperative. As a travel writer, these kinds of typical phrases become so ingrained in the way you write. So how do you break the habit?
The travel writer’s imperative is that style of writing that directs readers to do something specific, like, “Be sure to snack on the seaweed-encrusted cashew nuts.” As Ernest Hemingway said, “There’s no such thing as great writing, only great rewriting.” I rewrite everything I do 20 or 30 or more times. But two or three of those reads I save exclusively for what I call my “cliché watch.” On those reads, I just go through my copy specifically looking for clichés or lazy writing and pull them all out. The frightening thing is, as much as I hate clichés, I write them into my copy all the time without even realizing it. And those things will pass through two or three drafts before I sit there and get grimy and look at every single word. It blows me away.
And I use the imperative voice. In fact, my editor for this book, Sara Knight, liked my section on the travel writer’s imperative, and then a chapter later, she says, “Here are two examples of your travel writers’ imperative, you’d better rewrite that.” I look at it, and damn, she’s right. I just did the same thing I told people not to do. I’m guilty of everything in this book. That’s how I know that it’s true.
Except there’s one thing I haven’t done. I have not used the word “tasty” to describe a guitarist’s licks. I’m not guilty of that.
Thompson’s tips on the do’s of travel writing:
1. Be honest. “That doesn’t necessarily mean pointing out the bad things. It means not writing about the things you don’t know about.”
2. Be funny. “For me, [entertainment] is humor, maybe a little bit of insight and once in awhile a poignant moment.”
3. Do some real research. “Find something really interesting that is going on in this location right now. Not just the bogus restaurant scene or the new outlet malls. Honest to God real social issues.”
4. You don’t really have to be a “travel writer” in order to travel and write. “You can write about all sorts of things — politics, sports, environment, immigration, movies, gardening, architecture, food, art, whatever — and still travel.”
5. Pitch ideas, don’t fish for assignments. That’s the sign of a rank amateur. (As a magazine editor, it always amazed me how many writers would simply email me out of the blue and expect to be given assignments.) Don’t waste an editor’s time unless you have a legitimately interesting story to pitch. Even if they don’t buy that one, if you pitch in a smart way, they’ll be more likely to consider your next idea.
Charlotte West is an American writer living in Stockholm, Sweden.
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