Great Escape Publishing

Posted March 12th, 2015 by Roy Stevenson & filed under Travel Writing.

Although my travel stories have been published in many genres ranging from wineries to ghost towns, and from breweries to classic cars, there have always been three types of article that I’ve consistently sold well to magazines. 1. TRAVEL & LIFESTYLE FOR REGIONALS I started my writing career by writing about places and people in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. My best customers for these stories have been regional travel and lifestyle magazines. I’ve always been able to fall back on regional stories when others haven’t been selling. Although regionals don’t pay particularly well, they’re ideal for beginning travel writers to get their first by-lines. They’re relatively easy to break into and not intimidating to novice writers. Plus, regional editors tend to stand by local writers who consistently meet deadline and produce good stories for them. Where do you find regional magazines to pitch? Easy: you probably subscribe to one or two of them, and you can find the rest on the bookshelves at your local bookstore. 2. LUXURY TRAVEL STORIES I’ve also had great success selling luxury travel stories. These have enabled me to visit some of the most gorgeous resorts and destinations in the world. Being a luxury travel writer can land you VIP treatment in resorts so expensive that, if you had to ask the price of their villas, most of us would probably have to walk away. I’m talking about those gorgeous villas set amongst perfectly landscaped jungle foliage and surrounded by bright clumps of tropical flowers. Writing for the luxury travel market has brought me spectacular assignments in resorts, spas, mansions, manors, castles, lodges, and B&Bs that are so well appointed that they are almost unimaginable to most of us. One resort we stayed in had a helicopter landing pad by its front entrance and long, sleek, black limousines in the parking lot. One of my most unbelievable assignments was our 28-day Bali assignment, where we stayed at 12 super high-end luxury resorts and villas. And cruised around Bali like VIPs all day on customized tours. Another luxury assignment that sold itself was a week-long cruise along France’s gorgeous Burgundy Canal in a 126-foot luxury hotel barge. Where can you sell your luxury travel stories? Many of the standard travel magazines love to publish “dream vacation” articles, and there’s quite an array of print magazines that focus on luxury travel. Magazines like Travel + Leisure, Affluent Traveler, Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report, and Business Jet Traveler. Breaking into these types of magazines is a challenge, but once you’ve got your foot in the door, it’s easier to get subsequent articles accepted. One word of advice here: When you have a magazine editor (or online editor) that willingly accepts your luxury travel stories, take advantage of this to score as many luxury resort and destination assignments as you can. Keep piling them on, because you never know what’s going to happen to a magazine. I’d had some fantastic luxury gigs with one magazine and then it suddenly changed its editorial thrust to stories about expats and discontinued publishing luxury travel articles altogether. And don’t discount pitching travel websites and e-zines with your luxury stories, either. There are a couple of dozen travel e-zines like FineTravel.com, GlobalTravelerUSA.com, and JustLuxe.com that specialize in luxury travel. 3. SPECIAL INTEREST ARTICLES Another type of travel article that I sell almost at will is stories about gold mining history and tours, gold panning, and related tourist activities. (Obviously, you don’t need to go after gold mining stories. But think about your own hobbies and interests and the magazines you could sell to.) I’ve been mining this topic (pardon the pun) since 2011. In this time, I’ve had some marvelous international press trips to Arrowtown (New Zealand) and Dolaucothi (Wales), on assignment for prospecting magazines. Internal U.S. gold mining trips for these magazines have taken me to Sacramento, California, and all over Arizona and Alaska. I love exploring Alaska because it’s almost like traveling to another country without a passport. Fortunately for me Alaska was founded on gold mining, so I’ve never had any problems rounding up print and online stories about its gold mining history. My Alaska stories cover gold panning and tours, history museums, and what there is to do and see today in places like Haines, Juneau, Skagway, and Fairbanks. When I’ve encountered occasional tourist attractions that haven’t been scheduled, I flash my ITWPA Journalist ID Card and that opens the doors pronto—a few times I was even offered a personal guide. Just last week I was invited to Anchorage for a week-long press trip with my wife, Linda, who’s a travel photographer. We’re scheduled for this trip in the summer. Everything’s covered: airfare, accommodations, meals, and a personal tour guide from Anchorage CVB, and comped entry to all tourist attractions. We’re staying in luxury accommodations because I also snagged a luxury adventure lodge story. On our way back from this trip, we’ll be stopping off for another week in Canada’s Yukon Territory for a similar tour, as guests of their CVB. All based on my gold mining assignments, plus a few online roundup stories tossed in to sweeten the pot. Share on Facebook