Brendiver's World

Karli's Story - Making progress with her blog, getting published in Campr and being let down

Regular readers will be aware of Karli's (this site's very own budding photojournalist) dream to become a regular contributor for diving, travel and adventure related magazines. 

One of the ways Karli is improving her writing skills is through her blog, The Adventure Girl's Guide. What this site also demonstrates is her commitment to get the job done. Karli's latest post, all about a trip to the Dordogne, will have taken some time to put together and time is a commodity anyone who writes will tell you is very precious. Karli has also taken advantage of social media to get her blog 'out there' - writing good material for your blog is the first challenge, the second is to find ways to get people to read it. 

Here's an update from Karli's site:

"It’s been a great first week for The Adventure Girl’s Guide... Since launching the blog to the world the site’s had 500 hits and has attracted some fantastic followers on Twitter including ‘The Times Travel’ and leading luxury camping website ‘Go Glamping‘, who posted my article on their Twitter page.

The ‘Campr’ website has also got interested in what The Adventure Girl’s Guide has to offer and would like to run ‘Glamping it up in Yorkshire’ on their site. Here’s what James from Campr had to say: “If you would like to write anything else for Campr we’d love to feature your adventures! Anything Camping or outdoors related really.”

Result! So keep an eye out for that, I’ll let you know when more of my adventures get featured across the web. They’re sending me a camping essentials pack in the post to keep me stocked up for my next travels. It might not pay the rent, but that’s a good enough perk in my first week I reckon! York Yurts were really chuffed that I mentioned them and are going to feature my musings on their website – Sara the Yurt lady said she remembered us because of ‘the really romantic boyfriend’. The good start has also got a smiley face from my blogging coach, Brendan, who’s giving me tips on how to get published and break into the world of travel magazines."

Good progress so far although slightly soured as it turns out Campr didn't send Karli her goody bag. While this might be a genuine error, over the years I've also been the victim of let downs from magazines and websites whose editors have promised either payment or a goodwill gesture. I'm afraid this has become accepted practice in the industry where some editors believe getting published is payment enough for a contributor. I've even heard one editor 'joke' that potential contributors should pay him to get published in the pages of his magazine. There's no point in complaining about this practice, it is what it is and as a potential contributor you're not really in a position of power, although a gentle reminder from Karli to her contact at Campr might provide a better ending to this chapter of her story. 

Karli - "Where are my goodies?"

Keep Writing...

Brendan

Lonely Planet magazine - Do you know what Peter Grunert's (the editor) editorial agenda is?

If you were hoping to get published in Lonely Planet magazine you should have no excuse for not knowing what Peter Grunert's editorial agenda is. Before pitching to any magazine you should do as much research as you can to establish what the editor's needs are. If you are lucky these will come from contributor guidelines, but if the magazine doesn't have these it is possible to get more information by trawling the internet. 

I spent a few minutes yesterday researching Peter Grunert's background and came across a recent interview in PR Weekly where he provided any potential contributor with several golden nuggets. Here's a selection of what he had to say:

"Who reads Lonely Planet Magazine?

Intelligent, thoughtful, interesting people with a passion for travel. They're mostly young professionals or empty nesters and share a hunger for fresh experiences

What is your editorial agenda?

We inspire our readers by helping them to get under the skin of the places they'd love to travel to. We accept that they won't just want to ‘fly and flop' - they're keen to learn of history and culture, to eat and drink something authentic and delicious, and to understand where locals enjoy visiting too.

What makes a great feature for the magazine?

Our readers should feel like every feature is feeding their urge to travel - whether it's set in the UK, somewhere easily accessible in Europe or far more exotic. We work hard to commission beautiful photography and atmospheric writing. In one of my favourite features Stephen Fry described encountering the often bizarre natural wonders of Madagascar, strolling along an avenue of baobab trees that "looked as if they were dropped from another world, a world close to the surreality of a Dalí and the silliness of a concept rock album cover, circa 1972."

Describe your online offering and how it fits in with the magazine.

Lonelyplanet.com is a website with a gigantic reach (over 6 million unique users per month) that in the main provides its users with destination advice once they've chosen where they're travelling to. The magazine has its own space within the website, explaining how we can inspire readers to choose where to visit in the first place.

To what do you attribute Lonely Planet Magazine's popularity?

Unlike most travel magazines we don't just set out to rate destinations - we provide a lot more depth and aim to ‘take our readers there' each month, which I believe accounts for our comparatively high proportion of subscribers (around half our circulation)

Describe the process of choosing your front-cover shot.

Our cover image showcases the best travel photography our readers can expect to find within our pages. Its location could vary from a hidden island off Norway to the Great Ocean Road in Australia, and it should always give that sense of a potential reader's lungs filling with fresh air as they take in a glorious view.

What are your own personal media must-haves (eg which mags and newspapers do you read, TV shows do you watch etc)

I love magazines with high production values, that commission photography I could always imagine looking better in the pages of a magazine than on a mobile or laptop screen - the likes of National Geographic, GQ and World of Interiors. I'm a complete day dreamer so I also appreciate the chance to let my mind drift off to the landscapes featured in BBC wildlife documentaries such as Life and Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart."

Having read this interview a few times I think I've got an idea of what inspires and motivates Peter. 

The next stage would be to read the Stephen Fry article and analyse its style, to read his own 'media must-haves' and to ensure my copy met all of the criteria he gives away in the interview: to inspire; to include something about history and culture, to mention what the locals like to do; try and make my words and phrases 'atmospheric' (fortunately Peter provides an example of what this means to him) and to provide an insight into some of the features readers might find bizarre.

Photographic submissions? If they can capture the above and provide the reader with, 'a glorious view' I would think I'd be in with a chance.

What editors are looking for is out there, you just need to know where to look. Time to Google! 

Keep Writing...

Brendan

Getting Published in... Lonely Planet magazine - what Peter Grunert, the editor, believes is important

A few weeks ago I signed up to the BBC Insiders service as I thought this would be a good way of finding out what different magazine's editorial teams believed was important.

Well, the invites to take part in the surveys have been dropping into my inbox at the rate of about one or so a week. This is one that caught my eye:

"Hello Brendan, 

Our aim is to make Lonely Planet Magazine as informative and enjoyable a travel magazine as we possibly can, so my team always greatly look forward to your honest and insightful feedback. This time we’d love to hear your views on the May issue – and thank you once again for taking the time to be a member of our insiders’ panel.

Please click here to start the survey.

Peter Grunert

Editor, Lonely Planet Magazine" 

My reasoning is that the survey wouldn't ask questions about subjects the team didn't believe were important. It started with questions about the photographs they used followed by a series of questions about individual articles and features.  

This was the question they wanted answering for each article / feature:

"On the following scales, please indicate how much you ENJOYED, how INFORMATIVE and how INSPIRING you found....." 

So there it is, if you want to know what criteria any submission to Lonely Planet should meet, it should be enjoyable, informative and inspiring.

Keep Writing...

Brendan

Interview with an editor - Getting published in diving magazines

And here's the third and final interview with the editor of one of the UK's leading diving magazines (with a few comments about what he thinks of the workshops I ran back then): 

"I’ve got plenty of people I can send to destinations, it’s the stuff I don’t know I want that I’m looking for. For example, buying a house in the Red Sea. This is the work that needs researching with interviews and time. The stuff that is hard work is the most valuable, and this isn’t reflected in what you get paid. You do it because you enjoy writing, because you enjoy the “work.”

I get a lot of diary type articles, or articles that have lots of, and then, and we did, or stuff that details the journey there, getting of the plane, arriving at the resort. Start somewhere else on the trip, don’t list everything chronologically, you don’t have to mention everything. 

Don’t send me anything you have sent elsewhere, I’m looking for exclusivity. From that I can build up a relationship with the writer, the readers identify with certain writers, they’re a signature of the magazine.

I’m not sure if this course you’re doing will help. I already get a lot of submissions, sometimes I think my life would be easier if I had less. Most people who get involved in this are self starters, they don’t need a course. But I suppose what you’re doing will provide coaching, like fast tracking for people who might get there anyway.

Letters are a good way to get yourself known. If the subject is interesting I might ask the writer to expand for a back page - or maybe they have written too much and with some editing I can use it as a back page.   

I’m always looking for cover shots, even when I go to film libraries I sometimes can’t find what I’m looking for." 

Once again, if you've done your research (always read several back copies before you even think of writing something up for submission or a proposal) you'll be able to work out which magazine this editor is from.

Keep Writing...

Brendan

Interview with an editor - Getting published in diving magazines

A couple of years ago I wrote up some notes from interviews I conducted with the editors of the UK's leading diving magazines. What I can't believe is how I only got round to publishing one of the interviews on this site - instead they've been lying dormant on my hard drive.   

No good to anyone there, so here's the second one, to be followed in a couple of days by the third.

They all asked for their details to be kept anonymous, but as there are only three leading magazines devoted to diving in the UK I'll leave it to you to try and work out which interview belongs to the editor of DIVER, Sport Diver or DIVE. Any guesses?

If you are going to target the UK market these interviews are (in my opinion) golden nuggets as none of the magazines publish contributor guidelines. What you have here are the thoughts and opinions of the editors, what goes through their minds as they put together each edition of their magazine. 

Here are the key messages from the second interview:

"I don’t do commissioning in advance for writers I don’t know, what I will do is a commitment to look. 

I’m looking for quality, original and strong narrative, 1800 words max.

Features - they’re everything but writing about my holiday. There’s a great deal of research required.

I don’t put Contributor Guidelines out - “How to do better features!” It’s like giving free lessons to the opposition. And what you think might be good this year, may not be next year

You’re unlikely to get published first time with a regular feature - the “It happened to me” column is a good way to test out a writer.

There are tiers of people who write - the internet forums, some online magazines, sites like the BSAC Travel Club. They can all be influential - a way of demonstrating your writing ability.

It can be a bit depressing for people when they submit a good piece of writing, I might have to say, “not today” for several reasons: it might just not fit in,  may have something similar, or it might have just been done well by the opposition.

Influence - aiming for a broad sheet style of journalism, to match the Times and Telegraph. 

We pay professional rates to experienced writers who have world class photographs. Writers with a bit of flair who can manouvre around cliches."

Karli has recently discovered how by taking 'baby steps' you can get published in Lonely Planet magazine. Well, the same applies to this magazine (you should be able to work out the title from the clues in the interview) - this editor even goes as far as telling you where to start, how to impress him with your ability. 

Keep Writing...

Brendan

Karli's Story - Working out her own publisher / contributor guidelines for Lonely Planet magazine

You might remember the 'assignment' I set Karli, Brendiver's World's aspiring photojournalist? 

I believe Lonely Planet magazine might just be the opportunity to get published Karli is looking for, but instead of me writing about this, Karli took a look at the opportunities it presents. This is what she found, and I must admit, she found one more opportunity than I did.

 Getting my name in print in Lonely Planet

Seeing my stories in black and white in those shiny travel magazines seemed to be a long, long way off when I first decided I really wanted to give travel/adventure journalism a shot. But Brendan is showing me how to take baby steps to achieving this goal. To start with, he tasked me with finding opportunities that Lonely Planet is serving up to readers. And lo, in May's edition of Lonely Planet the generous editors are asking readers for their contributions – could this be my way in? If they like the first snippet of what I can write, and then maybe the second, will they start to notice that I'm somebody they could trust to actually write up a feature piece for them?

Well, I'm not getting ahead of myself. Let's get back to those baby steps. On the first page the editor of Lonely Planet magazine himself, Peter Grunert, is asking for inspiration on where the most beautiful places on earth are from – yes – the readers! So right there, an opportunity and email address for me to write up my experiences of beautiful lands. I've already got a few ideas rolling around in my head, but you'll have to wait and see what actually gets submitted for now.

Then flick a couple of pages and you find the 'Share with us' section. There's the chance to review a hotel (and they'll pay for a stay of up to £150) if you can convince them a particular hotel is worth checking out. They also offer readers the print space to talk about their memorable holidays – their first, best and worst. Now I generally always enjoy my travels, but the worst sprang to my mind in a flash. Hands down, it was a week in Prestatyn, Wales with the family when I was 10. The beds were flea-ridden and I came home covered in bites. You should only bear those kinds of scars if you've been somewhere exotic!

Then there's the 'Postcards' section. This part of the magazine offers the chance to send in your pictures and the stories behind them. Excellent! The pictures featured don't have to be necessarily taken with a really expensive camera from what I can see, but they all provide good angles to write a story from. The words sometimes tell you a different story from what you'd assume by just looking at the photograph on its own. Again, I think I've got a few cracking photographs from recent travels that could provide a springboard to tell a good story. But like the photos, it needs to be a snapshot. The accompanying stories can't be more than 100 words from the entries I've read.

Delving further into the magazine leads me to another chance to get involved in this travel publication. The Lonely Planet team are giving readers a say in the first ever Lonely Planet awards. Following the online link takes me to where I can give my input on what's the greatest wildlife encounter? What's the greatest outdoor activity? The page reads: "These are the first travel awards to focus on the experiences that inspire us all to travel, from those you've had to those you dream of having." I'd love to have my say and just by taking part I could win a trip to Thailand and Cambodia. I never win random online draws and competitions, but I like the idea that by getting involved, my name's at least in the hat!

Going online gives you more chances to get involved in some way with Lonely Planet – there's a competition to win more goodies by submitting your favourite travel photo. I'm finding that once you actually start looking, there are more ways than you think to get your toe in the travel magazine door.

Will Karli manage an 'OK' with the Lonely Planet? 

What Karli has found in Lonely Planet and Wanderlust (see previous post) demonstrates just how many opportunities exist beyond the obvious, you've just got to look for them. Now all she has to do is to rise to the challenge and get by-lined in one of these title. Watch this space, knowing something of Karli's enthusiasm she'll get published in both!

Keep Writing...

Brendan   

Real Travel magazine - the survey is the contributor guidelines

In the recent edition of Real Travel magazine there was an invite for readers to participate in a survey with each respondent being entered into a draw for a holiday to India.

I found this to be an interesting opportunity for these reasons:

1. As well as the winner getting to go on a superb holiday to India, Real Travel would provide them with the opportunity to write about their adventure, get it published in the magazine and get paid for it.

2. Real Travel is already a great place to consider for getting published (see my previous post in the category 'interview with an editor' where Hannah James explained what she was looking for from Real Travel contributors)

3. The survey reveals a lot of information about what Real Travel are considering as ideas for future publication (otherwise they wouldn't be asking for readers thoughts on these subject areas). For example, two of the questions ask what areas you would like to read about and what type of article there should be more of:

34. What regions of the world are you most interested in reading about?

What regions of the world are you most interested in reading about?  

UK

Western Europe

Eastern Europe

North America

Central America

South America

Africa

Middle East

South-East Asia

Rest of Asia

Australia and New Zealand

Arctic/Antarctic

35. What would you like to see MORE of in Real Travel? (choose as many as apply)

What would you like to see MORE of in Real Travel? (choose as many as apply)  

Expert destination guides

Reader trip reports

Travel advice, tips and 'how to' features

Competitions

Gear, book and guide reviews

City guides

Activity-focused features

Interviews with well-known travellers

Top 10s and 'quick guides'

Readers photos, tips and stories

It doesn't take much to work out that these are two of the categories the editorial team like to pigeon hole contributions into. If I were looking to submit copy to Real Travel I'd go through their back issues, tick off which freelance submissions fit these categories and then which ones were covered by the editorial team. 

I might be wrong, but where there is a gap, or where the editorial team are covering more of a category than freelancers, this is your opportunity.

But then again, getting published could be as simple as following Hannah's advice and producing great copy about a subject they haven't covered before!

Keep Writing...

Brendan

Karli's Story - The Adventure Girl's Guide

For any budding photojournalist a blog is an absolute must - it's a place where you can practice your art and get people reading what you write. I've not done this myself (using a blog to launch travel / diving related articles), but I'm guessing it would be useful if you wanted to demonstrate to an editor exactly what you are capable of. I consider myself fortunate to have broken into the magazine world prior to the 'invention' of blogs and other forms of social networks as there was far less competition back then. 

if you are going to use your blog to showcase your skills I'd be careful not to go down the road many bloggers have gone down. Their sites become littered with the sorts of information some people lap up (what I had for breakfast, my thoughts on the doggy act on Britain's Got Talent, Why do some people...)

My advice, ask yourself before you post an article if it is of a standard which would acceptable for publication in your list of target magazines.

For the blogging world I guess this might be a challenge - posts are often written up in five minutes with few drafts. But with that comes all the issues in respect of grammar, structure, the use of appropriate words and phrases and all the other considerations you need to take into account when you pitch to a magazine. 

I've just read back what I've written so far, it doesn't flow as well as it would if I spent 30 minutes on it, however, I don't have the time to do this.

So, there's the conundrum. Do you have the time to spend on your blog so that each post is an example of what a prospective editor would like to see in their magazine? Or is it hastily penned and only entertaining to those who recognise it for what it is?

Ask yourself, why am I going to blog? What's my end game?

Karli has provided me with a short paragraph on her motivation for setting up a blog site: The Adventure Girl's Guide  

It's worth a look, in my opinion the articles posted so far could slot into quite a few travel / adventure magazine titles (check this site soon as I'll be featuring some of them).

Pre adventure cuppa

I've wanted to set up a blog for some time now and, after getting in touch with you and starting on the journey to getting published, I finally got the motivation to take action. I love adventure and travel and thought it'd be a great way to share my passion, but also get ideas from readers too. That's what seeing the world is all about isn't it? Sharing your experiences and getting tips on where to go and what to do next. So I hope that The Adventure Girl's Guide will become a place where people go to get ideas and throw in their thoughts as well. Of course, blogs can sometimes be great for a good ol' rant - I've already abused it for this, but I hope my outbursts will do some good - my latest post is about the plight of Green Sea Turtles in Marsa Abu Dabbab. A lot of writing a blog, for me personally, is about not being able to switch off the journalist in me. I just love story telling and hope that people enjoy soaking up the tales from near and afar!

The Adventure Girl in action

Karli sent over a few pics to illustrate this post and following this we have exchanged e-mails on is the type of pictures you need to use to go with your writing. More about this on a future post. 

Keep Writing...

Brendan

 

Lonely Planet - Getting published in their Thorn Tree

Karli has found the trail of breadcrumbs. 

Lonely Planet has quite a few opportunities to get published, the quickest and easiest being The Thorn Tree, Lonely Planet's everything travel web site. It's where you can: find answers to travel questions on just about anywhere in the world; shamelessly plug your own travel blog or photography or ask the most bizarre questions about life's random subjects. Unsurprisingly, the latter category appears to get the most hits and replies, some people in 'forum land' have too much time on thier hands!

For the aspiring photojournalist, the 'Don't Forget to Write' branch is the part of the Thorn Tree where you can seek feedback on your writing or plug your travel blog. This is what it has to say about itself:

This is the branch to share your trip reports and tell your travel tales. You can post short stories (up to 2,500 words), trip reports, or even travel related poetry, if you are so inclined.

You can also use this branch to tell us about your fabulous travel blog, to recommend other great blogs about world travel, or to talk about your favourite travel writing (shameless plug: have you seen the new Lonely Planet Magazine?).

Please note, as with any Thorn Tree content, you consent to our using your contributions from time to time in our publications or elsewhere on the Lonely Planet website, however, you as the author will keep copyright and can reuse your contributions.

We look forward to reading all about your travels and hearing about your blogs!      

This was the entry I left on The Thorn Tree:

Karli's Story

Would be interested in any thoughts / opinions on 'Karli's Story' - an account of Karli's journey to become a photojournalist specialising in adventure travel.

I'm sure Karli would also welcome any ideas or encouragement. 

See:

Brendivers World 

Here's a taster from one of the first 'chapters':...

I included a snippet from a previous post to try and hook people in and it worked. So far over 130 people have read the post and about 15 of them have visited my site using the link. You're competing for busy people's valuable time, so while this might not seem much, from one post, it's not a bad hit rate.

If you have a blog one of the issues you will be presented with is getting people to read it and if it's about a popular subject you'll be competing with thousands of other blogs and websites so this may prove difficult. The other problem you will have is how to market it, well, sites like the Thorn Tree will provide you with that opportunity. 

This is Karli's reply to my entry in the comments box:

Aha! I have followed your sneaky breadcrumb trail Brendan. You see, Brendan has been setting me tasks to develop my skills until I manage to get a byline in adventure/travel publications. He's one taskmaster - I'm waiting to be told to bring him a golden fleece.

Seriously though, I appreciate his input and support and would love to hear from anyone else who has tips on breaking into this industry. You can read the journey so far on Brendan's site, as posted above, and you can also check out what I'm up to on my blog:-

http://karlibubbles.wordpress.com/

Thanks and happy travels guys,

Karli.

See how Karli has posted a link to her site? 

Getting people to read your site isn't as simple as creating it, writing stuff on it, and then hoping people will drop by. Contributing to sites like the Thorn Tree and forums is the way to go. Next time your on a forum note how many users have links to their sites in their signatures - by contributing and becoming an active member of an online community you are likely to build up a following. That is, as long as what you write is worth reading!

If it is you might get another site to refer its readers to you as in the next sentence.

Here's a link to Karli's latest blog entry, all about 'glamping.' 

Get the idea? Lots of cross posting, forum entries and shameless plugs. You just have to watch you don't get labelled as a 'troll.'  

I did once, big mistake - made me wince. 

Keep Writing...

Brendan

Getting published in... Lonely Planet magazine

Lonely Planet - probably one of the most well known brands in the world of travel writing. A tough title to break into? Maybe not as hard as you might think - there are quite a few opportunities in this months magazine to get your words and pictures published. 

Normally I would highlight these, but following on from the last post, I'm going to ask Karli if she is up for a short assignment:

Read through the magazine to identify and analyse the opportunities to get published.

Check out the Lonely Planet website and do the same.

Find the trail of bread crumbs on the Lonely Planet site that will lead you back to Brendiver's World!

Write up the results for a future post.

Keep Writing... 

Brendan