This is our first ever Talking Travel Writing AMA event. Perhaps you’ve got a burning question about pitching or want an editor’s perspective on a particular aspect of freelancing. Drop all of your questions below and Jen Rose Smith, the Adventure and Lifestyle editor of Sierra magazine and an experienced freelance travel journalist will be popping onto this comment thread throughout the day to answer. Jen’s on EDT (UTC-5:00) so she’ll be a little later responding to any questions submitted first thing.
Across many years working as a travel journalist, Jen has written about travel, adventure and remote places from a home base in Vermont's Green Mountains and her work has appeared in the Washington Post, National Geographic, CNN, BBC Travel, and many other outlets. Jen is also the author of several Moon guidebooks to Vermont and New England. You can read more about her and her work at www.jenrosesmith.com or follow her on Twitter @jenrosesmithvt.
Hi Jen! Thanks for all of your insightful comments so far! I'm curious as to how you got into editing? It's a topic we looked at last week but I think can still seem a little difficult for many of us to understand the routes in! Do you have any suggestions for how people can get into freelance editing, whether that's for a maternity/leave cover like you're doing or just for ongoing clients?
Hi Jen! Thanks so much for doing this today! Might be a tricky one to answer, but...
Do you have any tips for British writers wanting to cross the pond and write for US publications like Sierra and others? Anything we should look out for in our writing / pitches that might not make sense to American editors, or is there anything that we need to know about the industry across the pond that might be different to the UK?
Hi, thanks for doing this. If you have two ideas about one destination you want to pitch to the same magazine or paper, is it better to put both in your pitch or should you send them a week apart? This is if you haven't written for them yet.
How do you go about finding a name to pitch to? Some publications provide an email and guidelines for pitching, some give a number of names and others only provide contact details for subscriptions and advertising.
Hi Jen! Thanks for all of your insightful comments so far! I'm curious as to how you got into editing? It's a topic we looked at last week but I think can still seem a little difficult for many of us to understand the routes in! Do you have any suggestions for how people can get into freelance editing, whether that's for a maternity/leave cover like you're doing or just for ongoing clients?
Hi Jen! Thanks so much for doing this today! Might be a tricky one to answer, but...
Do you have any tips for British writers wanting to cross the pond and write for US publications like Sierra and others? Anything we should look out for in our writing / pitches that might not make sense to American editors, or is there anything that we need to know about the industry across the pond that might be different to the UK?
Hi, thanks for doing this. If you have two ideas about one destination you want to pitch to the same magazine or paper, is it better to put both in your pitch or should you send them a week apart? This is if you haven't written for them yet.
How do you go about finding a name to pitch to? Some publications provide an email and guidelines for pitching, some give a number of names and others only provide contact details for subscriptions and advertising.
Hi Jen! Any tips on nailing a pitch headline? How important are they? Thanks!