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?
Aside from freelance editing here and there, my first real editing gig was actually just a couple of years ago. I was collaborating with student journalists at a nearby university in a program that matched them with under-resourced local newspapers. Even though I had most of the skill set already, I think getting that on my resume really helped—if you're hoping to make a shift into editing, I'd really suggest getting SOME kind of experience that comes with a job title.
And covering a family leave is a great option! Publications may be willing to take a risk on less experienced editors because it's not a huge commitment—and, you can give the job a test-drive to see if you like it.
As far as where to find them, I wish I had a better answer. I spotted this job on Twitter. As much as I hate advising anyone to spend *more* time on social media, lots of great opportunities do pop up there.
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, Lottie! Delighted to be here, thank you for asking me.
I agree this can feel tricky. (And not just because American readers associate extremely normal UK-English words like "whilst" with Edwardian costume dramas.) I don't have a particularly systematic take—I think most writing and pitching advice would be the same in the US and the UK—but here are a couple of points:
- Norms around press/hosted trips are a bit different. Unless you're on-staff or *extremely* well established with an editor, most US publications are very unlikely to accept a story prior to the trip, which makes the process of planning one tricky.
- Overall, there's been a shift at some US outlets, including the New York Times, towards "travel" stories that highlight local voices. Or, at least, people with long personal histories in the destination. (The trend reflects an interesting mix of A) conversations about decolonizing travel writing and the limitations of parachute journalism and B) the realization on editors' part that this is a strategy for avoiding paying travel expenses altogether.)
For UK writers, that means it's probably worth pitching close-to-home destinations that might seem overly obvious to British readers.
- For Sierra, specifically: Since we're a magazine associated with a US environmental nonprofit (the Sierra Club), we have relatively limited international coverage. It happens! But it's almost never "straight travel" and to sell my colleagues on a pitch I need to make a strong case for the story's broader implications. I've dropped some links below to some recent international stories, including one by Scottish writer Jamie Lafferty:
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.
I'd likely put them in the same pitch. I think most publications would be unlikely to assign two separate stories about a single destination to a new freelancer. (At Sierra, this conversation usually goes: Let's assign one, see how it turns out, and we'll assign further stories if we like working with this writer.)
Given that, putting both pitches in a single email lets them choose the angle they like most. If they love the story, you can always circle back about the other idea.
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.
This can be so aggravating! Treating your professional email address like a state secret is a bit much, IMO.
Even if emails aren't listed on the website, some publications put these into an article format. (A good way to find these is by searching for “publication name + submission guidelines,” or “publication name + masthead.”)
Some publications have generic pitch email address. This can get tricky—at some places, the pitch email is a black hole, and the secret is to pitch editors directly. At others, such as Fodor’s, the pitch address really is the way to go. You can always ask editors directly. (DMs work pretty well for this, though I think it’s almost never a good idea to pitch via DMs.)
If you find subscription and advertising emails, however, you can often extrapolate and figure out the publication's email conventions. For example: Sierra editors are first.last@sierraclub.org; most NYT editors have the email address lastname@nytimes.com; and WaPo is first.last@washpost.com.
Aug 26, 2022·edited Aug 26, 2022Liked by Steph Dyson
I think they're important! I know a lot of writers hate writing headlines, but writing them can be both helpful in selling a pitch, and a way to better understand your own story. It's likely the headline in your pitch won't be the final headline for the published piece, but it's an opportunity to show the editor three things:
- You took the time to analyze and reproduce the pub's headline conventions. (If all their headlines are around 5–7 words long, like at BBC Travel, don't use a 15-word headline.)
- You understand the essence of the story and can sum it up pithily.
- You understand which aspect of the story is most "grabby," most likely to intrigue the editor (who is, after all, an audience of one). If your headline doesn't make the editor want to learn more, it likely won't make readers want to learn more once it's competing with the whole entire internet.
I find that if I can't quickly sum up a story I'm pitching, it often means I need to put more thought in and refine the angle a bit.
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 Steph!
Aside from freelance editing here and there, my first real editing gig was actually just a couple of years ago. I was collaborating with student journalists at a nearby university in a program that matched them with under-resourced local newspapers. Even though I had most of the skill set already, I think getting that on my resume really helped—if you're hoping to make a shift into editing, I'd really suggest getting SOME kind of experience that comes with a job title.
And covering a family leave is a great option! Publications may be willing to take a risk on less experienced editors because it's not a huge commitment—and, you can give the job a test-drive to see if you like it.
As far as where to find them, I wish I had a better answer. I spotted this job on Twitter. As much as I hate advising anyone to spend *more* time on social media, lots of great opportunities do pop up there.
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, Lottie! Delighted to be here, thank you for asking me.
I agree this can feel tricky. (And not just because American readers associate extremely normal UK-English words like "whilst" with Edwardian costume dramas.) I don't have a particularly systematic take—I think most writing and pitching advice would be the same in the US and the UK—but here are a couple of points:
- Norms around press/hosted trips are a bit different. Unless you're on-staff or *extremely* well established with an editor, most US publications are very unlikely to accept a story prior to the trip, which makes the process of planning one tricky.
- Overall, there's been a shift at some US outlets, including the New York Times, towards "travel" stories that highlight local voices. Or, at least, people with long personal histories in the destination. (The trend reflects an interesting mix of A) conversations about decolonizing travel writing and the limitations of parachute journalism and B) the realization on editors' part that this is a strategy for avoiding paying travel expenses altogether.)
For UK writers, that means it's probably worth pitching close-to-home destinations that might seem overly obvious to British readers.
- For Sierra, specifically: Since we're a magazine associated with a US environmental nonprofit (the Sierra Club), we have relatively limited international coverage. It happens! But it's almost never "straight travel" and to sell my colleagues on a pitch I need to make a strong case for the story's broader implications. I've dropped some links below to some recent international stories, including one by Scottish writer Jamie Lafferty:
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/puma-population-patagonia-booming-now-what
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/why-scotland-opening-dementia-center-national-park
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/love-antarctica
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.
I'd likely put them in the same pitch. I think most publications would be unlikely to assign two separate stories about a single destination to a new freelancer. (At Sierra, this conversation usually goes: Let's assign one, see how it turns out, and we'll assign further stories if we like working with this writer.)
Given that, putting both pitches in a single email lets them choose the angle they like most. If they love the story, you can always circle back about the other idea.
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.
This can be so aggravating! Treating your professional email address like a state secret is a bit much, IMO.
Even if emails aren't listed on the website, some publications put these into an article format. (A good way to find these is by searching for “publication name + submission guidelines,” or “publication name + masthead.”)
Some publications have generic pitch email address. This can get tricky—at some places, the pitch email is a black hole, and the secret is to pitch editors directly. At others, such as Fodor’s, the pitch address really is the way to go. You can always ask editors directly. (DMs work pretty well for this, though I think it’s almost never a good idea to pitch via DMs.)
If you find subscription and advertising emails, however, you can often extrapolate and figure out the publication's email conventions. For example: Sierra editors are first.last@sierraclub.org; most NYT editors have the email address lastname@nytimes.com; and WaPo is first.last@washpost.com.
Hi Jen! Any tips on nailing a pitch headline? How important are they? Thanks!
I think they're important! I know a lot of writers hate writing headlines, but writing them can be both helpful in selling a pitch, and a way to better understand your own story. It's likely the headline in your pitch won't be the final headline for the published piece, but it's an opportunity to show the editor three things:
- You took the time to analyze and reproduce the pub's headline conventions. (If all their headlines are around 5–7 words long, like at BBC Travel, don't use a 15-word headline.)
- You understand the essence of the story and can sum it up pithily.
- You understand which aspect of the story is most "grabby," most likely to intrigue the editor (who is, after all, an audience of one). If your headline doesn't make the editor want to learn more, it likely won't make readers want to learn more once it's competing with the whole entire internet.
I find that if I can't quickly sum up a story I'm pitching, it often means I need to put more thought in and refine the angle a bit.
Thanks so much 😊