Bonus email: Your questions answered

Our reader survey threw up some interesting questions, and we've got answers

In December, we asked you to complete our reader survey, and almost 200 of you answered the call. This means we got some real insight into what you want and need from this newsletter, and what you’ve loved so far.

It also reminded us that not all of you have been here since the beginning, so there are entire series of newsletters in our archive that many of you haven’t seen — lots of which will answer plenty of the questions we got in our reader survey.

In this bonus email, we’re rounding up the most popular newsletters of 2022, plus a few of the topics that you asked about in the survey. Read on for a reminder on all things pitching and more…

Your favourite newsletter series from 2022

September’s pitching series

1. Pre-trip pitching: how to sell somewhere you’ve not been

2. How do you know who to pitch?

3. How do you know when to pitch?

4. Dealing with pitch rejection

March’s bonus newsletter

1. An A-Z of pitching guidelines

November’s travel blogging series

1. Why starting a travel blog might be the best thing for your finances

2. How my blog became a £100k business and made me a successful journalist

3. What’s the difference between travel blogging and travel journalism?

4. Here’s how much some of the industry’s successful travel bloggers earn

August’s “how to get into…” series

1. How to get into guidebook writing

2. How to get into long-form travel writing

3. How to get into hotel reviewing

4. How to get into freelance editing

April’s career growth series

1. Growing as a travel writer

2. Ask the experts: how these writers flourished in the pandemic

3. Strategy, it’s not a dirty word

4. What is career progression when you’re a freelance travel writer?

Topics you asked about

Networking

This comes up a lot, and we love to talk about networking — so much so we’ve got more networking-focused content coming this spring. In the meantime, here’s our 2020 series as a reminder:

• The power of networking

• The art of networking

• Networking: an editor’s perspective

Photography

We ran an entire series on travel photography back in November 2021, with advice from experts and practical tips on taking better pictures.

• Why Lottie rarely travels with a camera

• How to level up your travel photography

• How do you balance photography and writing on the road?

• The editors' perspective: how photography helps you get commissions

Finding ideas

We’ll do more on this in the future, but we’ve covered teasing ideas out of press trip itineraries or press releases:

How to tease ideas out of press trip itineraries

Writing for other markets

There’s often lots more money abroad than there is here in the UK, so pitching beyond British media can be a lucrative endeavour. Here’s how to do it.

• Beyond our borders: where to pitch outside the UK

• How to find - and pitch - higher-paying foreign publications

• Freelance rates in the States

Writing books

It’s a dream for many travel writers to pen their own narrative travel book, and we dug into the ins and outs of it with a series in December 2021.

• How do you turn an idea into a travel book?

• How Monisha Rajesh mastered a career in writing books

• Ask the editors: how to get your travel book published

• Ask the agents: how can you catch an agent's eye with your proposal?

Decolonising travel writing

We ran a whole series on bias in travel writing with the excellent Shivani Ashoka and Meera Dattani. Recap here:

• How can you confront bias in your writing?

• How can travel writing be more representative?

• How to produce inclusive travel content

• How can you decolonise your own travel writing?

Finding a niche

We’ve not yet done a series on niches within travel writing, but here’s a piece we wrote on whether you need a niche to be successful.

Do you need a niche to be successful?