You travel, write down everything you see and hear, sprinkle in your incredibly funny personal experiences, and send an article off to a dozen editors. Someone will buy it, right?



Oh so very wrong!

Travelers with personal stories are a dime a dozen - but good writers with a strong story are as rare as a Christmas heatwave in Montreal.

How do you beat the odds to become a travel writer? The following 10 steps won't necessarily make you rich and famous, but they will increase your chances.

1. Match your story to your audience.

Writing a story about Paris will be different if you're writing for a family with small children or a romantic young couple. Both are in Paris - but the stories will be different. Make sure you're clear on your target audience.

2. Write your story well.

Travel writing is like all other writing - you need good grammar, flawless punctuation, active voice, flowing style, and unerring accuracy. Edit yourself. Cut, cut, cut. Keep it tight. If your writing is a bit rusty, practice by submitting articles to web article sites. And read good writing.

3. Give editors what they want.

Read writers' guidelines closely. A common beginners' mistake is to think they know what a magazine wants more than its editor does. Follow guidelines scrupulously - if they're looking for a piece on Bulgaria from a senior's point of view, don't write about the best gap year trip ever - or go somewhere else with your story.

4. Have an angle.

Switzerland is a destination, not a story. The decline of yodeling and cow running is a story. The best, worst, highest, cheapest, furthest, newest hotel/restaurant/attraction is a story. Someone doing something different is a story.

5. Know your stuff.

Do your research before you go - know your facts and the rest will follow. Take copious notes - on what you see, hear, smell, feel, spend. It may not seem important right now, but those details will give your story texture when you sit down to write.

6. Use interviews.

Quoting experts or everyday people will lift your story off the page. Having the baker tell you how he gets up at three in the morning to start mixing dough is far more compelling than coldly describing how a baker gets up at three... It's all about voice - use those around you.

7. Provide visuals with your piece.

Photographs will help your story sell. Make sure you check the writers' guidelines - if they want slides, don't send them digital. If your package isn't as requested, an editor might not even get as far as reading your story. She'll just throw it out. There are plenty of writers out there willing to deliver exactly what she wants.

8. Always query.

Editors have their preferred ways to be queried or pitched - by email, phone or post. Don't pitch an identical story elsewhere - until they decide whether they want it. And that can take weeks or even months. Only submit simultaneously if the markets don't overlap - for example newspapers in different cities, magazines in different regions. Don't pitch the same story to competing papers and magazines.

9. Expect rejection.

This is inevitable and may have nothing to do with your writing. Your story may be about winter and the magazine is prepping for summer. When you least expect it, you'll get an assignment.

10. Hit the road.

Armed with your assignment - GO!