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Writers & Photographers Press Trips Press Releases Media Requests Market News Contact Manager TPU BBS Member Profile Contact Info Upload Image Fields of Expertise Professional Assocs. Clips Username & password Syndicate your content       Guideline Gleanings Tips from Editors to Make Your Articles Better As the editor of Travel Publications Update, I speak with hundreds of editors of travel magazines and newspapers. Below is a summary of what they are looking for in a well-executed query and a well-written feature. The Query Do not send us a query without being thoroughly familiar with our magazine. We strongly encourage you to study several recent issues of the magazine. Thoroughly examine the voice and content. Good queries generally suggest how and when the proposed article will best fit into the magazine, and compelling reasons why the story is right for us. In addition, they should show that the writer has read the magazine and understands its content and readership. Your query should include the following information: Why you think the piece would be of interest to our readers and why you are qualified to write the piece. Where the information in the piece will be coming from. How you plan to organize your information (First person? A roundup of stories? Sidebars?). When you’ll be able to complete the piece, and how long the finished piece will be. Be sure your query not only outlines the subject matter, but also indicates the approach you would take and how you would handle the material. Some points to remember when submitting a query are: keep your outline brief and to the point; spell out the ground you intend to cover; indicate the thread of the article and the transitions by which you plan to move from section to section; show the conclusions, if any, you will draw. One typewritten page usually does the trick. Queries should describe the content, structure and tone of the article. Since we receive many queries on the same topics, please be as specific as possible about what makes your idea unique. The best advice: read and study the magazine. Content We have found that our most successful contributions share certain characteristics, notably a strong sense of the author’s personality and experiences, vivid reporting, a high literary quality and, in the case of service-oriented departments, meaty practical information. One kind of story we cannot use is a step-by-step account of what you did on your summer vacation — those golly-gee-it-was-fun stories. We get dozens a week and reject as many. Try to give your article a fresh point of view and, if at all possible, cover some out-of-the-ordinary subject matter. Your article must go beyond the self-serving listing of information doled out by visitor’s bureaus and PR firms. Work in quotes from visitors to the sites, or the participants in a particular activity, and let them express their thoughts about how they feel about a place or activity. Recreate the world you traveled through and let us see it through your eyes rather than simply telling us what you saw. Surprise us. Give us something out of the ordinary — something that only someone who was there would know. Do this by trying things, meeting people, getting involved in scenes as you travel. If you’re a passive observer and don’t tell us more than we can learn by reading a couple of guidebooks, we’re not interested in your story. Use your senses and tell us what it feels like, smells like, tastes like. But avoid clichéd descriptions and adjective overload. Don’t send personal travel diaries or generic circle tours that aim to say all and ultimately reveal nothing about a region. Focus your story idea and don’t be afraid of specifics: name names and places. Give up your travel secrets! We like details. To stand out from the crowd, your story must have a personal voice and point of view. Remember that almost any place you write about has been written about before; your challenge is to find something new and original to say about it. Don’t try to squeeze every aspect of a city or country into your story. Often a well-chosen vignette conveys a better feel for a place than a broad overview. Travel, the displacement from the familiar to the foreign, is rich in comedy but rarely do I get a story that makes me laugh. A good travel story is more than just a collection of random impressions; it has a definite theme. Decide at the beginning what point you want to get across about the place and then work your impressions around it. Set your sight on a narrowly defined subject. A common problem among new authors is attempting to cover too much in the context of a 2,000-word manuscript. We like our stories to be personal, original and literary, not the usual dry guidebook recounting of where and what. We want to sense the magic and wonder — or even squalor — of a place, to know what it means to go there, to know how the visitor might be changed by the journey. We are unhappy with writers who get their facts wrong. Take the personal approach. By this we don’t necessarily mean writing in the first person, but rather take your own approach to a place you’ve visited or an adventure you’ve had. What was it that really excited or inspired you? Style Editors want writers who understand grammar and syntax, who know how to gather accurate information, who write with clarity and without affectation, who know what their point is and get to it, and who exhibit intelligence and wit and style. Good travel writing always "shows" rather than "tells." The lead is the bait you use to lure readers into getting hooked on your story. Write and rewrite ones that grab your readers and pull them into your tale. Please, no "majestic" mountains, "spectacular" canyons, "perched" or "quaint" villages. Dialogue helps a travel story immeasurably, but few writers ever include it. Brevity, clarity and conciseness should be hallmarks of your article. Use active voice; it’s almost always best. We want our stories to have a light, bright, lively, fun tone; but accuracy and attention to detail are paramount. Kick out redundancies. -30-

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