Warts and All: Earn a Living as a Travel Writer

Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008

Do you have the stomach to become a travel writer?

Dinner time on the Chinese island of Hainan Dao, but I don’t feel hungry. When presented with what resemble the diseased body parts of Things From Outer Space, your appetite tends to vanish.

Abandoning chopsticks, I try using a spoon to break off a wartless section of this seafood delicacy. (Cast-iron guts or not, even I cannot chew on warts.) This proves very frustrating. The quivering sliver scoots off the spoon, jives across the table, and escapes onto the floor. I spot a passing waiter giggling.

Although I decided against the curiously translated “fungal infection of the hand of a goose,” don’t accuse me of being cowardly. Not after ordering sea cucumbers (not to be mistaken for crunchy green vegetables). They’re slug-like creatures that inhabit ocean beds. Undoubtedly because of their phallic shape, they allegedly possess aphrodisiac qualities. Maybe some people associate them with love, but they’re probably the types who need incarcerating in a lunatic asylum.

Enthusing about local food is sometimes impossible. I’d be lying if I said these ocean-going cucumbers are sensationally delicious. Stomach-wrenchingly vile seems more like it. I’d advise sticking with tomato omelets...sweet and sour pork...and if you can find an outlet, Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Hainan Dao (Dao means island) covers over 13,000 square miles. It’s a sub-tropical island of palm trees, banana plantations, forests, mountains, and golden beaches to the south.

Before visiting those beaches, don’t miss Haikou, Hainan’s capital. One part of the city is palm-lined boulevards and new concrete high-rises; the other features crumbling colonial architecture and narrow laneways with rickshaw drivers, tea houses, barefoot kiddies and outdoor food markets.

The best old-quarter market runs between the streets of Xinhua Lu and Bo’ai Beilu. Piglets get roasted on the sidewalk. Dried snakes are hung up like walking sticks. You’ll see women fattening up dove-like birds with a baby’s bottle complete with rubber teat. There are live tortoises in plastic bowls...all kinds of fresh and dried seafood including sharks fins and seahorses...skinned gray creatures that look suspiciously like dogs.

All of these things are for sale, and for a travel writer with a sadistic editor, all for eating.

But it’s a good job I have IL as an outlet. Most U.S. publications tend to want less wacky experiences.

Here’s a tip for would-be writers: When you’re starting out, it’s easier to get published in smaller publications rather than the big travel glossies. OK, smaller magazines don’t generally pay upward of $1 per word, but it’s a great way to build up your credentials.

When I was starting, I had travel articles published in everything from magazines for horse enthusiasts to magazines for military families. Just think how many stories you could come back with from China. It’s simply a case of finding the right place for your stories.

It would be worth your while taking a look at the writers’ guidelines for these publications:

* World Hum pays $100 and upward for all kinds of travel stories, including first-person narratives and “rants and raves.”

* Plenty Magazine covers a broad range of “green” topics, including food and travel. Payment is usually $1 per word for print, depending on experience; $150 for website-only stories (up to 500 words).

* You don’t have to be Canadian to write for Toronto’s Globe and Mail. They seek 400 to 600 words on exceptional travel experiences. “Submissions should tell a story--think riveting dinner-table talk.” Pays CAN$100.

* Our friends at AWAI constantly report on new paying markets for travel writers. As well as teaching you how to write the kind of articles editors want, AWAI's travel writer’s course also covers things like press trips and advice on how to sell articles over and over again. Check out how you too could travel the world and get paid for it.

Steenie Harvey
For International Living