A while ago I went to TravMedia, selected their address book, and simply typed in the search parameter “editor.” A huge list popped up, and I pitched to as many magazines that I recognized and ones that I had researched as being acceptable places to pitch the particular idea to. Since the search was only in my area, Asia, only Asian magazines came up.
But, one that did come up was Travel + Leisure’s China franchise. In an earlier post I mentioned doing the same thing for National Geographic Traveler: China, in an attempt to get my shoe into the franchise via a foreign version. That attempt failed because I just didn’t have the photography or the long format writing credentials.
This time I did, and was accepted. Payment is a lot lower than I expected for as prestigious a chain as Travel + Leisure, but they are paying a great rate for pictures, which will also make me officially a travel photographer.
The down side is that the magazine is totally in Chinese. Therefore my article, once approved, will be immediately translated into Chinese. The good thing is that they rarely kill an article once it’s contracted, meaning my article will almost assuredly make the cut and be published, with pictures.
Although it’s not the American version of the magazine, a first level travel magazine, my pitches will sound a lot better once I have that listed in my portfolio. This is a huge, huge step up.
A few weeks ago I pitched several magazines on Diner en Blanc, a French soiree that occurs all throughout the world, and was debuting in Asia for the first time in my city. I wasn’t sure if it would be accepted by many places since it was a one time event, and it was time sensitive. So I submitted to many online places that focused on seasonal events and hoped for the best.
CNNGo, specializing in travel in Asia, seemed interested. Oddly enough, the only way I managed to get a hold of the editor was by randomly emailing someone who was listed as an editor on TravMedia’s address book. Basically, my only search parameters were “editor” and I looked through the entire list to find suitable media outlets.
CNNGo had a few reservations on the idea, and eventually passed. But they were interested in the brief bio I have at the end of each of my queries, and said they would be more than happy to look at pitches specific to my city. Excellent!
Sent a pitch to an Australian travel magazine. The pitch was not accepted, but the editor had seen one of my articles in another magazine. I think this is a huge deal, as it’s the first time a real editor has been familiar with my work at all.
Here’s part of the email:
Hi Biju,
Thanks for your email. I just saw your story in DestinAsian – I was the Dep Ed there for nearly three years. Great mag.
I like your Mongolia idea, but I don’t need anything on the destination at the moment. Will be sure to let you know if I can use any of your ideas down the line.
All the best,
The other day I was stalking a writer who focuses on airline magazines. He manages to flip every bit of travel he does into a paid article in one flight magazine or another. He did an article on an Asian city, and published it in KLM’s inflight magazine. First of all, I had no idea KLM even HAD an English magazine. Second, I had no idea that KLM traveled to this city.
Then I thought, wouldn’t be awesome if there was a program that did all the footwork for you? Imagine going to a city, selecting it in the program, and a list of inflight magazines popup, whose corresponding airlines went to your cities. And, of course, you move your cursor to the magazine and you get email addresses of editors.
Someone should do this. I should do this. God knows it would save me hours and hours of time sifting through airline and magazine websites. Fiddling around with drop down columns trying desperately to find whether or not they fly to City X. Just to have a searchable database of where airlines went would be incredibly useful.
Mental note: Create this program. Sell this program to travel writers. Profit.
A few posts back I mentioned I was featured as a guest blogger on Tracey Ceurvels’ site. Tracey sent me her Hot List of Travel Editors in return, and although I’m usually quite skeptical of such lists, this one is impressive.
In this article, Evans talks about his trip to Hiroshima. He writes about the bomb and the memorial park that now stands where the bomb exploded. He records this by taking pics with his phone, via the iPhone Hipstamatic App. He does this because it’s “small, quick, easy and unobtrusive.” Also, the Hipstamatic app, used by teens across the world, overblows photos, adding a washed out effect that makes the city have an “ethereal quality.”
Matador recently did a series of interviews with the editors of NatGeo Traveler. One interview I watched focused on what made a good story. One thing that really stood out was Keith Bellow’s discussion on the subject. He said to view a story like a play or movie, with developed characters, dialogue, and scenes. What I got from this is that in creating an article like this, you really capture the spirit of the place while delivering movement, something that captures an audience’s attention, like movies do. Editors can help with the writing, but not with storytelling ability.
I’ve never thought of a story in this manner, and I think it’s a great mentality to have while writing a narrative.
It takes me back to when I took a university course on plays. We studied transitions in scenes and dialogue, etc. For the next year, whenever I watched it in terms of scenes instead of a seamless flow, and later I found out that that’s exactly how screenwriters think.
It might be useful to go back to some of those ideas from my old theater class in order to better structure my articles.
I can’t link to the video, but here’s the trailer link to the series on Matador.
Last night I met with my friend and neighbor Old Mr. Wang, the self-described “senior human being scholar,” whome I wrote a bit about in a previous post. This time I managed to drag a friend who had excellent Chinese skills to help facilitate the conversation.
Old Mr Wang launched into bits and pieces of his life for my friend. He invited us both to come out to the YMCA and meet with some older Xiamen people to discuss English and learn some of the local dialect. The way Mr. Wang moves from one topic to the next is dizzying, and my friend’s Chinese did not really help with this. We got confused as to whether he was talking about us teaching people a class, us learning the Minnan dialect, or if we were going to church.
My friend was a little discombobulated despite my warnings, but I feel that many old people share this loquaciousness. They just want someone to listen and give a damn. So we listened, and gave a damn, and attempted to follow, until he suddenly asked what I was writing about now.
I answered, and he cried “Oh, that reminds me about trees!” and proceeded to launch into a detailed discussion on Bagua in relation to trees and energy healing, something my friend and I had never heard of.
Bagua, as I understand it, is a Taoist elemental philosophy that relates to many Chinese esoteric disciplines. It’s used in everything from martial arts to healing to feng shui. But Old Mr. Wang was describing it in terms of receiving and sending energy.
He talked about how some people could transfer their energy to other people. But trees, having an abundance of energy, were the best bet. In meditative qi-gong exercises, the old texts describe transferring a little bit of the tree’s energy to a person. But, there are detailed descriptions of how to do it.
Different trees have different properties, according to Wang, that help in treating different disorders – everything from skin rashes to body odor! The time of day is also important, as is the place one stands around the tree, which depends on your astrological sign. He brought out anatomical diagrams of meridian lines and sketched the leaves of different trees, and talked about a certain type with an abundance of Qi that only grew around Fujian province.
All in all, it sounded a lot like Ayurvedic and esoteric yoga practices in India, where prana is said to be absorbed from the sun in the morning sun salutation. In fact, Old Mr. Wang agreed with me on the similarity, as he had encountered parallels in his own reading.
He looked at me, and sighed, showing me rooms filled with musty books.
“It’s so difficult! But so interesting!”
I could not agree more. It’s a challenge talking to Old Mr. Wang. He’s eccentric and sometimes I can’t follow him at all. But despite the barriers of age, culture, and language, it’s glorifying to know there is someone here that is like me, fascinated with traditions that the world seems to be doing its best to forget. Like him, I’m sure I’ll be lamenting on how much there is to learn, even at the age of 80.
As a writer Old Mr. Wang teaches me that you have to treat older people with respect and patience. They are, or can be, repositories of lore, and just listening to them is worthwhile, even if you get confused and uncomfortable. Because you really never know what you’re going to learn. As a writer, I have to force myself into situations that go past my comfort level in order to learn, and it has almost always paid off in the end.
I’ve told Mr. Wang I’m coming to the YMCA with him to meet his friends, all 60 + year old Xiamenites. And I’m supposed to go with him to see these trees, and watch him do this Qi transference. As with all things dealing with my neighbor, it will no doubt be an interesting experience.
I randomly came across this website. Pitch U is dedicated to sharing information on how to pitch book ideas to agents. On the site, they interview publishers and successfully published novelists. I’m no where near the point where I feel comfortable attempting a book, but I will be in the future. So for now, it’s bookmarked!
The Lone Writer version 2.0 is up! How do you like it?
On the side you’ll see an option to subscribe and get updates.
I’ve decided I’m going to really dig deep and try to include more pics to break out the wall of text I usually post.
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