Sell More Travel Articles: The Theory of Accelerated Failure

Dear Reader,

We’ve been talking a lot this week about how to sell your travel articles and photos. Here’s another sales tip I picked up from my publisher’s meeting in France last week…

(By the way, if you missed them, check out my first tip on making your articles worth more money, and Shelly Perry’s photography sales tip on making your photos worth more.)

TIP #3: Accelerate Your Failures
In the publishing business we’re taught that you don’t always know what will work until you try it. So fail as fast as possible and learn from your mistakes like you do from your successes. Build and grow.

How to Sell More Travel Articles

The same is true in travel writing and photography. So many times I hear of workshop attendees and/or readers that write their article and/or take a bunch of photos and then never send them anywhere because they don’t think they’re good enough.

Meanwhile, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters. It’s the size of the fight in the dog. Our most successful workshop attendees are never the best writers and photographers in the group. They’re always just the ones that get out there and do it.

One of my mentors, writer and author Bob Bly, calls the act of studying and thinking about something without actually doing it “analysis paralysis.” And he has a 25-25-50 rule for getting past it.

Divide your time as follows, he says:

• 25% studying – i.e., reading about your craft, attending workshops, etc.
• 25% of your time observing what successful people are already doing
• And at least 50% of your time actually DOING the thing you are studying and observing.

Freelance travel writer and author of The Ultimate Travel Writer’s Program, Jennifer Stevens also has a cure for conquering what she calls “the scaredy-cat syndrome.” Read about how to get past your inner “scaredy-cat” and sell more travel articles here.

Point is: When you’re first starting out, you don’t know what will sell and what won’t (aside from the tips we give you here). So just get out there and try. Hurry up and fail so you can learn, build and move on.

Travel writing and photography are supposed to be fun. That’s why you’re reading this newsletter, right?
Don’t stress about getting started. Just start.

— Lori
Lori Allen
Director, Great Escape Publishing

P.S. Our workshop attendees are always our most successful readers. And that’s likely because of what I said here today — they leave the workshop with a publishable piece and then quickly send it off without worry. They don’t sit on it. And they let the excitement from their first by-line lead them to their second, third and twenty-third.

If you’re thinking about joining us at our next live workshop, let me assure you that you’ll get everything you need to get started so you can hit the ground fast and easy the minute you return home.  Click here for details: The Ultimate Travel Writer’s Workshop

More on how to sell your travel articles:
How to sell your travel articles to non-travel publications
Featured Publication: Wend Magazine – Sell your travel articles here for a slick, glossy by-line.

[Editor’s Note: Learn more about opportunities to profit from your travels (and even from your own home) in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel.]