I always used to wonder how travel writers got their sweet gigs. I mean someone covered their expenses and got them to amazing places, let them stay in hotels with stunning views and they got to eat amazing food, right? Sort of.
My first famil kind of happened by accident. I had written a story for an editor of a food magazine about my particular town (which happens to be a foodie heaven) and once the editor had confirmed she had received my article and was happy with it, I emailed her back and asked if she was looking for more pitches as I’d love to write for her again. At the last moment, I added one more line: “Or are there any destinations you already have in mind that you need covered?”
I am so glad I added that last sentence because she replied almost immediately and said, “We need someone to do a story on Western Australia – would you be up for it?”
Um, yes.
(But first, I want to emphasise how important it is to be proactive and helpful – once you’ve got the ‘ok’ about a filed story, have another story idea ready to go and why not include a question about if they’ve got stories they’ve finding hard to assign – you may just catch the right person at the right time).
So, back to the famil. I contacted WA Tourism and explained the situation – since it was a firm commission they were only too happy to work with me. I asked for flights and on-ground support (car hire and accommodation).
Because the story necessitated visiting over 10 places throughout Perth and Fremantle, there was A LOT of back and forthing, about times, accommodation, opportunities to meet and interview people at each of the venues and working out how long it would take me to get from A to B to C (you get the idea).
It was huge. A huge amount of work but also hugely thrilling.
There are things I would do differently though now:
- I would probably outsource a lot of the organisational tasks. I agonised over travel times between each destination and it took me hours, but in retrospect someone else could have done that for me.