The Travel Writer's Handbook: How to Write and Sell Your Own Travel Experiences

This could have been a great book but ultimately its lack of true organization makes it hard to be effective.One issue I have with this book is its overly heavy emphasis on marketing and research while it skimps on story telling. Without story telling, you can have the best connections and researches and you still wouldn't be able to sell anything I would think. The second issue is its organization/presentation. Maybe its a case of too many updates, but the book flipflops way too much in between sections. One second its talking about research, then next paragraph the author flips back to talking about marketing, then it flips back, then only to talk about some other topics.But in any case, there are good information in this book but it needs a thorough revision.

This book has been around for a long time. My first copy (4th edition) of "The Travel Writer's Handbook, "finally fell apart so I bought this revised and updated, 6th edition copy. You can't go wrong with the information presented here. Although Louise Purwin Zobel and co-author Jacqueline Harmon Butler's book is great, I tend to feel, "Travel Writer's Guide" by Gordon Burgett is probably a better step by step guide to the "methodology" for the travel writer. Both books follow the same pre-trip research, querying, the trip, and post trip work except, Burgett uses a real life example and walks you through his trip method and logic with forms and guides that are really useful. Using either book and especially both you surely can get to where, "the check's in the mail."

Disclaimer: I've read the book at least thrice from cover to cover but that was some time ago.The book is fantastic. It gives those with no prior experience a compact yet thorough introduction to the world of travel writing. It assumes that you already know how to write so it focuses more on the skills you need to make it as a travel writer - how to observe, take notes, proper research before and after a trip, and even the proper marketing for your writing and the business of travel writing. I'm so proud to say that my foray into travel writing after using the advice in this book netted me three sold articles.

IT IS A BOOK! It has pages and chapters and lots and lots of words. There are things in the book too. SENTENCES! Marvelously organized into paragraphs. Real solid stuff.

It was practical and hands on so I recommend it. Since I want to start sharing my travel experiences this book came in handy, and I read it while I traveled.

I haven't finished reading it yet but i think it's great so far. Filled with important information. I got it pretty quickly too.

This book is very informative. It takes you from researching before you leave for your trip right through to submission and beyond. Its a brilliant read and most definitely the best on the market

I have the 2002 edition of the Travel Writer's Handbook (the 5th ed.). While it was updated to include the problems of post 9/11 problems it did not cover the Internet as much as one would expect. And the section on photography is still set in the pre-digital era. That said, this is still the best all-around book on travel writing. Zobel covers different article types, how to do basic research,whether to accept freebies, what to take along on trips, keeping records for tax purposes and so forth. She spends a lot of time on interviewing techniques and different ways of capturing the sights and sounds of a travel destination. I assume the newest edition (written with a co-author)is meant to bring this classic into the 21st century with references to pdas, laptops, digital cameras and other accoutrements that were hardly mentioned in the 2002 book. But when it comes to the basic elements of writing the travel article--whether for magazines, newspapers or the many travel websites out there--this book is still founded on solid information.