29 travel writer problems

1. When you’re offered an all-expense-paid press trip and can’t go

Read: 10 steps to surviving your first press trip

2. When you have to listen to someone brag about their bucket list accomplishments

Read: Your top 20 bucket list trips

3. When you’re inspired on the road but can’t find a pen or something to write on

Read: Travel writing tips

4. When the yurt doesn’t have wifi

Read: World’s wackiest wifi hotspots

5. When you read a piece of armchair travel writing

Read: 6 tips for travel research beyond your guidebook

6. When a publication does you wrong (e.g., no accreditation, misquotes you, forgets to pay you…)

Read: What you stand to lose in travel photo contests

7. When someone has never heard of your blog / brand / published work

Read: How to develop a personal brand as a writer

8. When you’ve never heard of someone else’s blog / brand / published work

Read: Quick tips for building your brand

9. When a press trip is super picky about what it wants you to write about, and where you’re allowed to go

Read: Take control from your host — maintaining focus on press trips

10. When you see other travel writers steal weird things at press conferences

Read: How are writing conferences relevant to travel writers?

11. When you get writer’s block

Read: Destroy writer’s block

12. When a DMO sends a blanket email inviting only ONE PERSON from your company to attend a press trip

Read: DMOs and bloggers, let’s talk content strategy, press trips

13. How you feel after spending all night working on a deadline

Read: Confession — I am addicted to freelance work

14. After you sign a contract, and figure out you’re being underpaid

Read: How to set your freelance pay rate

15. When you show up to a press conference, and you’re under/overdressed

Read: How awkward pet photos brought my family closer

16. When an editor totally changes the article you worked on for a week

Read: 5 common mistakes editors make

17. Watching other travel writers kiss ass to get a press trip

Read: The anatomy of a fam trip

18. When you have to pay estimated quarterly taxes because you’re a self-employed freelancer

Read: Tips, tricks, and tax deductions for freelancers

19. Trying to figure out how much you’ll make if you’re writing a 1,422-word article that pays $0.08 cents a word with an 8.75% commissionable rate

Read: 10 paying travel publications you might not know

20. Looking for jobs on Elance

Read: Freelance wars: oDesk vs. Elance

21. When you’re on the road so long, home becomes unrecognizable

Read: Notes on trying to date at home but live nomadically

22. When you can’t find your glasses, your car keys, your social security card, your wedding ring, etc. but you know exactly where your passport is

Read: How to travel on a third-world passport

23. When your job is to travel the world, and you have a severe fear of flying

Read: How to piss off someone with a fear of flying

24. When you’ve traveled so much, you can’t even date anymore

Read: You’ve traveled so much you can’t even date anymore

25. When your blogger-in-residence facility has a dial-up modem

Read: 8 North American residencies ideal for travel writing

26. When you’re on assignment and you suddenly get food poisoning

Read: How to travel in India and not get sick

27. When you hear someone complaining on an all-expenses-paid press trip

Read: The lowdown on press trips

28. When people don’t take your job as a travel writer seriously

Read: How to become a travel writer (seriously)

29. When you’re working from home and realize that, eventually, you will have to put on pants

Read: 20+ awesome travel jobs and how to get them