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)
