If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a professional globe-trotter and getting paid to see the world, read on. I’m really excited to share Robin Esrock’s story and how he went from traveling and blogging to getting published and then hosting a major travel show on television. I’m sure you’ll find this success story as inspirational as I have…
You have a very exciting story about turning a seemingly unfortunate event into something positive. Please share with the readers what got you started on your adventures traveling around the world.
I became a travel writer by accident, literally. A car ran an intersection and piled into my bike, breaking my kneecap. I got $20,000 from insurance, looked around, and thought, what the hell am I doing with my life? So I quit my job, packed things in storage, and bought a round-the-world ticket to visit every country I’d ever dreamed of seeing.
I started my blog in tribute to one of my favorite writers Hunter S Thompson, and set off to see, and share, the world. This led to a column for the local newspaper, and 12 months and 24 countries later, I returned home to find I’d somehow become a popular travel writer. Assignments and other newspapers followed – the Chicago Tribune, South China Morning Post, Sydney Morning Herald. All the while, I’m jet-setting around the world, but sleeping on couches because hardly anyone makes a living solely as a travel writer.
I thought this would be a neat idea for a TV show, and brought in fellow travel writer Julia Dimon. Stars aligned, Word Travels (wordtravels.tv) got picked up by a production company, then a network in Canada, then National Geographic worldwide. Five years since that accident, I’ve been to nearly 50 countries (about 90 in total from previous travels), am seen on four continents on TV, and write for millions of readers. It has been, I admit it, quite the trip.
How were you able to go from blogging to becoming a travel journalist?
I pitched a newspaper and got lucky. Even today, with all my success, I still get about a 90% rejection rate. Travel writing is not for the thin-skinned! Outlets are drying up, budgets are being slashed. But the travel bug is nothing if not persistent, and I love writing. My blog was always, and to some degree still is, intended to remind myself just how crazy my life is. It’s a diary, a travelogue, a how-to-guide and a comedy. People responded to the writing, and when one newspaper bought it, I thought, hey, maybe another one will too! I’ve now been published in over a dozen major newspapers and magazines, but my first love is and always will be my blog, where I don’t have to worry about tone and word count, and I can just be as creative and batshit crazy as I want to be.
Can you share some tips with other bloggers on how to get their writing published?
People ask me all the time – how do I become a travel writer? It’s really quite simple. Travel. And then, write. You’d be amazed at how many people don’t travel and want to be a travel writer, or don’t write and want to be a travel writer. If you keep a journal, diary or blog, you’re a travel writer, pure and simple. Getting published and making a living – well, that’s another story.
- Start with a local newspaper – a community paper, a newsletter, an outlet that might be interested in YOUR perspective. We’ve heard about China. What is it about YOUR trip to China that makes us want to read your story? Maybe that you live in our neighborhood, go to the same school, are someone we can relate to?
- Research your target: What kind of publication is it? Don’t pitch them adventure when they feature hotels and restaurants. An editor once told me she gets 500 pitches a week. She has budget for 2.
- Make your pitch stand out, to the point, informative and entertaining.
- And when you’re ready to give up with frustration, that’s when you should really get serious about pitching.
You’ve mentioned in another interview that “Travel writing is a lifestyle, not a living”. Where do you currently spend the bulk of your time?
I’ve been on the road at least 6 months a year for the last 5 years. So I guess I spend the bulk of my time in airports, which are not bad as far as offices go. I mean to say that you shouldn’t expect to get rich as a travel writer. Competition is so fierce that rates are notoriously low. It’s a lifestyle choice, to live out of a backpack, in hotels, at airports. If you want to make a living, drive a nice car and surround yourself with nice things, consider something corporate and take your holidays at the end of the year. On the other hand, there’s two ways to get rich: Make more…or desire less. On the other, other hand, I have a wealth of experience, but experience never paid the rent. It’s a compromise, but for those who love to travel, it’s an easy compromise to make.
Since you’ve started your travel series, has your view of travel changed?
We just wrapped our third and final season, which took us to 36 countries on 6 continents. Traveling with a TV crew is a completely different beast than traveling as a writer on assignment, or traveling as an adventurous backpacker. We have crazy schedules, insane hours, permit issues, filming challenges, sound, budgets, transport, gear worries.
Word Travels has taken me to some of the most incredible landscapes (Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Ethiopia) to do some of the most incredible things (heli-yoga, cat-boarding, the world’s highest bungy jump!), but it’s been hard work, and at the end of the day, we all wanted to make an intelligent, inspiring travel series that would stand out amongst the glut of yuck on TV, and we worked damn hard to make it so. We wanted to be fair to each country, its people and culture, and time would always be a challenge. I’d love to return to every place I’ve been with more time and more money, but than again, I could say the same for life in general. There’s no wrong or right way to travel. Just the opportunities we get to see the world, and what we make of them.
What words of inspiration would you offer to aspiring travel writers?
Travel first. Get your ass out there, you need the inspiration, and don’t worry, it’s sure to follow. Be disciplined – keep up that blog, set a regular time and place to focus on it and give it your best effort. Choose someone you know as your audience – your mother, your friends, your self in 40 years. And write for them, capture everything you see, everything you feel.
Thanks, Robin, for a fantastic interview!!
Connect with Robin
robinesrock.com/blog– Robin’s pioneering travel blog, with stories, video, photos and tips from over 50 countries.
www.wordtravels.tv – the OLN/CityTV/Nat Geo Adventure series that follows the lives of two working travel writers.
www.youtube.com/moderngonzo – hilarious self-edited clips from Robin’s adventures
www.twitter.com/robinesrock – Follow Robin’s adventures on Twitter
