TTIM 37 – Travel Writing with Lori Allen - The Traveling Image Makers

It’s not a secret that I believe writing is an essential skill for travel photographers. I discussed this in episode 21 with Jens Lennartsson, especially with respect to how travel writing can help photographers make a profit and sell their work to magazines and websites more effectively.

So when I learned about Great Escape Publishing and their programs for aspiring travel writers, I contacted their director, Lori Allen and asked her to come on the show and talk to us about it.

Lori is the Director and Creator of Great Escape Publishing, formerly the Travel Division at the American Writers & Artists Inc (AWAI). She joined AWAI in October 2000 as a marketing manager and quickly fell in love with their course on travel writing. “It was about more than getting paid to take free vacations,” she said. “It was about traveling in a better way… seeing the world as an untourist… and selling stories that go into magazines and newspapers around the country making all our best travel experiences eternal. Sometimes we spend more time planning a trip than we do actually enjoying it. But with travel writing and travel photography, our memories live forever and they come with the prestige of knowing that others will relive our memories vicariously, too. And hey… the perks sure are great, too.” It’s been 13 years since Lori convinced AWAI to let her start her own division around this idea. Today, Great Escape publishes myriad books, report, online programs and guides on getting paid to travel. They also host live events around the world where you can try each of their ideas first hand. Their upcoming travel writing workshop in New Orleans will be their 133rd live event with expeditions in Mexico and Tanzania still to come this year and adventures in Botswana, Namibia, Thailand, Cuba and Jordan in 2017.

If you ever thought of getting into travel writing and using it to make your photography more saleable, but you don’t think you have the necessary skills, I encourage you to listen to my interview with Lori.

Duration 42m 54s.

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Music for this episode: “Zanzibar” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/