Birds of a Feather welcomes Chris Backe to the Nest

Chris Backe is the main blogger at One Weird Globe. He started his blogging journey by writing about all things to do with South Korea. And after traveling to Malaysia and Laos, the scope of One Weird Globe expanded. Now Chris, writes about exploring oddball travel destinations and the long-term expat/nomad lifestyle. As well as being a prolific travel blogger, and travel guide writer, Chris is also the founder of the Choose a Way travel guide series. Luckily he still finds times to guest post, and we’re so happy that he found his way over to Birds of a Feather to tell us more about his One Wierd Globe writing and publishing journey.

Take it away Chris, and unlock the secrets of your travel writing success for us…

Author Interview: Chris Backe

How would you describe the type of books/genre you write?

I write travel guidebooks in a few different styles for different types of travelers. Some travelers want the full itinerary of where to go and how to go from A to B to C, while others want the guidebook of places worth seeing. Either way, books always have great directions and set you up to succeed.

I also publish a series of guidebooks called Choose a Way, which are choose-your-own-adventure style guides to world-class cities. These are written by local travellers and each guide features 35 to 40 destinations in the city, and offer a great mix of mainstream and offbeat places. You get directions to each place, a succinct description, and some fun surprises once you complete a day. They’re available on Amazon and as a PDF, so they’ll work with almost any device you own.

What motivated you to start writing?

At first, I started blogging to share my life in South Korea with friends and family. Later on, when I started putting together books, my goal became simpler: ‘make travel awesome’.

Tell us the journey you went on to get your books published (e.g. direct on your website, self-published, assisted-publishing, traditional publisher)

I’ve self-published every book I’ve written, and they’ve come a long way! I’ve made it a point to make books as easy and intuitive to use as possible, which means thinking about when and where a traveler is using these books. Which info do you need to help you make a traveling decision? I tried to challenge the norms when designing – do people really use a phone number or e-mail to a business? Does it help to start directions from an intersection or major landmark?

What publishing elements do you most enjoy and most like to avoid, and why? (e.g. design, marketing, formatting etc.)

There are a lot of technical elements to balance, so there’s some satisfaction in getting all the details right. On another level, I definitely enjoy talking about my books and trying to find the fit between book and traveler. I haven’t exactly enjoyed the design part, which is why I’ve created a few different template to fill in the details.

With the hindsight of being a published author, anything you would have done differently?

I would have started the marketing parts a lot earlier! It’s definitely one aspect of self-publishing that people forget about – and starting it months in advance is definitely not too early!

If you know you’re writing a number of non-fiction books, it really helps to have a template. Finish your book as you like it, then make a copy of that file. Delete the content and leave a placeholder hint as to what goes there (An introduction? A sidebar? A conclusion?) while leaving the formatting intact.

What tips or advice would you give an aspiring indie author who is looking to self-publish?

Know your reader. What they need, what they want, what they perceive as valuable, how they want to receive the info you want to share with them, and so on. Use surveys, e-mail them questions, ask them on Facebook, or any other technique you might think to try.

What marketing or promotional tools or techniques do you use to reach your readers?

How many are there?! Honestly, try them all, but don’t use them all. Aim for one (maybe two) social media platforms and focus your attention on that. Don’t try to be all things to all people.

What impact do you want your books to have on your readers?

I want to make travel awesome. If people use my books to make a ho-hum vacation into a kick-ass trip, I’ve done my job. If people go from ‘visiting places just because that’s all they know about’ to ‘visiting cool places they had no idea existed’, I’ve done my job.

What is your latest book about?

Offbeat Thailand – a guidebook to 100+ offbeat, weird, and bizarre destinations across Thailand. It’s a guidebook, meaning it’s aimed at independent travelers who are keen to create their own itinerary from the places in the book.

What’s next on your writing journey?

Oh man… I have enough ideas and traveling experience for at least 10 books and hundreds of blog posts… Most likely there will be a book about getting around Eastern Canada, one about some of the weird places in the US, one about the weird places in Europe, some itineraries to cities in Europe…

Author Bio

Chris Backe is the blogger behind One Weird Globe, a popular blog about offbeat destinations and life as an expat. His mission in life is to make travel awesome and to set you up to succeed while traveling. He’s lived in Korea, Thailand, Colombia, and traveled to weird destinations across Europe. He’s also the founder of the Choose a Way series, the interactive travel guidebooks that put you in charge.

• Website: One Weird Globe
• Facebook: oneweirdglobe
• Twitter: @oneweirdglobe
• Pinterest: oneweirdglobe
• Instagram: oneweirdglobe

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