Author Interview:  Bryanna Plog

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

They are a bit traditional travelogues mixed with travel memoir, but I hope they are much more narrative nonfiction than travel diary-like. I sometimes cross over with nature writing as well.

What motivated you to start writing?

I always liked to write as a kid but I wrote mostly fiction stories. I started traveling seriously right after high school, and every trip since I have kept a detailed travel journal. My year I spent in Colombia in 2011 really became my motivation to write travel stories for other people to read.

That first book started as more of a project for me to share information with friends and reflect on my time there and ended up being more polished narrative to share with the wider world! I then continued to write short travel essays, some of which ended up in anthologies and twenty of which I published in my second book Make Sure You Have a Map.

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

My first book was about my year spent in Colombia. That year I had a weekly blog where I tried to share about life living and traveling in a country that many have so many misconceptions about. Many of those stories and blog entries ended up in an altered form in the book.

I hired a professional editor and copy editor but decided to self-publish since I really wanted to get my book out there as I wanted it. I published with CreateSpace and Kindle (both Amazon) mostly because it seemed the easiest and cheapest way to get out in a marketplace with visibility. I continued using Amazon for my second book.

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

I love editing and don’t mind formatting—I even really enjoy designing the book covers because I am a big photographer too. I really hate marketing. Even though I write travel memoirs, I really don’t like talking about myself or marketing myself and there are so many aspects of marketing that an independent author should be spending time on.

Writing is my second job and I don’t have the time I would like to put in the effort to market and network as I should.

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

I needed more help formatting the manuscript than I thought and I would redo what the inside looks like of my first book—my second book looked a lot better I think. I would have done more paid advertisements for each book debut as well as that is a way to really get the book out there.

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

Look carefully at the different options and think about why you want to publish. Is it mostly so you have a printed copy of your work, for your friends and family, for a niche audience, or a bigger audience? This can help you figure out how much time and money you want to invest the publication process. No matter what though, have at least two editors read through your book (one editing, one copy-editing) if you want to have a polished product you are proud of.

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

I pay a little every month to advertise the books on Amazon—they’ve changed it so it is hard to reach readers otherwise. I am on social media, but as I said above, marketing is probably my least favorite part of being a self-published writer. I don’t blog much, but do keep my website current.

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

Writer Pico Iyer said that “Travel is the best way we have of rescuing the humanity of places, and saving them from abstraction and ideology.” This is partially why I travel and what I hope to relay in my books. I want to let readers encounter the world through my stories, to meet people of different backgrounds, learn about new places, and explore the natural world. I also want to inspire people to start their own travels and think about why and how they travel.

What’s your book’s elevator pitch or key selling points?

For Misspelled Paradise: This book is a lighthearted travel narrative set in the misunderstood–and usually misspelled–country of Colombia. Explore Colombia with me as I live on the Caribbean coast for a year, teaching English and traveling to places such as Bogota, Cartagena, the Amazon, and Colombian coffee fields.

For Make Sure You Have a Map: This book is a collection of fun travel stories all revolving around a piece of travel advice I’ve received—and then ignored. As I take the reader along journeys such as a train trip across Tanzania and hiking in remote Alaskan wilderness, the stories might make you think about how we travel and that all important distinction between a tourist and traveler.

What’s next on your writing journey?

My current project is traveling to and writing about some of the world’s most interesting and infamous volcanoes. The book, which I have been working on for a number of years now, dabbles in nature writing, but is solidly a travel book. Research and travels for this book have taken me to places as varied as Naples, Italy and the remote Indonesian island of Sumbawa. I hope to finish the draft this fall and publish next year! I am also writing short travel essay while I work on the book too.

About the Author

Bryanna Plog is an international traveler and author of two travel books, Misspelled Paradise: A Year in a Reinvented Colombia and Make Sure You Have a Map (and Other Bits of Travel Advice I’m Glad I Ignored). Her writing draws from her substantive travels in over 20 countries and her passion for the natural world and history. Plog is also an educator and park ranger with the National Park Service and has worked in parks in Utah, Alaska, and California. Originally from Western Washington, she now lives and works in New York City. Her next book project explores her travels to some of the most interesting and infamous volcanoes around the world.

Connect with Bryanna Plog:

• Website: bryannaplog.com
• Instagram: @bryannaplog
• Twitter: @bryannaplog