Author Interview with Thomas Swick Travel Editor & Writer

Birds of a Feather welcomes Thomas Swick to the Nest

Thomas Swick has been a feature writer, an editorial writer, and, at his last newspaper, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a travel editor. Now he freelances, teaches, and writes travel memoirs and travel books.

He has a lifetime-and-a-half of travel experiences under his belt and is used to “living in the sun and wandering the globe” – not a bad life!

Let’s take a walk with him, as he guides us through his writing and traditional publishing journey. It’s exciting to read about Thomas’s perspective on his particular publishing route and learn about his latest book, The Joys of Travel: And Stories That Illuminate Them.

Author Interview: Thomas Swick

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

They’re travel books, but each of the three has been different.

My first book, Unquiet Days: At Home in Poland, was a travel memoir about the two and a half years I lived in Warsaw.

My second book, A Way to See the World: From Texas to Transylvania with a Maverick Traveler, is a collection of travel narratives. My most recent book, The Joys of Travel: And Stories That Illuminate Them, is more reflective, using essays as well as stories to explore what I think are the seven fundamental pleasures of travel.

What motivated you to start writing?

I was an English major in college, and fell in love with literature. Then when I started traveling – especially the years spent in Poland in the early ’80s – I had experiences and witnessed events that I felt compelled to try to capture the best way I knew how, which was through words.

Photo Copyright Thomas Swick (Warsaw, Poland)

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

All three of my books have had traditional publishers. The first was the hardest to get published: My agent sent it to 41 publishers, some more than once. A few wanted me to make the book more personal – I had married a Polish woman – but I thought that the historical events should take precedence, and I refused to change the focus. The submission process went on for a few years, and there were times when I didn’t really think about the book much. (The beauty of having an agent do all the submitting.) Then when the acceptance came, I was ecstatic.

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

I wouldn’t enjoy any of the things you mention, which is partly why I have gone the traditional route. I like having someone else do what I’m not good at. Perhaps I’ve been lucky, but I’ve had very good experiences with editors. The editor for my first book gave me a master class in writing – and editing – and the editor for my most recent book was extremely thorough and dedicated; he took a real interest in the book, which is incredibly gratifying for an author. He also involved me in the process to choose a cover, and I was thrilled with what we eventually came up with.

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

I’d probably still stick with travel writing, though it’s not nearly as popular now as it was when I started out. Though I’m hoping it will make a comeback. I’d probably get an agent (which I haven’t had since my first book), as I suspect they can help in getting a publisher to give a book more attention once it’s published.

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

It seems that, unless you’re a well-known author with a built-in audience, it’s tough to make money. Of course, it’s tough to make money no matter how you publish. Some friends have self-published and they have been very busy and creative on the promotion end – for example, doing readings in the houses of friends.

Photo Copyright Thomas Swick – Palermo, Sicily

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

I used Twitter and Facebook to announce the publication of my latest book, and I post reviews and interviews on both. But now all my friends and followers know about the book. I know some authors ask their friends to publicize their books – posting reviews on Amazon, for example – but I can’t do that. To get the word out to a larger audience, I contact people in the media, in hopes of landing interviews, and I do a lot of readings: bookstores, libraries, book fairs. Even if not many people come to hear you in a bookstore, if you hit it off with the staff they might display your book prominently.

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

I’ve always hoped that my books would do two things: educate and entertain. As a travel writer, I’ve had the privilege of seeing a great deal of the world, and I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned. And because travel is inherently funny – leaving a place where you know how things work and arriving somewhere where you don’t have a clue – I’m delighted if I can make readers laugh.

Photo Copyright Thomas Swick – Ouro Preto, Brazil

What is your latest book about?

The Joys of Travel: And Stories That Illuminate Them explores what I think are the seven fundamental pleasures of travel: anticipation, movement, break from routine, novelty, discovery, emotional connection, and a heightened appreciation of home. The first part of the book consists of essays, and the second part contains stories, each of which relates to one of the joys. For example, to illustrate the joy of discovery I have a story about the week I spent with an anti-Mafia organization in Sicily.

What’s next on your writing journey?

I’m currently working on a memoir about how I became a travel writer. It starts with my first newspaper job in Trenton, NJ – as a feature writer (which was excellent training) – and covers the years I spent teaching English in Poland and Greece. It was a time when travel writing was as popular as the memoir is today.

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Author Bio

I grew up in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, on the banks of the Delaware River, and have worked in a London food hall, on an Alsatian farm, in English language schools (Poland and Greece), and for three newspapers, the last being the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where I was the travel editor for 19 years. I speak French and Polish and live in Fort Lauderdale.

I have published three books and my work has appeared in The American Scholar, The North American Review, The Oxford American, The Missouri Review, The Southwest Review, The Wilson Quarterly, Ploughshares, Boulevard, Smithsonian, National Geographic Traveler, AFAR, Roads & Kingdoms, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Book Review, and The Best American Travel Writing 2001, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2014.