Streamline Your Travel Writing
What better way to streamline your travel guide writing process, by learning about the challenges and lessons I learnt whilst writing my first two Turkey travel guides:
Bodrum Peninsula Travel Guide: Turkey’s Aegean Gem
Gumusluk Travel Guide: Bodrum’s Silver Lining
Both of these books are available as e-books on Amazon, and I’ve been rewarded by the continuous stream of sales for both of these labour’s of love.
How I Wrote a Travel Guide – 1st attempt
I went to Bodrum planning to write a guidebook, and spent the trip gathering information and I took about 5,000 photographs (many were just reference shots, to use instead of copious notes).
I naively assumed it would take me 4 months to write my guidebook, but it actually took me just over 8. That’s not including the month I spent in Turkey doing the initial research – so truth be told it took me over 9 months to deliver.
It was my baby, and I wanted it to be perfect. But the biggest challenge I encountered was how to organise the content. I had so much of it, and I didn’t have a clear idea of how I wanted to present the information I’d gathered.
I went down a few rabbit holes and mis-starts, and ended up changing my mind a lot. I felt like I wasted a lot of time by not having a clear plan and intent at the beginning of the process, so I started to capture “How to Write a Travel Guide” ideas in Evernote.
How I Wrote a Travel Guide – 2nd attempt
All the lessons I learnt from my book, I leveraged to create my second travel guide about Gumusluk.
I wish I could tell you that my second book was written and produced in a snap and only took me a couple of months. But honestly – it still took me 5 months.
Whereas my first travel guide was a summary of multiple locations within the Bodrum Peninsula, the second book focused on a small village. It was the first travel guide ever written about this area, and involved a lot of on-line research and cross-referencing using Turkish Language websites.
Here’s a couple of key learnings from my travel book experience, that are relevant to you as you begin your own journey:
- No two travel guides are alike – each one has its own individual challenges and needs
- The more travel guides you write the easier the process gets
The more #travelguides you write the easier the process gets. #amwriting Click To Tweet
Read more articles in my How to Write a Travel Guide Series
I’m putting the finishing touches on my How to Write and Self-Publish a Travel Guide Series, which details a step by step approach for writing and producing your own travel guide. It’s part of a four-part series aimed at helping travel bloggers achieve passive income based on their passions and existing content.
Always helpful to get insider tips from other travel guide authors. Been thinking about going down this road myself, helpful post.
Excellent post! Hindsight is a wonderful thing Jay.
I have joined your rss feed and look forward to receiving your new posts .. thanks!