Travel Guide Writers Network

Freelance writers don’t generally like to belong to organisations and freelance travel writers even less so. This means that we’re not very good at communicating with each other about our conditions of work or putting co-ordinated pressure on the people who employ us to treat us well.

It’s too easy for rates to be frozen (or even reduced); schedules to be shortened; and contractual terms made more demanding – particularly when it comes to copyright.

Some of us are members of the Society of Authors, the NUJ and/or the Guild of Travel Writers but none of these provides us with what we really need, namely an informal way to share vital information.

For instance, one publisher I have worked for in the last couple of years has depressed the rates it pays per book. If I had been able to communicate with other freelances working for the same company, maybe they would have got the message that the writer should not be considered the cheapest item on their shopping list.

As a general policy, any freelance out-of-house should be paid the pro rata equivalent of what any in house staff member earns plus an allowance for the overheads every freelance incurs. And every in-house editor should ensure that he or she does not pay a freelance contributor less than this amount.

I wonder whether we shouldn’t start a travel guide writers network, being merely an informal system of passing information by email. It can be anonymous if necessary. This way we can tell each other the fees we are negotiating; the clients worth working for or worth avoiding; and so on,

If any professional travel writer is interested in this idea, please email me and we can discuss it further.

The travel guide writers’ network would be entirely compatible with membership of any of the organisations mentioned.

Last updated January 2008.
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