BootsnAll Travel Community

Hey all,

I was just wondering if anyone here had written a travel book / is thinking of writing one and if so, what was the premise.

I'm trying to come up with one for my forthcoming trip to Europe and I'm juggling with a few ideas but I want something quite random!

Before that though I think I need to learn CSS as I can't even get my travel blog working!

Hey Lanchutt! I'm working on a travel book AND a novel at the moment, in between writing travel articles and such. Notice this forum is my most frequent haunt? haha

First off, how long is your trip to Europe? And where? It's tough to form a book around, say, a 2 week trip. But if you're spending a year somewhere, now you've got a jumping off point.

Sometimes, the storyline or premise doesn't hit you until you're there. It's hard to anticipate what life will bring. But you can form a few ideas...what is your purpose for going in the first place? What are your areas of expertise (ex: if you're into food, a certain culture, exploring fashion, picking grapes...)

If this is a "social" book (similar to Eat, Pray, Love) you might just have to wait and see what life throws at you. Take good notes. Then write it after the trip.

Have fun!!

Haha thanks for the reply. Trip will be 4 months long and I have a few ideas but they are quite general. See what you think:

just been to Australia for 2 years and havent even seen my home continent yet

trying to decide where I want to live

Couchsurfing the whole way

trying to decide what career I want

I guess it is like a quartelife crisis type theme!

Romancing myself round Europe after a train-wreck of an intenraitonal relationship (which is a whole other story in itself anyway!)

But they are just geenral ones I guess I need to be more specific.


I'll get back to the drawing board!

I just met someone who has a very interesting premise--one I'm not free to share--that she traveled around the world just to research. Unless you set yourself up to travel with a specific purpose, then I wouldn't worry about the book just yet.

Those ideas are quite general and not quite book-worthy, but they may become the seed for a more engaging story. Travel, experience all that you can, take copious notes, and fiddle with the uniting thread later.

Try to write in your notebook every day (or every couple) but skip the boring recounting of the day's events. You don't need to record I woke up. Then I had some breakfast, but rather, try to highlight your emotions throughout the day. Capture crazy smells, colourful characters, and wacky thoughts. Try to capture all the crazy moments that are unique to YOUR experience in Europe.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been to the places you will go and for the same reasons, but only you can write the story that will come from your trip. Travel writing is not so much about what happens, but how you re-tell the tale.

Good luck!

Thanks Marcus.

I don't mind travelling with the purpose of research I just need to get an idea. Thanks for your advice

Hey there,

I'm working on a travel-esque book right now--which Penguin will be publishing next year. Your premise should have a natural arc to it. So think about how you can instill an arc into your narrative journey. A lot of times with travel books, the writer is often on a quest--looking for something that's either physical or philosophical or emotional or mental--and that creates the arc.

I think the best selling travel books might be ones that have themes which transcend the travel or the place you're writing about. Tom Bissel's latest book, for example, "Father of All Things" is definitely about his trip to Vietnam, but over-arching through the book is his relationship with his father. Matthew Polly's book, "American Shaolin" is about China, but it's even more about his desire to become a bad ass.

And if you're interested, here's the subject of my book:

http://www.slate.com/id/2155745/

Best of luck and feel free to hit me up with any other questions you might have (that goes for anyone with travel writing questions). You can email me through my website: www.dfarley.com

cheers,
farley

lanchutt,

If you haven't checked out farley's idea you just have to. His book isn't so much about travel as it is about ....well, something else.

That something else is what you need for a full length narrative. Some authors can pull off the quarter- or mid-life crisis thing, the honeymoons with brothers, the eating, the praying, and the loving, but most need a bigger hook.

I would also add to farley's list of books - one that just came out - The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. Eric traveled to the happiest places on Earth and pondered happiness.

Like farley's book, my book coming out this year is about a quest. Although, mine is somewhat less tangible...and shriveled.

Good luck!

Hi Lanchutt,

I looked at your Hongkong stuff, and it was fun. I know Lantau very well from when I lived on Cheung Chau Island and went there mountain biking almost every weekend. Marvellous times.

So far as an idea goes, I think you'll know when you hit upon it. The desire to write is probably the key to finding something to write about, and you already have that.

Despite having been a writer and photographer for magazines for over twenty years, I am about to have my first book published, by the small but wonderful Sandstone Press in Scotland.

To make that happen, I realised that the Shetland Islands hadn't had a serious travelogue/travel narrative written about them in a very long time. So long that the last such book was written in Victorian times. I spent several weeks travelling the islands in October 2005, then put my head down to try and turn the experience into a book. It was hard going, and took a LOT longer than I had hoped, but at last I had something to send to publishers, and nearly another year on, I have a book about to go to print.

So it CAN be done! Good luck with your search.

Ron McMillan

lanchutt,

There are quite few people here who have written a book:

Ayun - Ayun Halliday
ct - colin toddhunter
Jen Leo - Check out the writtenroad dot come Jen Leo has written several travel books and used to be very involved with BnA, and is still good friends with the site founders.

I think there are some others here too, globtrotts and Rolf Potts (Rolf) are also both members.

Good Luck

in the future i will turn my last blog of my trip to asia and probably my trip this summer in to two separate books by publishing myself on amazon or other self publish websites...I forgot the name something blurb, but sites like this let you use the program for free and you set the price for the book and they just take like 5 bucks or something off every sale...

on another note, is Rolf Potts really a member?

quote:

Originally posted by Eppyboy:
on another note, is Rolf Potts really a member?

Yes, although he has not logged in in about a year. Sean, one of the founders of BnA is very well connected in the travel community and manages to keep BnA in the travel loop. You may have seen Sean's interview with Tony Wheeler.

Hello Lanchutt,

I have begun taking copious notes about my travel book/life experience/cautionary tale that I plan to write in the next 18 months. This idea has been brewing in my head for about 2 years, and has lately been creeping into my thoughts as I am running.

My book will specifically be about my transcontinental journey from Seattle to New Hampshire in the summer of 1974. My buddy and I were 16 years old, and were escaping the tedium of small town life (25 miles out of Seattle). Between hitchhiking, Greyhound bus, hopping freight trains, and riding with distant relatives, we spent 5 weeks on the road. We saw the inside of more than one jail, made more detours than I can recall, and experienced some amazing things. This is the topic for my travel book.

My follow-up book to this, solely determined by the critical and financial success of book number one, will be my "confessions of a tour guide", in which I recount humorous anecdotal experiences of leading tour groups for 25 years.

I would never have begun the writing process if it wasn't for a very distant relative that is on her third bestselling book. Her two caveats to writing are 1)begin your writing with the end of the story, and 2)a book doesn't write itself. Get started!

Good luck!

that sounds like a great book bulabula (also great name instantly the name brings me back to fiji)...good luck let us know when that is done id read it

Hey There!
I actually had my travelogue from bootsnall published as a book this last January. The only advice I can offer is to keep good notes...not specific about what you were doing, but more about your reactions to it. The best thing though, is to just let life happen. We saw Placido Domingo (accidentally) we got locked in a Scottish Dungeon (accidentally) and I happen to run into Vincent Van Gogh (to my surprise). Just let it happen and see what happens. The story is still on bootsnall and the book isn't much ddfferent after the editing..its under Europe as It Doesn't Matter Which Road You Take by Vincent Yanez.

Good Luck!!!

Thanks everyone - I just checked back and these were all great suggestions. I have an idea which I think will be fun and spontaneous.

I will take a look at some of the books suggested here by BnA members.

I've written and published one travel book in English, "One for the Road". If you're happy with an ebook, there's a free copy waiting for you at http://bjornfree.com/ . It's meant to be read like a (fun) novel, covering three rather different journeys. I wrote it because I'd been traveling a lot, taking notes wherever I went, and I blogged about my trips. Some of my friends and other people who read what I blogged said that I should write a book, and in the end I gave in to them. I don't regret it, although it takes a LOT of time to be happy with a text long enough to fill a book.

I think the main premise for a travel book must be that you really WANT to write a book. It's hard to make a living from writing travel books. I guess part of the reason is that most travelers prefer to spend their money on tickets than on books, and usually aren't that wealthy anyway. Spending time away enjoying the world sort of has to mean less time spent getting a good education and making money.

Before you start writing about a trip in Europe, you might want to do some research on what has already been written on the topic you're onto. You're not exactly a pioneer in European traveling. #8D) You may of course write about a subject/area that has been well covered already, but if so, you really must do a good job of it if you want anyone to read your work.

Good luck nevertheless!

Bjørn

Haha thanks. I'm pretty sure my idea hasn't been done before as it is pretty novel and more specific to the UK than anywhere else I guess. It is more of a way of travelling than a reason for going on the trip, although I am trying to think of a reason other than 'because I want to'! The fact that I am not a pioneer works to my advantage in the way I want to do it too.

Thanks - I will check out your book!