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Adrian Leeds' Sleazy Travel "Writer" Come-On
For just $1,397, you can attend a workshop that promises to get you free travel, and maybe even a career as a travel writer. Here's Adrian Leeds' pitch:

All you have to do in exchange is take good notes about what you did and where you went and then recommend -- or discourage -- others from following in your footsteps. What's more, you'll earn a few hundred... maybe even a few thousand... dollars for your trouble.

Sound too good to be true?

Yes. Because it is. Generally speaking, in any legitimate travel publication, professional travel writers are not allowed to accept freebies. Daily newspapers, for example. Travel & Leisure, for example, which prints its policy here:

Neither editors nor contributors may accept free travel.

Here's a pretty clear statement of journalistic ethics from a story in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin:

For most media, free trips -- known as press junkets -- are generally unacceptable.

The Society of Professional Journalists has an ethics code that says journalists should "Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment" and "Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money."

The Radio-Television News Directors Association has a code of professional conduct that says journalists should vigorously resist undue influence from "outside forces, including advertisers, sources, story subjects, powerful individuals and special interest groups."

Nevertheless, Adrian Leeds, of International Living, an international real estate sales venue dressed up to seem like a travel magazine, is seeking a few good fools who can be parted from their money in her travel writing workshops. The way she puts it, pretty much anybody who wants to can become a paid travel writer (knowing that the non-journalist has no idea how little even those at the top of their game get paid), and get free travel by taking her course.

Now, there may be some gullible hotel or restaurant owners in the world who will comp people who stroll in and say they write for some travel newsletter that somebody photocopies in their living room. But, as a professional writer who's syndicated to over 100 newspapers and writes for magazines, let me tell you -- 1. It's not easy getting work, even for professional writers. 2. Writing, when you count the research and work time, doesn't pay well. 3. Again, I'd venture that there are almost zero legitimate travel publications that allow their writers to take free travel offers, as doing so completely delegitimizes any claim their writers might have to being objective in their assessments.

As for these workshop attendees Leeds brags about?

...Duane and Harlene aren't trained journalists. In fact, before the Ultimate Travel Writer's Workshop they attended in Paris, they were just ordinary retirees -- bored with golf and looking for a sideline to keep them busy. Neither one had ever penned an article. But now they are working travel writers... and not the only ones who turned this conference in Paris into a new career.

Yeah, right. Please -- all you professional writers who read this blog -- you must comment below on the apparent ease of establishing a writing career, sans experience, sans clips...and late in life, as a bored retiree! Here's more:

When Tim O'Rielly came to Paris, he'd never written an article in his life. But as a freelance photographer he has occasion to travel, and he was looking for a way to get more mileage (and more money) out of his journeys.

Already he has. As soon as he got home to California, he put the lessons he learned to the test and sat down to write. Two months later, his first full-length feature article about travels in the Mayan World appeared in Vision Magazine. Since then, he's written two more cover stories for that publication. He told me, "Your course really spurred me to take action and risk hearing a 'no' or a 'yes' from an editor."

Vision Magazine is a free rag out of San Diego that didn't seem to bother to even edit this piece of poor O'Rielly's -- a 1481-word article on Jerusalem, short on punctuation and writing skill:

In Hebrew Jerusalem is called Yerushalayim or ìCity Of Peaceî and in Arabic it is called al-Quds or ìThe Holy,î yet Jerusalem, as one of the oldest and most sacred cities on Earth is still attempting to find peace within itself. Considered holy by the three great monotheistic religions of the world, Judaism, Islam and Christianity it has been conquered 37 times in its 5,000 year history by myriad empires and religious groups including King David, King Solomon, the Kings of Judah, the Babylonians, Macedonians, Egyptians, Seleucids, Greeks, Jewish Hasmoneans, Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Crusaders, Mameluks, Ottoman Turks, British, and Jordanians. Historically within Jerusalem there has never been a separation between religion and warfare. In a land that has arguably been bestowed with divine and mystical force there is an equally harsh juxtaposition of reality. Until tolerance and compassion become more viable than violence and fear, both the Israelis and the Palestinians, two peoples struggling to find their mutual identities and security, will not find the true meaning of both of their faiths, shalom and salamaat, meaning peace.

Of course, being a writer and simply writing are two different things -- two things apparent to anyone who reads the article above. And, as for Leeds' contention that worshop attendees will earn "a few hundred" or "maybe even a few thousand (dollars)" -- a major daily in a chain of major dailies told me they pay freelance travel writers $100 for a 2,000-word travel article. That's all-too-typical. And only to professional writers, with a career behind them and solid clips (published articles they've written for noteworthy publications), who don't take freebies.

If Leeds' workshop attendees do get some comps, they're probably cheating the people they're getting them from, who surely aren't offering comps simply because they're benevolent, but because they're looking for a big upsurge in business. That said, there can't be a whole lot of innkeepers and restaurant owners who are stupid enough to toss a "writer" a free stay or a free dinner for a mention in a some rag that isn't exactly CondÈ Nast Traveler. Of course, there is still that promise of a stellar career in travel writing. "Our Graduates Boast Extraordinary Successes," says Leeds' sales pitch:

Barbara Bode took our Paris program, too, and she sold two pieces she wrote during it to In Touch, an upscale membership magazine for a women's networking organization called Women of Washington/Los Angeles/PasadenaÖnow she writes a regular column for that publication. A recent transplant from Washington to Malta, Barbara sold a story about her new home to Transitions Abroad. Then, in the market for a refresher course -- and some fun -- Barbara joined our Travel Writer cruise down Mexico's Pacific coast. While on board, she wrote a piece about swimming with dolphins and has since sold it to another women's publication.

Perhaps that sounds big to an aspiring writer and freebie-seeker. Here's how it sounds to a professional writer: After one course, Barbara writes for a newsletter. Woohoo. I'm sure she's making a mint -- or enough to buy a pack or two of mints. After a second course, probably costing her another $1,000-plus, she sold a piece to a travel Web site. Did she get $35? If she's lucky, she did. Finally, she sold to another "women's publication." (I'm sure it's the Travel & Leisure of community newsletters.) Don't put the downpayment on that yacht just yet, Barbara. But wait, there's more from Leeds:

Recently, I received a note from Laura Gagnon in New York. A bass player in a band by trade, she travels the world on tour and was looking for a way to spend her daytime, off-the-stage hours more productively, so she came to Paris for a crash course in travel writing.

In her e-mail she says, "I have two restaurant/lounge reviews published on www.sheckys.com, which is an online guide to nightlife in New York and LA.ÝThey were works-for-hire, so writers aren't credited for each review.ÝBut there is a print edition of the guide coming out this fall, and in that I'll be listed as a contributor. The editor was great to work with, and they even paid promptly. Once again, the Paris writing course was fantastic.ÝIf you ever do a 'Part 2' let me know!"

Gagnon's grand score -- writing a couple of unbylined blurbs for an online guide (what did they pay, $15 each?) -- is mentioned on one of International Living's sister sites. This is really sad. Please, all you writers (pros, I mean) who read this blog -- you have to weigh in. And any editors dropping in here, too -- especially features or travel editors -- please comment below.


**Here are more shenanigans from what appears to be a sister company of International Living -- called Agora -- selling "press" passes to those who have nothing to do with the press.

FYI to those who'd pay for such a thing: Unless you're a White House, Senate, etc., or metro reporter (credentialed by the NYPD, for example), or you're playing a reporter in a movie, you don't need a press pass to write a story or gain access to anyplace you should legitimately be. In fact, you'll look like an utter ass if you run around flashing one -- especially if anybody sees it's one you paid $300 bucks for to somebody who has no real authority to issue them.

Posted by aalkon at October 5, 2004 8:16 AM

Comments

Well, I agree it's not easy to set up shop as a travel writer.

But truth be told, it's only the creme de la creme that don't allow freebie takers, ie travel + leisure conde nast traveler, the NYT, etc. Everyone else has to take stuff from writers using freebies or they wouldn't exist.

Travel writers are the biggest mooches on the face of the earth. Hoteliers and national tourism agencies know all the warning signs. However, there's a lot of grey area in between CN Traveler and a living room photocopy -- including most travel publications in the world.

So, if you can actually write and run a business, you could be a travel writer, but you will always feel like a whore when you take freebies.

ex-travel editor, sometime travel writer

Posted by: Eliza Dashwood at October 5, 2004 5:18 AM

Adrian Leeds' operation sounds like a pyramid scheme targeted at the same gullible group that responds to ads from vanity publishers. But in a pyramid scheme, at least you've got a shot at making some money before you land in jail. Leeds has found a way of reaping all the benefits of a PS but without the risk of an indictment. Putrid!

After 30 years of writing for a living, I tried getting into travel writing until I realized I could make more money working at a car wash. And get more respect.

Posted by: Tony A. at October 5, 2004 6:21 AM

> Please, all you writers (pros, I mean)
> who read this blog -- you have to weigh in.

YES YES YES... a writing career is precarious and undercompensated. YES.

I've always heard that the way to success [read: Money] in the trav biz is providing the 'total package' -- glossy pix, "how-to-get-there-and-where-to-stay" sidebars and all. An editor at the San Diego Union once courted me and my gf as we were setting off for the French Antilles; but we enjoy trav too much to want to spoil it by research (ditto for food features).

In any case I have no recent personal knowledge of the magazine market. Once I'd been appallingly edited by a couple of 18-year old mag "editors" I gave that up for ever and ever.....

Posted by: Stu "El InglÈs" Harris at October 5, 2004 8:30 AM

What a scam!
Too bad those falling for it haven't heard about the easiest way to make money by writing... tiny! little! ads!

Posted by: Merkin at October 5, 2004 8:34 AM

Wow, I have a lot to say about this. First, whether she knows it or not, Leeds is a con artist. But people are willing to be conned to be within touching distance of glory, e.g., the jet-setty job of a travel writer. If it gives their lives meaning to make $15 penning a lousy article for a free publication, let them. As for freebies: absolutely not. If your own sense of ethics does not inform you fo this, your editor (at any legit publication) will tell you so. It's just not that hard to figure out that there is no such thing as a free lunch. I went on exactly one meal with a publicist, and it was dreadful. Last year, I received an invitation from a Bon Appetit columnist to a wine lunch he was sponsoring at Spago. I've written for the magazine for seven years, I was leaving LA, and figured, I'll go. Equally dreadful! Standing outside waiting for my car, a "fellow writer" said to me, "How many of these do you go to a week?" I told her I'd been to two in ten years, and never again. "Then how do you get your stories written?" she asked, sounding genuinely flummoxed. The concept of independent research was, to her, completely alien. Last, as for making money as a travel writer: you can make good money, and it's a lovely gig to get paid well to travel, but at the bottom of all this are two crucial things: good writing, and good judgment. This is why travel writers and restaurant critics worth their salt never take anything for free. A wonderful example of this is cited by David Foster Wallace in "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," about his time on a cruise, and how in the pamphlet he had, put out by the cruise line, a well-known writer had penned an extraordinarily complimentary essay about his cruise experience. When DFW called the writer, he admitted the cruise line had, in exchange for the essay, comped him and his family a trip. And how do you ever get that egg off your face? Anyone who wants to work as a travel writer need only follow a few simple steps: be interested in travel, and be a writer who has solid clips; do the work and success will come to you.

Posted by: nancy at October 5, 2004 8:53 AM

It's not true that major papers and dailies don't accept articles based on comped trips. They may say they don't, but I used to go on these junkets all the time when I was writing for airline mags, and there would be people from Elle, Allure, Esquire...also freelancers whose syndicated columns appeared in the L.A. Times.

I remember the late Herb Caen came on a free Brazil trip with his much younger girlfriend in the '80s, but the hotel wasn't good enough for him so they stayed in a better one, and joined the rest of the group for the free dinners and entertainment.

Maybe these writers wouldn't do a particular article based on a particular free trip for the big publications that got them on the free trip list, but they'd use the info, and mention the hotel or spa or restaurant later in a roundup or something.

Be that as it may, this ad you describe reminds me of those old "Think you can be an artist? Then draw this dog!" correspondence schools.

The interesting question is why travel writing is almost always excruciatingly and uniformly boring. Whether it's comped or not seems to make no difference whatsover.

Posted by: Cathy Seipp at October 5, 2004 10:29 AM

> The interesting question is why travel
> writing is almost always excruciatingly
> and uniformly boring.

I think it's the way writers and editors perceive their audience. They believe they're writing for people who want to be able to brag about the exotic places they've been, but, while actually there, want life to be as unexotic and just-like-home as possible. This applies not only to Americans (just think of Club MÈditerranÈe!).

Some time back there was a highly successful trav series on Brit TV called "Rough Guide" (hosted by a "m'as-tu vu" female called Magenta something). They made it interesting by emphasising how *different* trav destinations can be from chez vous, not attempting to comfort the audience by assuring them that yoga classes are two doors from the hotel.

Posted by: Stu "El InglÈs" Harris at October 5, 2004 11:06 AM

Having reviewed computer software on a monthly basis for top (French) computer magazines for a number of years ñ and been paid nicely for it (smile) - I must admit that a lot of this sounds depressingly familiar. Software publishers, whether French or foreign, applied tremendous pressure for a dithyrambic review, going so far as to offer mouthwatering cutting-edge hardware, exotic travel junkets and well-hidden cash to editors Ö and to lowly writers like me.

Sure, a magazine writer can make money. Some even make a lot. However, at the end of the day, it's all about ethics, whether penning columns about travel, software, haute cuisine, cinema, gardening or books.

Either one does the right thing, and remains able to look at oneself in the mirror every morning, or one doesn't. It's as simple as that.

"Vous pouvez me payer, mais vous ne pouvez pas m'acheter !", as the French say.

L'Amerloque

Posted by: L'Amerloque at October 5, 2004 11:18 AM

Bien parlÈe, L'Amerloque.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at October 5, 2004 2:59 PM

bot my house 15 yrs ago from the travel editor of the local paper. He bragged that he got a new roof on the house paid for with some free travel he'd received from an advertiser w/ the paper. Roofer went bankrupt doing the work and I had to replace the roof 4 years ago, b/c he somehow forgot to install vents. who says you get what you pay for?

Posted by: moe at October 5, 2004 3:04 PM

Cathy Seipp wrote: 'The interesting question is why travel writing is almost always excruciatingly and uniformly boring.'

Have you ever read Paul Theroux's travel writing? Nothing dull about 'The Great Railway Bazaar' or 'The Happy Isles of Oceania'.

Don't think he's ever taken one of these courses, though it's rather funny to imagine him taking a 'travel writer's cruise ship'....

Posted by: Frank at October 5, 2004 3:04 PM

L'Amerloque, I'm not sure if a direct analogy can be made when it comes to cinema writing. We see every movie for free. Oftentimes, we might even get free popcorn and soda at a screening. I know of no critic in the film world who turns such things down.

And don't get me started on movie junkets. Am I unethical for accepting free food and booze on those occasions when the studios throw a party and invite me? I don't think so. It certainly doesn't make me any nicer to Adam Sandler movies or whatever.

Posted by: LYT at October 5, 2004 3:33 PM

That's different, Luke. These are press screenings free for you and for all critics -- no secret to anybody in the trade. It's standard business procedure -- and who's going to be compromised because they got a $9 ticket free? Food and booze at a party? No biggie -- and again, standard operating procedure to feed journos at movie events and TCA (TV Critics Assn.) A free trip to London, however, when you're assessing the travel, is another thing entirely.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at October 5, 2004 3:42 PM

Good, that's what I thought.

I really wish they'd try to bribe me with hookers though.

Posted by: LYT at October 5, 2004 5:39 PM

The same scam has existed in pop music for years. Classifieds used to run in (among other places) Rolling Stone, saying that if you'd send the advertiser money, he'd tell you how to get oodles of free records, concert passes, and so on.

What you were supposed to do was, essentially, print up some letterhead and give yourself assignments. In recent years, of course, everybody and his cousin has a website, but publicists -- desperate as they may be from time to time -- have mostly wised up.

I was editing a magazine (a throwaway; nothing anybody's ever heard of), when the publisher notified me that we were going to start running restaurant reviews. This, by the way, was a music paper.

The reviews started coming in, and it wsn't for a couple of issues that I discovered that the "reviewer," whom I'd never heard of, was a local restaurant publicist, writing under a pseudonym.

Venture far enough toward the bottom, you're going to find the bottom-feeders.

The converse of the "free travel" story, BTW, is the paid writers who see how big an expense account they can get away with turning in. You'll find examples as close as the LAT restaurant and travel writers.

Posted by: TE at October 5, 2004 6:05 PM

Anyone remember that Queenan article in Spy about working as a hack for some well- but bogusly-named magazines?

"The croissants were exquisite."

Posted by: Cridland at October 5, 2004 11:53 PM

I wish I did. He was pretty hilarious back in the day. My favorite thing, of all things, from Spy: the world "vulgarian." Borrowed it for my anti-SUV card.

http://www.advicegoddess.com/suv.html

Have a new one of those coming out soon.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at October 6, 2004 2:24 AM

"Thick-fingered vulgarian" was their frequent appelation for Trump. That's stuck with me.

Queenan's last book -- not so funny. But his early collections of interviews and articles, like "If You're Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble," helped usher in the Golden Age of Snark.

Posted by: Frank at October 6, 2004 12:25 PM

Actually, it was "short-fingered vulgarian."

Posted by: Amy Alkon at October 6, 2004 5:19 PM

Ah, you're right, Amy. Though I kinda like the way I misremembered it better....

Posted by: Frank at October 7, 2004 10:58 AM

I don't know anything about travel writing, but I've made my career writing about cars for the last 15 years. And the big perk is that, yeah, I get to drive new cars.

So, like, should I be putting together a workshop on how to write about cars? And you too can drive new cars! Sounds like a way to up my income significantly...

I think $2,500 for the course sounds good. For $3,000 I'll even teach you how to stop cringing when you're poorly edited. For $3,500 I'll also teach you how to write invoices that get paid within a year of their being issued! For $4,000 I'll tell you the five secrets of re-writing your article to please an editor who "wants a different angle" without actually changing any content!

I'm so disappointed that i didn't think of offering these courses years ago!

Posted by: John Pearley Huffman at October 7, 2004 7:57 PM

I have a really dear friend who takes free trips to teh Seychelles, Paris, all the hell over the place all the damn time. But it's for one of those super-rich-people mags, which he edits, and his publishers are thrilled and so is he. We have lots of laughs about his ethics.
As for another point of yours, Amy, there's no way a daily is offering $100 for 2000 words. That's what they pay for 200-word blurbs.

Posted by: rebecca at October 8, 2004 9:52 AM

Rebecca, a daily is paying $100 per freelance travel piece, and I just saw the features editor at a conference, who lamented this. And this is a big daily. Washington Post, according to a friend who's written travel pieces for them, pays only $450, which is what, 25 cents a word? I would make more picking lettuce. Hence, I don't write travel. Moreoever, I understand that NY Times freelance rates are still about the same as they were in 1979. Forget accounting for inflation or anything else. You don't go into journalism thinking you're going to get rich. Or even eat well.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at October 8, 2004 9:56 AM