An Interview with Kate Siber

Kate Siber epitomizes the quintessential travel journalist, characterizing herself as  freelance writer, occasional photographer, habitual traveler, and “inveterate question asker”. She has won numerous awards for her journalism and current works as a correspondent for Outside magazine. Check out her website here!

Before you went out on your own you worked for the Associated Press and Outside magazine. How did those experiences shape your writing and your career?

I took the internship at the Associated Press bureau in Rome mostly because I wanted to go somewhere exciting and I wasn’t sure what English majors do after college. Journalism seemed as a good a direction as any. While there, I realized two things: I loved reporting and writing, and the staffers at the Rome bureau were miserable people. I was very fortunate, however, that one of the few nice journalists took me under his wing and offered me the amazing opportunity to write two features—rare for an AP intern in Rome. I learned a lot from reporting those first stories, which were picked up by newspapers like The New York Times and the Salt Lake Tribune, and those bylines in turn caught the attention of the editors at Outside. I’d call that my first big break.

Outside was also an incredible opportunity. I worked as an intern and then as an editor for now-defunct Outside Traveler. I learned how magazines are put together from the inside, how to report stories through challenging factcheck assignments, and how to package material for consumer-magazine consumption, among many other intangibles. I also met wonderful people who are still my friends, editors, and mentors. I would recommend Outside’s internship to anyone interested in travel or sports journalism.

When I floated the idea of freelancing, my boss at Outside told me she thought it was a terrible idea and that I would be living in a cardboard box. I didn’t have much to lose, so at age 24, I took the leap anyway. As it turned out, I never lived in a cardboard box and am grateful to have made a living solely from writing every since. Certainly the contacts I had through Outside helped considerably, and I am immensely grateful for them. I also think unwavering, blind, stupid optimism—despite the fact that I really was a crappy writer—helped.

But mostly, I think nailing the basics was what kept editors coming back to me. I kill myself to meet deadlines on time, to triple-check my facts, and to make editors’ lives easier in whatever way I can. From the small amount of editing I’ve done, I’ve realized how low the bar is set by many freelancers (laziness is rampant!) and what a great opportunity there is in simply doing what you’ve been asked to do. Writers, if you take nothing else from this interview: punctuality, accuracy, clean copy, and be nice to editors.

I love writing about sustainable travel, wildlife, adventurers, visionaries, and far-flung places. I also love writing personal essays but that is an indulgence I don’t always have time for. Honestly, what catches my eye in terms of subjects can be a bit random—and I think that’s perfectly fine. Writers should follow their interests and never feel like they have to follow some kind of narrow focus, in my opinion, unless they want to. I generally have way WAY more ideas than I have time to pitch—frustrating!—and I get them from all sorts of different sources.

Sometimes I’m talking to a source for one story and something she says sparks a new idea. Sometimes a tidbit in the news makes me curious and I follow it. Occasionally a friend or acquaintance will mention an interesting idea or a PR person will get in touch with a good lead. Every now and then, I come upon ideas through Twitter or Facebook. Story ideas can come from anywhere. The important thing is being open to them. To open yourself up to story ideas, read a lot of magazines, so you have a sense of what makes a good story in what publication. Then try to think of different angles on subjects you encounter—try the rote grad-school exercise: Think of 12 different story angles about your toothbrush.

That is a good question. I am a late adopter of technology so I might not be the best person to ask. I think most people would say that it’s increasingly important to promote yourself with social media (Susan Orlean and Margaret Atwood are famously good at this) and to increase your multimedia skills. For example, more publications seem to want photographs from travel writers, when in the past marketing yourself as a writer-photographer seemed amateurish. That said, the big publications generally still separate tasks, and I prefer to focus on writing, since that is my first love.

All of that said, I think there will always be a market for good writing, whether it’s in print, online, books, e-books, whatever. If you really want to write and only write, focus on making your writing the best it can be. You will find outlets, whether they are in print or online. On the other hand, what’s nice is that there are increasing opportunities, I believe, for new writers and writers who would like to combine trades. There are innumerable blogs and websites for new writers and more and more opportunities to tell stories using words, photos, and videos.

Common and good advice is to understand what exactly the travel writing lifestyle entails. Like many writers will tell you, it has pros (wonderful trips, time to be creative, a flexible schedule) and cons (often crappy pay, absolutely no job security). Understand what it is you want to do. If you simply want to travel, I wouldn’t recommend travel writing. There are far more practical ways to travel the world. If you are passionate about writing and can handle uncertainty, unsteady paychecks, and a whole lot of rejection, great! Welcome to the ranks. I believe anyone who wants to do this, can. It just takes an inordinate amount of wanting it.

On the other hand, you could also strike a balance—keep your day job and write travel stories on the side. There are lots of ways to skin a cat. A quote I read recently sticks in my mind. “Don’t write unless you can’t not write,” said Elie Wiesel. Other than that, my advice is to write, write, write, read, read, read, talk to as many people in the industry as you can, go to networking events like the Adventure Travel World Summit, pitch a lot, keep trying, and stay positive. You can do it if you want it.

I always read stacks of magazines—those I contribute to, those I’d like to contribute to, and those I simply enjoy. My subscriptions range from The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Esquire, to Smithsonian, High Country News, and Audubon. I think I have more than 20! At the moment, my favorites to pick up in the airport—I often find myself poring over magazine racks—are O, the Oprah magazine, and Psychology Today.

Lately I’ve been indulging myself and reading more books. I am generally in the middle of several at any given moment. Right now, it’s The Evolution of God by Robert Wright; The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach; and Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron. Two books I read recently that I highly recommend: Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, an incredible story of survival, and Tinkers, by Paul Harding, a novel so beautiful you must sip it like wine.

It goes without saying that reading copiously is essential for any writer. But I think it’s important not to feel obligated to read some sort of prescribed canon. Pick up anything that interests you—books, magazines, comics, cereal boxes, whatever. Find your own inspiration, whatever that might be. That is what is scary and wonderful about this career—there is no formula.

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Kate Siber is a freelance writer and correspondent for Outside magazine based in Durango, Colorado. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Adventure, and Men’s Journal, among others. In 2011, she won the bronze Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year award.

Interview conducted in January, 2012 by Travel Writing 2.0 author Tim Leffel and edited by Kristin Mock.