A Conversation with Karen Fawcett

Karen Fawcett is THE French expert, having lived, worked, and traveled in France for the past 22 years. In addition to writing about French destinations, getting the “in” on what to do, see, and eat, her writing deals with the nitty-gritty details of living in France as an expat. Having launched and owned BonjourParis.com for the past 12 years, Karen has covered everything from cross-cultural issues to the psychological and personal ones that expats might experience. Check out her bio here!

How did you “break in to travel writing”? What have been the keys to your success?

Having had too many jobs – many of which entailed writing – after I moved to France, I lucked out and was able to contact friends and journalists in the US who were happy to have a writer who was based in France and traveled a lot. The key to my “success” was being willing to be there, chase fire engines, and generate my own ideas for articles and ALWAYS filing on time.

Where do you see your career as a travel writer being three years from now? How will your income mix change and what are you doing to adapt to the changing media landscape?

Travel writing is changing radically as print publications are decreasing. Payment will continue to decrease. There will be an increasing number of bloggers who write for love… I fear news (including travel) will be gathered from social networking. How I hope not.

Knowing what you do now, if you were starting from scratch today to become established as a travel writer, what steps would you take to ensure success?

1 – Don’t depend on travel writing to support you. 2. Be flexible and thorough. 3- Always be polite to hosts, other journalists, sources, research assistants and PR people. You never know where they will end up = or when they might need you OR (more important) vice versa.

What advice would you give to someone near and dear to you who wanted to become a travel writer—assuming they had zero credits to their name. (Besides “Don’t do it”?)

Become proficient in other fields in addition to travel writing. It’s important to be as good as possible at your craft. Writers need to be flexible. It’s important you never compromise your own integrity unless it’s for so much money you’ll be able to retire (not in jail) and do whatever you want to do and WHEN.  — even then…

How has living in a different country—one of the world’s most popular travel destinations—helped you get writing assignments?

Absolutely: BonjourParis.com was the first in-depth content site about France. It launched in 1995 when the internet was in its infancy. Simply because of longevity, I’m considered a France “expert.” In addition to writing about destinations, what to do, see and eat in France, my interests and writing has expanded to issues concerning expats, relocation and resulting sociological and psychological issues that may impact people who move to different counties.

Do you publish anywhere in French, or has that ever been one of your goals?

Some of my articles have been translated into French. My written French leaves much to be desired. As a result, my writing is confined to English.

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In addition to running BonjourParis.com, Karen contributes to many others sites including www.joesentme.com and www.consumertraveler.com.  She is still wondering what she’s going to do when she grows up! See Karen Fawcett’s complete bio here.

Interview conducted in February, 2011 by Travel Writing 2.0 author Tim Leffel and edited by Kristin Mock.