An Interview with David Whitley

While David Whitley runs the wildly humorous Grumpy Traveller blog, he’d like to tell you that he’s not really all that grumpy: in fact, he’s just a brutally honest traveler. Having written for the likes of The Independent, Metro, and MSN Travel, David, a UK-based writer, is diverse, honest, and has a unique knack for finding both the upsides and downsides of the wonderful world of travel. Check out his newest blogging project at Roundtheworldflights.com or read what he’s most recently been grumbling about here!

What were your first big breaks that got you on your way in travel writing? How did you build from there?

It all started from when I was working for my student paper. We bagged tickets to interrail round Europe with, and they wanted a few travel articles publishing as a result. I ended up winning a Guardian Student Media Award for them. I then went to Australia for a year, and landed a job as editor of a backpacker magazine. Towards the end of that stint, I did a bit of freelancing for travel mags and newspapers, then I came back to the UK to try it full time. Luckily, it seems to have worked.

There’s no real secret to it. I wrote, I pitched, I was published.

What do you think are the good and bad points of writing for the British press as opposed to media in the U.S. or Canada?

My US/ Canada experience is limited to the Boston Herald and Metro in Canada, so I’m not exactly qualified to speak for the nation as a whole. My usual take is that the US newspapers in particular are so tediously earnest and po-faced that they’re virtually unreadable, but this is something that the otherwise relatively entertaining British press seems to apply to its travel sections as well. There are exceptions, but there’s some awfully boring writing in them and an infuriating obsession with what’s hip and cool rather than what’s good and worth doing.

On the upside, the British media is genuinely national; there’s less of the ‘within three hours drive’ parochiality of the US newspapers. It’s also – I think – more open to stories from odd destinations, whereas the US is more domestic, Caribbean and big European highlights reel orientated.

If I’m honest, most of my print work is done for Australian publications. The key advantage is that there’s less assumed knowledge about European and North American destinations (although a higher level of it about Asian destinations – which I don’t generally cover). It means I don’t have to know a city intimately, and be picking out its cool underground bars etc – I can identify broadly strong stories and pitch them. Something interesting that’s been round for a few years in the south of France, for example, will get a run for an Australian audience, whereas UK editors may see it as old news. I should really apply the same thinking and start pitching to editors in the US and Canada at some point…

You noted recently that only 30 percent of your income last year was from print. Where is the rest coming from?

About 17% is from advertising (affiliates, display ads and Google Adsense) on my websites, the rest is from commissioned online articles. There’s this mad idea that no-one pays for online articles, and it’s utter nonsense. Some sites pay pretty well. But you generally have to approach people rather than respond to requests for material.

A new one for me in the last year was blogging for Roundtheworldflights.com – a company selling round the world flight tickets. I’ve ironically had more freedom and enjoyment doing that than I have for supposedly independent and unbiased newspapers and magazines. The brief has pretty much been to get on with it, and I’ve been genuinely proud of some of the posts I’ve written.

I love a good rant and your Grumpy Traveler blog doesn’t hold back. Have you suffered any negative consequences as a result of your brutal honesty about the travel and publishing industries?

Surprisingly not, actually. Then again, I’ve never really been one for schmoozing at industry functions, so I’m hardly going to get the cold shoulder at events I wouldn’t be going to anyway. I also think that, while I’m prepared to give some heavy criticism, I’m fair with it. I’m not sniping at people for the sake of sniping; I’m generally having a justified pop at those who deserve it.

In many ways, you could argue that it’s been beneficial. The sort of editor that wants someone who’ll write with spirit and honesty, rather than trotting out interchangeable puff pieces, has been more likely to come knocking. So while I may be putting some noses out of joint, those that like seeing noses out of joint are more likely to come to me first.

What advice would you give to someone who was just starting out as a travel writer today?

Forget about the travel bit first. Learn to be a writer, get basic journalism skills (a news background helps immensely both in picking out stories and speed of writing) and then decide where you want to specialise later. Anyone can travel, not anyone can write.

Secondly, start blogging/ setting up a website about a niche that you’re good at, and get on Twitter – it’s a brilliant way of butting into conversations you wouldn’t otherwise be invited to.

And for getting consistently commissioned, the following rules always apply.

1.    If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Pitch away.

2.    Solve problems, not cause them. Identify the slots that the editor struggles to fill, and tailor your ideas to them.

3.    Write to deadline, word count and format. The less editing your editor has to do, the more likely they are to use you again.

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David Whitley is a full time travel journalist based in the UK, and he writes for publications such as the Independent, Metro and MSN Travel there. He also works for a number of Australian publications, including the Sun-Herald in Sydney and Ninemsn.com.au. He blogs fairly regularly at Grumpytraveller.com and Roundtheworldflights.com, whilst he also runs Australiaflightbargains.com – a specialist site tracking flight deals between the UK and Australia.

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