An Interview With Freelance Writer Sharon McDonnell

Sharon McDonnell is a San Francisco-based freelance writer who has been covering travel, culture, food, and drink since 1999. Her work has appeared in Fodors.com, TravelandLeisure.com, ArchitecturalDigest.com, United Hemispheres, Air Canada EnRoute, Scandinavian Traveler, New York Times, Dallas Morning News, The Telegraph, Global Traveler, Westways, World Nomads, National Geographic Traveler, and Costco Connection. See her portfolio website here.

How did you get into travel writing in the first place and is there one “big break” you can point to that set you on your current path?

I was a freelance writer on business and tech, after quitting my job as a PR firm senior vice president in New York, but segued in 1999 to write about travel, my main hobby and passion. I was endlessly motivated, thanks to my Ethnic Cuisine Incentive Plan. Every time I sold a pitch, I “won” a dinner at a restaurant, like Thai, Indian, or Mexican. I was so hell-bent on expanding my palate, sometimes I’d win five dinners by Tuesday; my “prizes” were circulating like planes above LaGuardia Airport.

My first travel sale was to the New York Times about an inn in Newport, Rhode Island, after I met the owner.

What sets you apart from others and helps you get writing gigs on a regular basis?

I pitch offbeat ideas others don’t. I’m never going to write on Disney World. I’m very curious. I notice a throwaway sentence in a guidebook or free newspaper and look into it. I’m open to whatever I see and experience and don’t have preconceptions. I sold a big feature on Switzerland’s weird HR Giger Museum to Air Canada EnRoute, after spotting a sentence on it in a guidebook, and later touring it. Later, I repurposed it and sold a short for United Hemispheres. The stories sold because of the contrast between the surrealist Swiss artist, who created the alien in Alien and lots of eroto-mechanical art, and cliches about the squeaky-clean, safe, efficient land of cheese and punctual trains.

I mentally group things: I sold a story to Architectural Digest on flower carpets worldwide after first hearing about it in Italy, later seeing it in Guatemala, then reading about it in India. Later, I sold a story to Fodors.com on the tradition in Italy alone. I don’t do social media or blog – no time, no interest. I know other people do. Let them.

Full-time freelancing was already getting tougher before the pandemic thanks to the decline of print media, then the travel slump led to more closures. What have you done to adapt the past few years?

I adapt to change. When COVID hit, I divided my travel knowledge into categories that were evergreen and would still sell – like cultural traditions and crafts, profiles, food, flora/fauna – not destination stories on where to stay/eat/what to do. So, I sold profiles on a US expat in Guatemala who devoted her life to historic preservation there, gallery owners in Mexico, an alpaca farm owner in the Pacific Northwest, and a Chinese opera star in the USA (I’d seen it in China) to an alumni magazine, AARP Magazine and The Savvy Retiree. (AARP paid $2/word.)

I sold food history stories from Mexico and New Orleans to Fodors.com; a story on the fetish for silver in China’s Miao minority; and on my alpaca encounters from Chile, British Columbia to California to blogs for a tour operator and a nonprofit for the human-animal bond.

I gave a webinar to ASJA’s SoCal chapter in January 2021 on my travel-adjacent writing during COVID. Actually, I think growing up poor helped: I learned to figure things out to survive, and see obstacles as things to conquer.

Writers always hear that they should be spinning multiple stories from one trip and you seem to have made that work many times. Can you give us a few examples?

Information is malleable like clay to me, infinitely shapable. An interesting tidbit leads to a story, which leads to another, and a third, like a chain. After I did a press trip to India for a hotel opening in Hyderabad, I did stories on that hotel for Jetsetter and South China Morning Post and a cover story on India’s palace hotels for Luxury Las Vegas. After hearing Hyderabad was a major tech city, I wrote a big feature on it for Global Traveler, a business travel magazine. After finding a wonderful walking tour operator in Hyderabad who takes visitors to artisans’ homes, I profiled one artisan for Silkwinds, an inflight for Singapore Airlines’ regional airline. Since that operator was from Gujarat, India, I researched that state and did a story on its festivals for Global Traveler. After finding an American expat who devoted her life to saving traditional crafts in Gujarat, I sold a story on her to her alma mater’s alumni magazine in the US.

Once, I turned an insult in Spain into several stories. Once a tourism rep hoisted me out of my seat at a dinner in Granada, saying that seat was reserved for a VIP guest, a descendant of Washington Irving, who was writing a book and making a film on his ancestor. I wondered why the 19th-century author was so honored in southern Spain, and why road signs pointed to a tourism route named after him. While I could go for years in New York without hearing his name, except for a passing mention of the headless horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, here I couldn’t go a day without hearing about him. So, I sold a big feature for $1,000 to American Spirit, the DAR magazine, whose focus is history, profiling Irving and his home in Westchester, NY. Then, I sold a travel story on the Irving trail to a NY newspaper, and another on the house alone to Long Weekends magazine.

After selling a profile of a local tearoom to Teatime Magazine, I then sold them two stories, one profiling tearoom mystery authors, one on tea and the women’s rights struggle in the US. The latter two paid $1,000 each.

What’s your batting average like when pitching ideas to editors? What advice would you give to others who are seeing a poor percentage of “yes” answers?

Over 95%; I don’t pitch an idea unless I’m convinced it will sell. My queries are chock-full of details. I tend to pitch after I travel, since I abhor preconceptions and can’t predict odd encounters and tidbits in advance. I regret I couldn’t sell a story about Frederick the Great’s palace in Potsdam, sadly.

To see examples of Sharon McDonnell’s work, go here.