Just saw your re-tweets on this… gosh, why are you re-tweeting this old thing? Would have been nice to do a new interview. Although I must admit I found it entertaining to read the comments again after all this time. Leif’s in particular were interesting – curious that we have such different experiences and perspectives of the same company. But then even we found that we had such different experiences depending on who the Commissioning Editor was we were working for – and it shouldn’t be that way, and was one reason we stopped working for them. Leif’s experiences certainly don’t reflect our experiences over 25 projects.

It would have been interesting to do a follow-up interview. Since that interview, we ended up working in some capacity for almost every major guidebook company after LP: Rough Guides, DK, AA guides, Thomas Cook, Fodors, Footprint… and we spent almost the whole of 2009 doing only magazine stories and digital, in the Middle East and Europe mainly, as we’d well and truly had enough of guidebooks. We returned to work on guides at the end of 2009 for the opportunity to do a new book on our ‘home’, Dubai, and to work for niche guidebook company, Hedonists Guides. While we’re loving the freedom of working for Hedonists, we would probably never do a traditional LP/RG/DK style guidebook again. Fees have been reduced even further and, as Maryam says above, it’s far too much work for so little money.

As you know, in 2010 we’re working on our Grantourismo project http://grantourismotravels.com/ in partnership with HomeAway Holiday-Rentals http://www.homeaway.co.uk and I think those kinds of relationships and projects will represent the future for travel writers. It would be nice to share that with your readers who are aspiring travel writers.

This was a really great interview. Its great to know a little bit more about the LP contracts trying to get into the travel writing business. Thanks!

You are showing us a lot of in depth thoughts! Thank you!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments – and thank you to Matt for providing the opportunity to share my thoughts – couldn’t have done such a good interview without those fabulous thought-provoking questions.

Hi Leif

Just a few quick comments in response to yours:
1) You’re right about LP’s 18 month policy but 18 months is a long time in this business. We also sought permission to write for other publications over the years but were refused unless we did a cross-promotion with the books we were writing.
2) Expenses are incorporated into the guidebook fee, but the fee doesn’t always end up covering all expenses and LP doesn’t always reimburse writers – we tried to get reimbursed before, particularly as it was the CE who had specifically asked us to outlay that money (eg. on a 4WD), and we were successful once, but that reimbursement meant we broke even only.

3) My claims are not slanderous if I have evidence that authors have accepted freebies. LP also has the same evidence and has chosen to allow those writers to keep writing for them. Indeed a couple of other authors have even been published as saying they’ve accepted freebies and they still write for LP. I know secondhand about dozens of authors – remember LP has a pool of what? some 200 or so writers? so yes, it’s a reasonably small percentage – but I know firsthand of 6 writers who have accepted freebies, 4 of whom are still writing for LP. And please don’t think that I willingly *dobbed* on these authors. I only called LP’s attention to it after a) Terry and I were being falsely accused ourselves by LP in one instance, and b) after one of the hotel PRs emailed the CE and forwarded me the email she sent them about that author. So, LP most certainly knows about these authors and LP responded to our concerns to say they were dealt with in the way LP felt best. No idea what that meant, as the authors concerned are most definitely still writing for LP.

Don’t get me wrong, Leif, I have no problem with authors accepting freebies/media rates if the publisher allows it (eg. Rough Guides allows us to exchange ads for services/products, such as adventure tours, car hire and accom), and the author doesn’t allow it to compromise their integrity (we reserve the right to be critical and we give feeback to the PR person if something didn’t meet our expectations). Where I object is where there is a hypocritical stance, and where the situation is unfair, i.e. some authors are benefiting from the freebies and others aren’t, as there is in this case.

Thanks for continuing to provide thought provoking interviews.

As a side question, based on attendance at a recent travel writing conference and occasionally checking out the comment section on your posts, as well as others, such as Killing Batteries, are the (vast?) majority of travel writers women?

And do you have any thoughts as to the percentage of women who read travel magazines?

Other than general curiosity, I would think this information would be useful as a demographic to aim for.

(P.S. I edited your blogroll text at my site per your request.)

But my main point, is to tip my hat at Lief for bringing the word ‘juju’ into my life – loving that! Or should I say *loving* that?!

I personally have found guidebook writing to be absolutely not my thing – the pay is lousy and it is mostly pretty boring. I far prefer working for magazines which pay decent rates and allow for more creativity. I would never, ever consider working for LP, about which I have heard not-so-good-things from several people.

LP only prohibits its authors from writing for other *guidebooks* for a period of 18 months after the author delivers their manuscript. This is a very common non-compete clause that you’ll find across all forms of media (magazines, newspapers, radio, TV). There’s *nothing* in the contract, however, that prohibits the author from writing about the destination in question any other way they see fit. I’ve written about Romania, Moldova and Tuscany for numerous magazines and web sites. I’ve even launched an entire travel guide web site on Romania and Moldova, largely based on the strength of my LP research (http://romaniaandmoldova.com). This is all completely permissible.

Also, LP *does* pay expenses. Of course they do. The author is invited to send in an expense estimate during contract negotiations (if they feel the estimate done by the editor is off) and, barring ludicrous expense padding, they will usually get that amount in their lump sum payments that includes their weekly fee (also totally negotiable). Now, is there a chance an unexpected expense will come up after contract signing, during on-the-ground research? Say the deductible on a car accident or a sudden $500 price jump on a plane ticket? Yes, there is. Can you go back to LP and ask them to pay this expense? No, you can’t. However, this is also true for 99% of all freelance jobs. You can’t go back to a magazine or newspaper for that reimbursement either. However, LP *does* insure its authors when they are on the road, which most publications will not do for freelancers (certainly not magazines and newspapers). I’ve never had the misfortune to call upon this insurance coverage, but by most accounts this insurance is stellar. So things like drowned laptops and hospital stays are covered, meaning that truly huge surprise expenses are rare.

Finally, Lara, I take strong issue with the statement that LP authors are “accepting freebies left right and centre”. That is a completely speculative and slanderous statement. Apart from a few very brazen cases, in which the authors in question were promptly and ungracefully removed from the author pool, I’d stake my reputation on the majority of LP authors doing their jobs in precisely the way they were contracted to do them, no matter their personal feelings on freebies or failings at completing the project in the way they legally agreed to do so. To indiscriminately slander your former colleagues in a forum like this invites really bad juju, not to mention discouraging aspiring guidebook writers from applying to LP.