| Birth of
a Freelance Travel Writer Abroad |
| by Anika
Scott |
| Let's clear
the air: Freelance writing from overseas will not make you rich. Travel
writing may not even pay the bills, at least at first. But anyone with
a drive to write about the people and places he or she encounters has a
shot at earning a modest living while enjoying the expatriate life. Your
best tools are a computer with modem, a decent camera, enough savings to
cushion you while you get started and an insatiable need to tell the stay-at-homes
about the ordinary and the extraordinary abroad.
These are pretty
much all I had when I arrived in Germany a year ago with the aim to learn
the language and write about my life and travels. I'd been a journalist
in the United States for years but could no longer escape the siren song
of travel writing, the journalist's dream job. A pipe dream, family, friends
and colleagues told me at first. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Why leave
a secure, well-paying job at a major newspaper to go it alone in central
Europe? My answer: I'm a dreamer, like most expats, I had to try. Though
I work harder now and earn less than I did at more secure jobs in the States,
my quality of life has improved. Each article I sell fulfills me professionally
like my newspaper jobs never did. Each time I look at the vineyards out
my window or hop on a train to new frontiers, I realize how much fun I'm
having. Freelance travel writing is a tough gig, but persistence, patience
and hard work can pay off.
Getting
Started
I'm a journalist
by profession, and that made my transition to freelance travel writing
a little bit smoother. I had a track record of journalism work behind me
that I could rely on to convince the German authorities that I was the
real thing. But many would-be freelance writers have little or no real
journalism experience. What to do then? I usually advise aspiring
writers to get a few things published before they leave the United States.
Even if it's short articles on any subject for a local newspaper or obscure
regional magazine. Even if you aren't paid for the work. |
|
|
| The resulting
published articles, or clips, will form the beginning of a journalism portfolio
that will stick with you through a freelance writing career. And like any
other craft, writing non-fiction articles is a skill that must be nurtured.
There
is no better training for journalism than to just do it and learn from
your mistakes. It's easier to make those beginner mistakes before leaving
for greener pastures abroad where language, cultural and political differences
can make the reporting job more challenging.
Do you dream
of life as a roving reporter, or do you hope to settle in one country and
explore the world from there? The question matters when it comes to some
of the nitty-gritty all expatriates must deal with, namely residency and
work permits. I can only speak for what I as an American citizen went through
in Germany. Other countries in Europe have their own ways of dealing with
foreign journalists despite the standardization of the European Union. |
|
|
Offshore
Resources Gallery
|
|
|
| Thankfully,
I found the German residency requirements easy to fulfill and the tolerance
of freelance journalists high.
The Residency
Permit
The first order
of business was obtaining permission to live in Germany for longer than
the 3 months allowed all Americans on a tourist visa. Several months before
moving to Germany, I applied for a one-year residency permit with a German
consulate in the States. The two most important parts of the application
are the proof that you can support yourself financially, and proof (or
the intention of getting) private health insurance.
A residency
permit does not allow you to work in Germany, only to live there. The authorities
want to be sure that people who want to reside in the country won't become
a financial burden. As a freelance journalist, I could not write on the
application that I had a 9-to-5 job ready for me somewhere in Germany.
Instead, I wrote in the application that I had savings and stock to live
on (I gave no actual figures and did not write personal information like
bank account numbers). |
|
|
| I also enclosed
a notarized letter from a small U.S. company for which I did some editing
work as proof that I had clients.
I was told
later that some of my clips from newspapers in the States would have also
been sufficient to prove my profession.
I had yet to
get health insurance, but stated my intention to do so. That seemed to
be enough on that score. The application asked for my employer and I stated:
Self employed, under contract. Under occupation I listed Freelance
Journalist/Writer. And under profession for which I was trained, Journalism.
Another key
to the application is your proposed place of residence in Germany. This
is an actual address. I had one already courtesy of a German friend. Why
must you be so specific? Applications for residency are handled in the
German city you hope to live in. |
|
|
Offshore
Resources Gallery
|
| The consulate
in the States simply forwarded my application to the German city where
I now live, and the decision to accept my application was made there.
Besides passport
information and 2 photos, the application also called for a notarized letter
from the police in my American home declaring that I had no criminal record.
I sent off the application packet with the $28 fee and received a yes within
6 weeks. I then had to send my entire passport to my local German consulate
in the States where a temporary visa was attached. Finally, I was ready
to go to Germany.
When I arrived,
I had to register at my local city hall, a task Germans must also do every
time they move to a new town. Registration document in hand, I proceeded
to the foreigner's office where I paid 100 Marks to receive my full year's
permit. I also had to show the results of a recent HIV test-- a relatively
new requirement. I left my passport with the office and a week later received
it back with a glittering 1-year residence residency permit stamp inside
it. I've since renewed the permit for another 2 years, which is no
problem for Americans.
The Work
Permit
I don't have
one. As far as the local authorities are concerned, I don't need one. I
write only for English language publications abroad or on the Internet,
never for Germans. I am paid almost exclusively in dollars directly to
my US bank account. I pay US taxes. I exist in a border world where my
physical existence is in Germany and my financial one in the States. So
far, it's worked fine. If my luck and funds run out and I need to find
a job in Germany, I will need a work permit. But at the moment, things
are good and I operate as a self-employed American who is no drain on German
social services and who doesn't take jobs away from Germans.
How I work
I'm essentially
a telecommuter. Without computer and modem I would be isolated, and my
way of life would likely be impossible. As it is, I research possible markets
for my articles via the Internet, and contact editors almost exclusively
through email. Much of the background research I do for my stories is web-related,
as more and more reliable resources show up on the Internet. This replaces
my lack of a local library that stocks English language magazines and non-fiction
books (my city library has some English language novels, but that's it).
Food for my
writing comes by observing the world and by traveling. Technically, a potential
travel article can materialize as soon as I step outside my front door.
To my audience -- I imagine it made up of the middle class Midwesterners
I grew up with -- everything about my life here is "foreign," exotic and
potentially interesting. A weekend car trip to Berlin becomes a story about
cross-country Germany. A visit to a pilgrimage church in the Alps becomes
an article for a religious publication. People read travel articles to
get a sense of places and ways of life different than their own. What would
they want to know? What have they most likely never seen, heard, smelled,
tasted or experienced? And so I write.
It's a hard
way to earn a living but for me, it's one of the best.
Resources:
There are a
legion of books for people interested in getting started in freelance writing.
One of the standards for beginning article writing is: Handbook of Magazine
Article Writing by the editors of Writer's Digest. For that matter,
I also recommend Writer's Digest Magazine as a great source for
tips on freelancing. I've had a subscription to the magazine for 10 years
and now get it delivered overseas.
Here are
some other print resources:
Travel Writing:
A Guide to Research, Writing and Selling by L. Peat O‘Neil
A search on
the Internet under freelance writing will yield many sites. Some of the
most notable include:
|
|
Article
Index ~ Hong
Kong Index ~ |
