It is one thing to dream about a roadtrip, another to plan it, and yet another to actually take the leap to do it! Phil and Carol White authored "Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel for a year for the cost of staying home" based on own their experience. In the book they cover trip planning, those perplexing details like bills, and share their perspectives in a section filled with travel details.
Carol joined us to talk about traveling in North America, travel writing, and what it takes to publish your own book. This is a chat transcript. You can find Carol's Gather page here.
Carol arranged for a drawing among active chat participants, and Kerry Dexter will receive a complimentary copy of their book!
Resources:
- Discover their book, trip, and photos on roadtripdream.com
- Learn more about Phil & Carol
- Carol's page for Gather.com members
- See Carol's photos on on Gather.com
This is a chat transcript.
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Comments: 70 ( 2 removed by Julia Schrenkler )
and Julia, surely you are going to have a parallel article or thread on road songs?
Kerry, your curiosity is on deck and you're the first question in queue. To the road music discussion...good point! You might be better suited to that though, because you forgot more about music than I'll ever know. If you kick one off, just link to it here.
Thanks for the question and the related link Lisa, hope you'll jump back here to catch Carol's answer!
here you go, kicking off the music discussion:
Voices: Road Songs.
The RVIA's Dottie Maitland is presenting some workshops this week right here in Pennsylvania to help communities roll out the welcome mat to this growing segment of the travel market. Do you have any suggestions for businesses and communities? How can they be more friendly to RVers?
We've got some good questions on deck and I spy a few that have been sent directly to me... Please feel free to post here as we'll be underway shortly.
I'll start with Kerry's very first question about book promos. I've done everything from book signings to tours, to online promotions, to blogs to newsletters - and now live chat. They all work to varying degrees - the most important thing is to "keep it coming" -- promote all the time. I tell people in my consulting practice to do 3 things each day.
I had to get the map out and look for Route 6 - it looks really lovely, but we've not been on that road -- we've been to many parts of PA - RVIA (Go RVing) sent us there on a media tour last fall - it was beautiful
"[...]we've been to many parts of PA - RVIA (Go RVing) sent us there on a media tour last fall - it was beautiful"
Can you elaborate on what it is like to be on a media tour? How much advance planning is involved, and can you give examples of what authors do or manage while on the tour?
I think most people are surprised about media tours - you either book things last minute - like TV - it depends upon what is "on deck" that day as to whether you get coverage or not. But things like book signings MUST be set-up at least two months in advance so that you can get in their newsletters, have store flyers, etc.
There are many details to be attended to and they are only worth doing if you have good publicity supporting each event. Radio/TV supports book signings, chats/podcasts support appearances, etc.
Just last week, we had a couple from Cape Cod at our house for lunch (something we try to do when people come through Oregon) that are on their trip. It was great to visit with them, see what they are traveling in, hear about their experiences, etc.
We get 2-3 such couples every summer.
It is hard work. Like I mentioned earlier - do something every day - consistency is the most important thing. I have media going all the time. In addition to this live chat, I've done a teleseminar on a large boomer site recently, and am doing a contest on another social networking site next month. I also use traditional media - I've had a lot of luck using ProfNet to find reporters who are writing articles that my expertise fits into - I was recently on entrepreneur.com and have articles in the next month or so in Real Simple, Health, Women's Health and National Geographic travel as a result of that service. more...
How would you change the way you wrote this book if you were to write it again? Do you find personal travel writing to be more or less challenging than other forms of memoir?
Being national spokespeople has really added credibility to our platform. You might look at our media room for ideas in case you haven't been there yet.
http://www.roadtripdream.com/media.html
Good luck to you also.
I think it is more stressful during the trip when someone else does it because you are relying on them having gotten the information to you correctly. One newspaper interview in PA was actually in a town 20 miles from where we were told to be! So it does happen.
It is more stressful on the front end when you are doing the set-up yourself - but I like the control!
I am a reader of your book and newsletter -- and will be leaving on a road trip with my husband in mid-june (our blog should be operational by then -- and it is www.thedreamyear. blogspot.com. We are so pleased that your book introduced us to Class B RV's. We purchased one and are now in the last weeks of many details to leave our work and home. Thanks for your ideas and encouragement!
Good question...when you write a book - fiction or non-fiction, you have to think first about who your audience is and how you are going to find them - in other words - think about the marketing first - that is the hardest thing for most writers - and that is why it is difficult to be a successful writer. Even if you are published by a NY house, the promotion is largely up to you - so you must have a plan for how you will reach your audience before you write the book.
Why? more....
With 400,000 NEW books each year (no that isn't a typo) the competition is fierce and you must set yourself apart to get noticed.
Over 1/2 of all books are sold outside the bookstore, - so go after non-traditional places like gift shops, restaurants, or in my case, places like AAA (written into the book) and Camping World for the RVers.
Do they plan to do travel more like to South America or Europe and write about those trips?
That is a great way to stay in touch. We also like the website www.mytripjournal.com for an all-around easy way to journal, post your pictures and keep it all in relation to the map.
Which Class B did you buy? I'm sure your lists are long right now.
Thanks for identifying yourself as a newsletter subscriber. For others, you can go here and join up (no cost) and I'll send you information about once a month or so...
http://www.roadtripdream.com/roadtripplanner_newsletters.html
We do travel other than the US, but as you may have gathered (so to speak) writing a book is lots of work - actually writing it is easy compared to selling it!
So most of our travels now are either related to the book or pure pleasure. Hmmm, come to think about it, that is how our US trip started too. I'd better watch out or I'll talk myself into another book!
We have been to China last year and next year we are going to Thailand and Vietnam and have traveled quite a bit in Europe, Mexico and Canada. Never been to SA. An African safari is VERY high on my "bucket list"
We'd love to see you in Oregon. And will keep in touch... think we may out your way in early fall.
I have been very fortunate to have a great team. I think my designer did a great job on both the interior and the exterior of the book - people don't realize what a difference GREAT design can make in their success. We hired an editor, had it professionally typeset (ledding, kerning and all that technical stuff) and I have a webmaster that takes care of my website. That is my team and I love them all.
I think that having a good branding (my road trip dream logo) really helps identify all my publicity and marketing.
I recently treated myself to an Amazon kindle -- an ebook reader -- which can hold approx. 160-200 books and mags and newspapers. Because I'm the type of traveler who agonizes about what books to take on a one week trip -- let alone 6-12 months.
I would really recommend that if you are serious about independently publishing your book, that you not only buy one of the "bibles" of the industry - Poynter or Ross/Ross, but also joining the wonderful selfpub discussion group on Yahoo -
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Self-Publishing/
There are some really smart people there. I'm also getting more involved here on gather, so I'm sure there are great people here too.
You wrote about planning your trip but not overplanning it, and focusing on certain themes. Can you share those tips here for Gather travelers?
More for Gather writers: Would you say that is how you approach writing, as well?
We had a brand new Roadtrek Adventurous for our media tour and AARP Life @ 50+ tour this fall - it was an amazing vehicle. Diesel on the Dodge Sprinter and got 23 MPG - an RV ! it was impressive. I know you'll love your 210
We did a lot of audio books on the trip. We were listening to Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" through Nebraska - we were so enthralled that we drove an extra hour or so, just so we could hear what happened!
Our book is coming out in e-book form in the next month or so - I understand they are going to have a Kindle version too...
How do you remember your trip apart from your book and website. Do you scrapbook your trips?
Yes, themes are important. In a year (more or less) you can do ANYTHING you want, but not EVERYTHING you want - hard to believe, I know, so having some ideas about what you want to do on your trip helps you with those inevitable decisions each day about what to see and what to pass up. For us, it was to see all the national parks, travel in every state (lower 48) and have the time of our lives - and we saw so much more.
more....
What will you do when you break your ankle in the third month like I did? What about all those hiking plans you made? What about when you get rear-ended (by an uninsured driver I might add) and you spend days getting that all sorted out - those museum tickets in the next city down the road will be useless! Get my drift?
Just let it happen - you will find that the best tips are from the people you meet along the way.
http://home.att.net/~retirement_lifestyles/
http://www.mytripjournal.com/roadtripdream&aid=1118
it has solved more than one fight about who remembers something correctly!
I also do lots of picture books for the grandkids when we take them on trips - I have used several but really like www.mypublisher.com (go through Costco if you are member) - it makes making coffee table books easy. I also do DVDs - I just got new software for that and was playing with it today - I got Pinnacle's studio Plus - I had my first DVD all made in less than an hour!
I've tried to go more high tech - it seems that is what people really like these days. Of course I go crazy and put music and everything with it too!
I must have lost this thread, Julia - could you expound a bit more...
Here's my favorites right now from around the web:
http://tyandmari.com/
http://www.liveworkdream.com/ - rene & Jim
http://www.rv-dreams.com/index.html howard & Linda payne
http://www.awaywego.us/ gregorich home-schooling family
http://www.thelonglonghoneymoon.com/ Sean & Kristy – long honeymoon
http://www.whitehouseroadtrip.com – homeschooling family
Live Your Dreams!
Be safe.
Carol
This is now a chat transcript.
Lisa - about the price of fuel. Road Tripping is still the most economical way to travel for families especially - and it creates such great bonding. I look at the fuel thing as a little bit of over reaction. Yes, it costs more, and no, we don't like it, but let's take an example - say you travel 1,000 miles on your summer road trip and your vehicle gets 20 MPG. Gas is roughly a dollar more this year than last. Therefore it only adds $50 to your total trip cost. Considering you'll probably spend hundreds, up to thousands on your family summer vacation, you can easily find ways to cover the additional cost of the gas - how about no Starbucks for a couple of weeks, or no soda or chips at home. Even one or two meals at home rather than out will make up that difference. (<:
Don't let the high cost of gas keep you from traveling.
Lisa - I see this one was yours too - you must have felt ignored - Mia Culpa!
Yes, there are lots of ways to become more RV friendly. The trend in RVs is two-fold. Either larger (40+ feet) on the luxury end, and smaller on the boomer want-to-go-everywhere-easily-and-take-my-toys end.
So make sure that you have easy parking that allows clearances for the big guys - must be pull-through and campgrounds that are close to the action around town or a total destination like some of the Indian Casinos with huge campgrounds. I believe it was Iron River, MI that had a really nice, simple, city-owned campground in town for an unbelievable $11 a night - water and electricity, I think.
Make sure your state parks have accommodations for RVers. They don't have to be full hook-ups, but having 30-50 amp electricity will keep the generators from running adding to the peacefulness of the experience.
Make sure that restaurants have good RV parking - advertising it with signs also helps. The last thing a "big rig" wants to do is get some place where they can't get out easily.
Provide brochures of RV-friendly businesses and accommodations. One thing we had a really hard time finding was some place where we could wash our vehicle - you know, suds it up in the parking lot or something.
Hope that gets you started. I'd be happy to chat further with you about it.