Reddit mentions of Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism

How do you plan on paying for plane tickets and visa fees if you've got no money left? Many countries won't let you enter without accommodations organized because they fear you'll overstay your visa.

From reading your blog it seems you don't have a concrete idea of where you're going to go. It doesn't even seem like you're sure that you're going to leave the country. Ambiguity is not going to get you sponsors.

If you want sponsorship you need to have a pretty significant online presence if the only thing you can give sponsors in return is online content. Different firms and countries often offer travel opportunities but they're contingent upon having an existing following on Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Without that you've got virtually nothing to offer.

Your writing is decent but the most current post is almost like a pity party. That's not going to get you sponsors. You also don't want to say you're too busy to do the one thing that might gain you a sponsor e.g.:

>I don’t know if anyone in Savannah (or anywhere) is still reading this due to my recent inactivity. I wish I could say I’ve just been too busy, but I don’t really have much else to write about.

>I’ve been having a great time here in Savannah, so much that I haven’t had a chance to really keep up with this blog! I feel like I’m leaving a lot out, and I’m sorry to anyone who I forgot to mention, but this really is a time consuming process, and there is so much else to do

Also, this will kill any hope for sponsors:

>After we finished moving his stuff in he asked if I wanted to smoke a bowl with him. I told him that I would love to, and that he had no idea how much I wanted to do that.

Half of your posts are written while you're admittedly drunk. The other half reference spending time in bars and/or partying. Meanwhile you didn't write a single word about your time in Baltimore. Anyone who is going to fund a trip wants actual content about the places you're visiting and more info on the people you meet. No one is going to pay you to go bar hopping.

I'd love to say I support you on your journey but it really sounds like you're a little too into this freeloading thing. You spent unemployment checks, which are intended to support you while you look for a job on campsites and going on an adventure. Then you take issue with a bike shop owner who won't trade your broken trailer for something and later turn down a job offer because it doesn't coincide with your terms. Taking all of that into account why should anyone be willing to fund your time spent drinking, smoking weed and having fun when you've earned a grand total of $20 through a single day's work along your two month journey? You say you want to work hard but it doesn't seem like you've done any actual work aside from helping some people out here and there as a favor.

If you want to get a good idea of what you should include in your writing, I suggest trying to locate a copy of this book

Posted this in another thread:

The road name for the book is the Lying Planet for good reason. The authors often accept kickbacks from places they review to give them a good review and there is no way to know which making reviews problematic. The prices are almost always wrong, granted these do change but the LP's have been known to not even bother updating them with new editions, and in developing countries (South America, Africa and most of Asia) they don't even check if places still exist when releasing new editions. With smaller towns you need to check that they actually exist and where the LP claims they exist.

There have also been a number of cases where LP authors have admitted to writing the guides without ever actually visiting the country. There is an excellent book written by a travel writer documenting some of these aspects of travel writing here. He wrote the Colombia guide while he was in San Francisco.

It's probably Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?. Highly enjoyable book.

I enjoyed Do Travel Writers Go To Hell. I know there was some controversy surrounding the author, but whatever, I thought it was a funny, entertaining read.