Tapping into writing gigs overseas is generally not an easy task to achieve, so when job ads appear from countries abroad that beckons to a writers soul the best thing to do is to send a query and see what comes of it.

My assignment as a travel correspondent for a UK based travel company came as a favorable response to an ad I saw advertised in one of my writers’ ezines. I sent a tailor made query detailing my experience in the field of travel writing and in particular quoting some of the big names I had previously worked with along and included my resume with published clips. I received a response from the UK editor and after some to and fro on availability and negotiation, I got the writing gig.

The time difference did factor into the weekly deadline and meant that I either stayed up late the night before to meet the deadline (if I hadn’t got the work done by then) or got up in the wee hours of the morning. It was then that I realized that the time was going to be a problem, so I queried the actual time they needed the work by and had my deadline extended to midday GMT instead of 9am GMT.

The pay was better than a US based writing gig, as the pound is usually stronger than the US dollar and also because the word count was far less for what they wanted.

Being paid proved to be an obstacle that affected most of the contributors (something I learned later on) and despite the fact that invoices were sent on a monthly basis the pay which was sent out via check never arrived on time and was generally late by 3-4 weeks causing a back-up of money owed.

The language was not a problem and they accepted American spelling rather than insisting I wrote the Queen’s English.

One of the unforeseen challenges was meeting the deadline -- only initially though, as I really had to work according to the time difference. The other thing was the pay issue. The accounts department was a pain to deal with and insisted on issuing checks rather than an electronic form of payment.

On the whole though, it was a good experience and gave me the ability to work for the UK travel company for a year and a half that inevitably opened more doors in the travel industry and was a sterling addition to my resume. (No pun intended)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nadia Ali (nadia@freelance-worker.com) is a Freelance Writer whose niche is in the travel industry. She has worked for Northstar Travel Media, Wcities, International Living and Time Out London.

©2005 – Nadia Ali. This article may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in any form, for any reason, without the express, written consent of the author. Violators will be prosecuted.