Does blogging build a writing career?

Abha from Writtenroad.com asks several travel writers HERE, “How important is blogging in building your career as a travel-writer? Has blogging ever got you any work with print publications?” She included part of my answer, here’s the rest:

As far as advancing my career as a writer, blogging has been every bit as important as dumb luck.

It was dumb luck when Literary Agent A stumbled upon my blog, www.whereamiwearing.com and asked me if I had considered writing a book about the subject. This was before I had even left on the trip the blog was about.

When I returned from the trip I went to a writer’s conference in Muncie, Indiana, (not exactly a hotspot for meeting agents) and asked Agent B about pre-contract etiquette dealing with Agent A. Agent B asked about my book and was darn near more enthusiastic about it than me. Agent B, Caren, became my agent and a few months later sold my first book, which shares a name with my blog.

In the year I’ve kept the blog, I’ve spent over 72,000 minutes (50 days) writing it, but never considered myself a blogger until the Publisher’s Marketplace listing of the sale was released:

Non-fiction Narrative: www.whereamiwearing.com blogger Kelsey Timmerman’s WHERE AM I WEARING?, in which the author learns about the garment industry by following the Made In China/Bangladesh/Honduras tags of a complete outfit and goes to the countries to visit the factories that made his clothes and talk to its workers…

I started as a blogger and, with a little dumb luck, I became an author.

As for print publications…

I rarely direct editors of newspapers and magazines to my blog, for the simple fact that they might visit on a day I write about shaving my tongue or farting on airplanes. However, I have adapted blog posts that eventually ran in print publications or aired as essays on NPR. In this way, blogging is more of a personal writing tool for me than an eye-catcher for editors.

New World Vision Report Interview

I recorded another interview for the World Vision Report about Where am I Wearing?. We recorded this one from Ball State’s David Letterman communication center. If you’ve listened to the previous interviews there’s not much new in this one, but it is much clearer. All of the other interviews were recorded continents away over the phone. This one was recorded over an ISDN line in the studio and it sounds like I’m in the same room with Peggy, the host, even though she was in Texas. It’s part of a one-hour special on fashion that will appear on many NPR stations across the country.

I’ve yet to hear myself on the radio, which would be a hoot. But last week a fella I met in China emailed me after hearing one of my previous interviews I recorded via phone in Cambodia, with Peggy was in Texas, with the producer in Seattle, and the editor in North Carolina. The World Vision Report works from a virtual office.

We live in a virtual world. This is a good thing for a writer living in Indiana.

Look ma! I’m quoted in the Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal reporter Hannah Karp email interviewed me while researching her story The Stay-at-Home vacation. The article is about people who are concerned about their carbon footprint choosing not to fly, even if it means missing a siblings wedding or dream vacation. I take a slightly different stance:

That’s misguided, says Kelsey Timmerman, a 28-year-old Muncie, Ind., scuba-diving instructor and author. If he’d never been to the Great Barrier Reef, he wouldn’t care as much that it is dying from rising ocean temperatures. Decisions he makes as a consumer and a voter offset emissions resulting from his travels, says Mr. Timmerman, who visited Bangladesh, Cambodia and China last year. “Travel helps us care more about our world.”

I’ve heard rumblings of this debate, but had no idea the No-Fly movement was gaining so much ground. Really, I’m amazed that it is since flying represents only 4% of an individual’s average carbon footprint (Farting is probably more than 4%.) I can understand the desire to cutback on unnecessary travel, but missing your siblings wedding? My brother is getting married in Utah in March and if I told him that I wasn’t going to fly out for it because of my concerns of the planes pollution, I would sound like a jackass. I would be a jackass. I’m all for being their for the environment, but I’m even more for being there for my bro. As they say, “Bros before…CO’s.”

Here is the full answer I gave in an email to Hannah:

If I hadn’t been SCUBA diving on the Great Barrier Reef, I wouldn’t care as much that it and coral reefs around the world are dying because of rising ocean temperatures. If I hadn’t been hiking on glaciers in New Zealand, I wouldn’t care as much that it and glaciers around the world are melting because of rising global temperatures. If I hadn’t spent a month in Bangladesh, treated to the near limitless hospitality of the Bangladeshi people, I wouldn’t care as much that homes and lives are being swallowed by the rising sea.

Travel helps us care more about our world. I expect that the decisions I make as a consumer and a voter offset whatever negative impacts result from the fossil fuels burnt to get me from place to place.

In the Perry Herald

Travelin’ Light Writer Tours ACO
By Lorraine Sturm (Perry Herald)

Travel writer Kelsey Timmerman of Ohio will feature American Classic Outfitters in his upcoming book, “Where Am I Wearing?” and related articles. ACO was the last stop on a world round tour Timmerman made in search of the people who made some of his favorite articles of clothing. The story idea came to Timmerman, 28, when he looked at a pile of his laundry. He considers himself an All-American boy yet his clothes are made far away.

(more…)

World Vision Report Interview – Part 2

Peggy talks to me about my All-American blue jeans made in Cambodia.

If you haven’t listened to PART 1 you should.

Thoughts on my WV interview

First off, if you haven’t listened to my interview, you stink.

Now that we have that out of the way…my thoughts on the interview:

The interview lasted about 40 minutes and they cut it to about six, which I’m fine with. It’s not like it’s the Kelsey Show or anything.

They did a great job making me not sound like an idiot.

I would believe anything that Peggy, the host, tells me – there’s just something about her voice. So, by association you should believe everything I tell you.

The interview was the most difficult one of the three because the connection was so bad. There was a major delay and it was hard to banter back and forth with Peggy. Editing took care of this awkwardness.

They had to cut parts on Fantasy Kingdom and my perceived interest in women’s panties.

The next one about my all-American Cambodian blue jeans should air in about a month.

World Vision Report interview - Part 1

My first interview (1 of 3) with the World Vision Report’s Peggy Wehmeyer airs this week. I discuss the origin of the quest, searching for the factory that made my t-shirt in Honduras and the one that made my underwear in Bangladesh.

Go here to find the time and date a station in your area airs the WV report

OR

Listen to it online now