The Harsh Economic Realities of Travel Publishing
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 04.26.02 | 6:59 PM ET
Why has Lonely Planet, the undisputed king of indie travel guidebook publishing, been forced to lay off workers and move all of its book production to Australia? East Bay Express, a Northern California weekly, takes a long hard look at the company. And on a vaguely related note: Veteran writer Jeff Greenwald has decided to self-publish his new book, Scratching the Surface.
In Media Bistro, Rolf Potts asked Greenwald about the decision. “A couple of years ago I started paying close attention to my royalty checks for Shopping for Buddhas,” Greenwald said. “It made me crazy: Lonely Planet was taking in at least $35,000 a year on the title, and I was getting about $3,000 of that! So I thought I’d perform an experiment, take a risk, and see if I could get a bigger slice of my own pie.”
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
