This month at the RolfPotts.com Travel Writers page, I interview travel guidebook writer Joshua Berman, whose Moon Handbooks: Belize recently won a Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers. You can follow his current round-the-world vagabonding journey at his Tranquilo Traveler blog.

In the interview, Berman says that writing assignments give his travel a sense of focus. “Like John L. Stephens, I too, enjoy traveling with a mission,” he says. “There’s something exciting about rolling into a new place and having a job to do — it’s a different way to travel and serves my restless soul well. I also love having an excuse to meet people with whom I would not ordinarily interact. Some of these hotel owners, local guides, and expats have become lifelong friends and this is priceless — much more satisfying than all the riches and glory.”

Berman’s biggest challenge? “Staying organized,” he says. “I fill up pocket notebooks during the day, then transfer the sweat-stained chicken scratches into my laptop by night. I’m always having to develop new systems of information management to handle the hundreds of word documents, image files, outlines, and e-mails; this can be exhausting, but in the end, the details add up to a quality book or article.”

As with most other travel writers I’ve interviewed, finances are an ongoing challenge for Berman: “The only way I’ve been able to live off my writing is by taking my relatively meager book advances and running straight for the border, preferably to a country like Nicaragua where my expenses are minimal to nil. When living in the U.S., however, I have yet to secure a steady, living-wage stream of freelancing jobs. Writing time is precious too, especially when I have to use more and more of it to market myself and my books. Along the way, I’ve had to teach myself how to create and maintain a website, understand the market, shoot professional photographs, negotiate a contract, and keep track of queries. …For getting published, I prescribe patience, persistence, perseverance, and more patience. For the rest of it, just keep doing what you love: traveling, reading, and writing.”

Full Joshua Berman interview online here.