This month at the RolfPotts.com Writers page, I interview San Francisco-based travel writer and photographer Amanda Jones, whose work has appeared in Vogue, Travel + Leisure, Islands, Condé Nast Traveller, the London Sunday Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and several literary anthologies. In the interview, Jones outlines her advice to aspiring travel writers as follows:

• Marry or move in with someone who understands your life, your passions, your addiction to travel. Perhaps someone who likes to travel too.
• If, like me, you become a mother halfway through your career (this probably goes for fathers too), you will have to make certain compromises. I still travel, but not nearly as much as I used to. Also, I recommend discussing this with your spouse before you go ahead and have the kids. Get an agreement written in blood that they are supportive of your continuing to travel. The good news is you can also take the kids with you at times, and that’s fantastic.
• You will not make a fortune doing this.
• The beauty of this business is there is no barrier to entry. You can have a degree in journalism from Columbia and editors won’t give a damn. You can be fresh out of the local community college and if you can write well, you’ll get your stories published. This is the ultimate meritocracy. You’re good, you get work.
• Work on the lede. Work on the lede. Work on the lede.
• Don’t make the stories all about you. Make it about you in context of the place, the history, the people, the environment.
• Take photographs. Even if they are not good, they will help bring back memories and remind you of the physical sense of the place.
• Do not drone on without an actual story. Populate your story with characters and dialogue, and try to have a basic storyline that runs throughout.

Full Amanda Jones interview online here.