booksIn this series, I interview another author who has written a book that I consider to be a great idea. This time I meet Fiona Caulfield, an Australian expat based currently in India, who is making a living writing and publishing unique travel guides called Love Travel Guides.
Fiona is doing this with considerable flair and panache. Read on if you want to follow in her footsteps.
Fiona Caulfield is the creator of the Love Travel brand of guidebooks, designed for luxury vagabonds. She is a true citizen of the world. Born in Australia, she has lived in the UK, the USA and Canada and is now resident in India.
Fiona has a high profile global career as a futurist and branding consultant and is an avid traveller and explorer. A self-confessed luxury vagabond, she has a discerning eye for the singular experiences that set a destination apart.
She is also a contributing writer for many international magazines including Conde Nast Traveller, Departures, DestinAsia and in-flight magazines for Qantas and Singapore Airlines. She also contributes to leading travel websites including Indagare.com and Qantas.com/ travelinsider.
Fiona is also a highly regarded speaker and most recently presented ‘The Future of Travel Writing” at the Singapore Writers Festival.
JP
Your motivation
Why did you write it?
FC
I needed them. After taking up trekking and mountain climbing I was travelling to some of the most interesting places in the world but I could not find travel content that was comparable to what was available for travel in Europe and North America. I wanted information on how to fall in love with Delhi, Calcutta, Kathmandu, Nairobi, Lima etc etc and I was frustrated with the mass market travel guides that target the time rich, cash poor traveler, I was the opposite, my time was my most valuable asset and I was relatively cash rich. I was no longer a backpacker willing to sleep in fleapits. I wanted travel content that was more discerning, intimate and authentic, above all authentic.
JP
The need
Why do you think needed to be written? What will your book do for other people?
FC
The Love Travel Guides will help people fall in love with their destination. The great world cities, Paris, London, New York, trip off the tongue. Where are Lhasa, Cairo, and Jaipur? I believe it is time for people to fall in love with more than just the cities of the west. I believe that falling in love with a city is just as exciting as falling in love with a person. Your senses become more engaged and you simply feel more alive,” The simplest criteria for inclusion in the guide was ‘does this place help you fall in love with this city?’ If yes, then it was in; if no then, it was out. Simple.
JP
Who will read it
Who do you think will read your book? What made you think that there was a market for it? Now that it’s been out for a while, what proof do you have that you were right?
FC
Love Travel Guides are must have guides, which contain all the savvy inside knowledge that a stylish traveller craves. The passionately curated guide is designed for the discerning luxury vagabond who wants authenticity in style. The books comprise eight sections including an overview of the city with ‘must knows and must dos’ and presents the best places to eat, drink, shop, be pampered, get fit and explore. Unlike mass tourist books, using this guide is like being chaperoned by a good friend. The entries are ‘love stories’ sourced from in-the-know locals including chefs, artists, designers, architects, ambassadors, foreign correspondents and taxi drivers.
I don’t have any hard data in terms of retail sales, anecdotally I understand that some of the books are now the best selling guidebooks for that destination, for example Love Delhi and the booksellers tell me that the buyers are discerning travelers, expats and locals. Love Jaipur, Rajasthan was the best selling book at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Asia’s leading literature event that attracts a discerning audience. Plus my corporate sales have been strong for major conferences such as the International Herald Tribune Luxury Conference, as well as organizational sales to companies such as Cartier and the Four Seasons and sales to embassies and high commissions.
JP
The promotion
It does not matter how good a book is, or how good your writing is if no one knows about it. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take to promote your book? Are you a speaker or trainer? Do you have a blog? A website? A newsletter? Do you use Facebook, Twitter or other social media tools? What about press releases and sending out review copies and free articles? Have you had any other ideas? Which methods do you think work best and can you give me any examples?
FC
I have 25 years branding and innovation experience (detailed in full below) and I have called on all of those skills as I developed the brand (note I don’t refer to it as a book, or a series of books) and also as I market them. I have a website, a blog, I use social marketing, I do speaking, training and most importantly I have created a really good product that people needed. I have tried to futureproof the books and designed them as beautiful objects in their own right, they are hand-bound and printed on handmade paper and are covered in hand-loom khadi fabric. I am working on the digital strategy now and other brand extensions.
Fiona Caulfield has over 25 years of global branding and innovation experience at the elite level. She specializes in ideas, branding, creativity and futurism and lives between India and Australia. Fiona resides in India and currently consults with BrainReserve, and a number of New York based Future consultancies, plus works with clients in Asia such as DMA, India’s largest branding firm; Unilever (Future of Beauty), Exclusivel.In and Citigroup.
In 2004, Fiona relocated from New York to Bangalore to create the Love Travel brand, designed for Luxury Vagabonds and now also contributes to the worlds leading travel titles including: Black Ink, Conde Nast Traveller, (UK) & Conde Nast Traveler, (USA), Club 21, Departures, DestinAsia, Endless Vacations, Journal International’s Asia and Australia Centurion and Platinum, Weekend Australian, Straits Times, Gulf Airways -Gulf Life, Singapore Airlines – Silver, Kris, Qantas – The Australian Way, Jet Wings, Luxury Newsletter, Travel & Leisure and Vogue India.
She continues to be a popular speaker on creativity and innovation at conferences and seminars and now, also, at literary festivals. At the Singapore Writers Festival in 2009 she gave a speech on the Future of Travel Writing to a sell out audience.
In North America, Fiona was the President of Faith Popcorn’s firm, BrainReserve, which specialized in applied futurism. Clients included: British Airways – Future of Travel, Campbell Soup – Future of Food, Dial – Future of the Home, Johnson & Johnson – Tylenol – Future of Pain, Lincoln Financial – Womens’ Best Future, Nike – Womens’ Division Best Future, and Springs Industries – Wamsutta – Future of Sleep. Caulfield was an active speaker at conferences and attended the prestigious CEO summit hosted by Bill Gates. Caulfield’s other North American roles included the Director of Innovation for FutureBrand; WW Managing Director at Lowe running the 3 Com business globally; Senior Partner and Executive Group Director at Ogilvy leading the IBM Server, Business Partner and Small Business assignments globally. In Australia, Fiona was the Client Service Director, DDB Needham and in England, Fiona founded her own agency CHC that was subsequently acquired by Omnicom.
JP
The route to market
How did you publish your book? What was your route to publication?
FC
I created a publishing company, Hardys Bay Publishing Pvt Ltd and then published the book, and then the next and then the next… and before you know it you end up running a publishing business.
JP
Belief in yourself
Self-belief can be a big problem for writers. How did you manage to stay confident in your ability and remember that you were good enough to write your book? How did you cope with the days when you thought you could not do it and that it was rubbish?
FC
I kept true to the idea; I wanted it to be like a letter from one friend to another. I avoided the “writing” burden and thought of it in a gentler way. I knew the information was not available and that the books and their authenticity would be unique. I just hoped other people would like them. My friends and family were constant support all the way through this life transition – from high-powered corporate executive in Manhattan to vagabond in India!
JP
Meeting the deadline
It’s easy to procrastinate, to blame writers’ block and to put off finishing your project. How did you keep yourself motivated? And how long did it take you to write it? What was your routine?
FC
At first I committed my first book to be ready for a speech I was giving. This forced the first book to be ready for a deadline. From then it got easier, I want to launch a new title each year and the books need updating at least every two years. The timing is not linear nor is the process regular. I just do what it takes to make them up to the Love Travel standard and I set deadlines and stick to them. Events like the Jaipur Literature Festival for the Jaipur launch was unmovable, and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi have helped focus my efforts to get a Love Delhi 3rd ed ready.
JP
The biggest challenge
What was your biggest challenge regarding the writing of your book? How have you overcome that?
FC
The biggest challenge is the business model and how to scale. The writing challenge is how to keep the books tight, both in terms of what makes it into the books, for each entry that is in the books about 5 or 6 don’t make it and then how to tell hundreds of interesting stories in very tight word counts. I think of each entry as a mini story.
JP
Getting feedback
I believe that getting feedback is really important to help you recognise when your writing is really good and to find ways of making it even better. How did you get feedback on your work?
FC
People who use the books write to me with feedback and content advice. This helps me hone my content. The people that sell my books also give me plenty of feedback, not that they are always right, many said they would not sell – they have changed their minds now!! I also think my writing is being honed with a skilled editor that I now employ for the guides and I think working for some of the best magazine editors in the world is unquestionably improving my skill set.
JP
The top tip
If you were to give advice to someone else who is thinking about writing a book based on their life experience what would be your number one tip?
FC
Just do it!
However if you what you really mean is that you want people to read it or you mean you want to sell the book, which are both different needs than simply writing one, then you need to think why any one would want to read it and buy it. I believe in ideas, so make sure you book has an idea, and a good one at that.
