On Taiwan, Lonely Planet and Snarky Tofu: Interview with Joshua Samuel Brown

Professional nomad, travel writer and Lonely Planet co-author Joshua Samuel Brown is almost done researching Lonely Planet Singapore 8. Before he will get to the writing from home, I had the chance for a short interview.

Scenes in Taiwan

Erica Johansson: How did you get into writing guidebooks for Lonely Planet? Have you always loved writing and traveling?

Joshua Samuel Brown: I’d been doing journalism and traveling since about 1998, with a fair bit of “travel journalism” thrown in along the way. In 2006 my first book – Vignettes of Taiwan – was published, and I sent a copy to Lonely Planet. They invited me to apply for an author’s position, and shortly after I was working on my first LP title (Taiwan 7). Since then, I’ve done two more books for LP.

What is your favorite location and/or trip and why?

Any trip in which I don’t have to collect data for a guidebook or conduct interviews has been of late very dear to me. But I still do love Taiwan, if you’re looking for me to plug someplace.

For those who aren’t familiar with your blog Snarky Tofu, can you tell us a bit about it?

I do a lot of stuff with Snarky Tofu. Sometimes I run short articles that I’m considering putting into whatever Lonely Planet guide I’m working on to see what readers think – readers of Snarky T and Taiwan 7 will see a few examples of this on both. Sometimes I run experimental essays that LP wouldn’t even know what to do with, or run short stories I’ve written that really don’t fit into any particular theme. Sometimes when I’m too lazy to write I post images. Sometimes I just use the blog to vent about how I’m losing my mind. This seems to be happening more and more these days as I slip further and further out of sanity.

What are you favorite blog posts? I have to say I loved ‘My Parents Are Little People’.

I like that one too, and I’m actually going to reference it in another question. I find myself steering people to the posts that have both educational and entertainment value. Number-one visited post is “Me and the Ladyboys” – man, people just can’t get enough of ladyboys….

What advice can you give to people who want to write for Lonely Planet?

To have a clear picture of what the job entails. Much of what I do is gathering information… what time does this bowling alley open and how much are shoe-rentals, that sort of thing. The pace can be grueling, and the writing itself can sometimes be soul crushing (“Rooms are clean, tidy, and fairly spacious, and some have lovely views of the interior courtyard’s bamboo garden.”… fun, eh?). Basically, any potential writer should understand that there’s definitely a lot of “job” involved in the job.

Recently I read that Thomas Kohnstamm, one of Lonely Planet’s guidebooks authors, confessed he had faked information. Apparently, he wrote the guidebook to Colombia from his home in San Francisco. How do you think Lonely Planet’s reputation will be affected by this?

Hopefully by now you’ve sorted out fact from hype about the case – TK was commissioned only to do some front end material for the Colombia guide in question, not to do the on-the-ground research. So in this instance the “confession” was more media hype to pump up a bad-boy image which he might well deserve for other reasons. I found myself having a very ugly reaction to the case initially. Even wrote the man a fairly brutal letter & posted it on my blog, only to take it down later after I realized – through a bit of soul searching – that my reaction was based mostly on my own career doubts and dissatisfaction.

The post you mentioned earlier – “My Parents are Little People” – was written partially in response to the issue, to show people just how far some writers were willing to go to get a review. But actually I pull stunts like that all the time. Makes the day a bit more memorable.

As far as LP’s reputation, It seems that the media buzz has died down, and that most people who care have gotten the real story, namely that TK had overstated his exploits (specifically the “writing-from-home” bit) to create a buzz. I think that most readers understand that LP writers spend plenty of time on the ground researching books, and that most writers take the commitment to providing unbiased reviews very seriously.

Last… if you had all the money in the world to spend on traveling, where would you go?

My wife Laurie and I are planning to spend the next few years developing our organic farm on our land in rural Texas, growing fruits, legumes, vegetables, flowers and bamboo, as well as raising goats, ducks, and (if she lets me) ferrets. So if I were to get a sudden windfall, I’d probably just buy more stuff for the farm and save the traveling for later. Probably would buy a cool motorcycle and use it to explore the American west when I wasn’t home farming.

Thanks for the interview Joshua and good luck with your Texas plans! I have to admit, you’re not the only one who wants to explore the American west on a cool motorcycle.

For more information about Joshua, head over to Snarky Tofu or visit his website at http://www.josambro.com.