For the last year I have been working for another publisher who produces photo-script podcasts called Visual Travel Tours (VTT). They were soliciting travel writers to contribute content for a new medium and delivery system over the Internet that got me excited. Being in the book and traditional print industry for the last 15 years I have seen a lot of indie bookstores close and the book business rapidly consolidate in this relatively short period. For example, when I started out in publishing in 1995, the Book Expo trade industry show (then called the ABA) was a 4-day long affair. In that year it changed over to a 3-day format, and now it was just announced that next year the BEA will be a 2-day show. As traditional markets shrink or dry up altogether, what is a travel writer supposed to do? Roll with the changes baby, that's what! So when I was contacted by VTT last summer to produce Internet-delivery tours I was psyched to see a new travel publisher getting into the emerging hand-held market. Perfect. My first tour was the sailing trip I took with my Dad to the British Virgin Islands, now a complete tour with a YouTube intro and a professional actor reading my script: http://visualtraveltours.com/tours_show.html?id=209

Since then I have written and submitted 12 other tours, most around the Bay Area, with several more from my recent New England trip on the docket. VTT just launched a few days ago. Here is the link to the release on the Businesswire site:
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_v...

Of course I am excited to see VTT launch at long last, and encourage you, my dear readers, to check out their site and possibly purchase a Brad Olsen Visual Travel Tour.