The language was hardly typical of the CEO of a respected travel guide publisher. “This is a shit,” Lonely Planet chief executive Judy Slatyer wrote to employees. “None of you deserve it, given the effort you put in.”
The problem for Slatyer and her colleagues was that a Lonely Planet author had published an exposé of the world of budget-travel writing.
Thomas Kohnstamm, co-author of a dozen Lonely Planet guides to Latin America and the Caribbean, has written his own book. In it he tells how the life of a travel writer is one of poor pay, dealing drugs to make ends meet and, in one case, failing to visit the country he was writing about.
PHOTO: MICHAEL KEARNEY, TAIPEI TIMES
The furor over Kohnstamm’s claims threatens to undermine the series’ most important asset: trustworthiness.
“I found out very quickly I was not able to go to all the places I needed to go to,” he told interviewers. “They didn’t pay me enough to go to Colombia. I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating.”
Lonely Planet moved swiftly to counter Kohnstamm’s charges. For example, the company said his claims that he did not travel to Colombia were “disingenuous” because he was hired to write about the history of the country, not to travel there.
But another Lonely Planet author, Jeanne Oliver, wrote back that the company should shoulder some responsibility: “Why did you [management] not understand that when you hire a constant stream of new, unvetted people, pay them poorly and set them loose, that someone, somehow was going to screw you?”
For now, Kohnstamm says his days of exotic adventure are behind him. He has moved back to his native Seattle and will soon concentrate on promoting his book, Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?
(THE GUARDIAN)
「這根本就是胡說八道，」對一個受人景仰的旅遊指南出版社執行長來說，說這樣的話並不常見；寂寞星球執行長茱蒂．史萊雅在寫給員工的信中說：「努力投入工作的你們，沒有人該承受這種污辱。」
史萊雅之所以會寫這封信給她的同事們，是因為有一位《寂寞星球》的作者出版了一本書，內容揭露旅遊作者在有限預算下寫作的弊端。
曾和其他作者合著寂寞星球拉丁美洲和加勒比海等旅遊指南的湯瑪士．康史達姆個人撰寫了一本新書；書中提到旅遊作者的稿費少得可憐，必須靠販毒才能糊口，而且他還介紹了一個他根本就沒去過的國家。
康史達姆的言論所引起的風波，可能會動搖該旅遊指南最重要的核心價值：可信度。
「我很快就發現我根本沒辦法去我需要去的地方，」他告訴記者：「因為他們付給我的錢根本不夠付我去哥倫比亞的旅費，我是在舊金山寫完哥倫比亞指南，裡面的資訊都是和我交往的女孩告訴我的。」
寂寞星球立刻針對康史達姆的指控作出回應；例如，出版社表示，康史達姆說他沒有造訪哥倫比亞這點「不坦誠」，因為他的工作是負責撰寫哥國的歷史，而不是遊記。
但是另一位寂寞星球作者珍妮．奧立弗回信表示，公司應該負擔部份責任；她說：「你們這些管理者為什麼不明白在你們不斷聘僱新進、未經審核的作者，支付他們微薄的報酬，又沒有控管制度的情況下，遲早會遭人惡整的道理呢？」
康史達姆則表示，他現在已經不再四處旅遊了，他已搬回家鄉西雅圖，而且他很快就會投入新書《旅遊作者該去死嗎？》的宣傳活動。（衛報�翻譯：袁星塵）
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