A Conversation With Patrice La Vigne, Author And Freelance Outdoor Writer
On the struggles of marketing a book, nourishing her creative practice, the work dynamics with her husband, and keeping a personal blog
Patrice La Vigne is a writer and author based in Alaska near Denali National Park. Last year on November 15, she published her very first book, Between Each Step: A Married Couple’s Thru Hike on New Zealand’s Te Araroa. It’s a travel memoir about the joys and hardships she experienced during the hike she completed with her husband, Justin. Patrice is also a freelance writer for publications like Backpacker, Outside, and Alaska Magazine. Her personal writing appears on her blog, Wandering La Vignes.
Over the past few years, I’ve gotten to know Patrice pretty well through our roles as fellow outdoor writers. We communicate often for work and as friends, and I’ve interviewed her before about how she manages vacation time as a freelancer. This time though, she shared more about her creative dynamics with Justin, their non-traditional lifestyle, the struggles of marketing a book, and what nourishes her soul.
What is your craft?
Writing, writing, writing. I’ve always considered myself a writer. Even thinking back to my teenage years, I pestered my local newspaper to write an article. Then I went to college for English and communications. I was editor of my college newspaper. I graduated and followed a writing path. I started out by doing a lot of medical writing for about 15 years. I’ve been blogging personally since 2008. In the past eight years, I finally penetrated the outdoor writing market, which has been my goal all my life. I always wanted to be published in Backpacker Magazine. The first time I got my byline, I was dying of joy. Freelance writing, particularly in the outdoors, is my bread and butter. Then in 2020, I added author to my craft. But I also have other jobs to fill in the cracks.
What are your other jobs in addition to writing?
Justin and I adopted a non-traditional life around 2011. What that means is we do a lot of seasonal work. It feels like there’s three pieces: the writing, the hospitality industry, and environmental education. That includes on and off contract work like environmental education for Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. For example, this summer, I wrote curriculum for them. I also clean Airbnbs and that’s seasonal up here, but over the years, that has been one of our mainstays. We’ve done a lot of property caretaking as one of our mainstays over the years.
Get your own copy of Patrice’s book. Order through her website, on Amazon, or better yet, at your local bookstore or library.
What was the thinking around adopting a non-traditional life? Was that a big conversation between you and Justin?
Hiking was the catalyst. In 2011, we thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. That had been the plan for years. We both had full time jobs and we were living somewhere permanently. We planned to save up enough money so we could leave our jobs for at least six months to a year, and the plan was to return to that status quo life. As we were hiking, not only did we realize how much we loved long distance hiking, we also realized that we had grand ideas of how we can step away from the norm. That freedom on the trail was super addicting. So we were having conversations on the trail like, what’s next for us? Justin’s background is in outdoor recreation and the hospitality industry. One of the ideas we came up with was wanting to run a hiker hostel on the Appalachian Trail. As we were hiking, we stayed at one that was looking for new managers. So that opportunity fell into our laps, and we quickly jumped onboard with it. That job helped us realize property management is one way we can move around the country and still work. It was also a very non-traditional schedule and afforded us the flexibility to go for a hike in the middle of the day. Some gigs turned out to be more work, whereas others were like two hours a week.
We’ve also done speaking tours about Leave No Trace education. We said that we were part-time van lifers because we were going in and out of these gigs on the road and being nomads. We had what we think was the best of both worlds. Now, we’ve settled in a cabin in Alaska and, while we’re in our own home again, it still feels like it’s a non-traditional life because we’re still doing several different types of work. It’s still a life less ordinary.
What has it been like to promote your book, both the challenges and victories?
I felt like writing the book was the easiest part of the process. As for challenges, pitching and finding a publisher sort of sucked the wind out of me. It opened my eyes in a good way to the beast of marketing. Most publishers these days—traditional, non traditional, hybrid, and self published—leave you to do the promotion. They do very little for you. As I was prepping for my publishing date, Justin helped me come up with this list of ideas that were going to be my marketing plan. Even though I felt prepared for the process, it still surprised me and felt more arduous than I had envisioned. Disheartening is the best way to describe it. It feels like you put so much effort in and there’s such a small return on investment. I think it’s just the reality of where we’re at. There are just so many books out there.
As for victories, other authors are such gems. They’re so helpful because we all share the same ideas or interests. I like to be very transparent. I like not worrying about what’s going on in the other lane, but it’s still helpful to get a general sense of things. Most books in my genre sell less than 250 copies in their first year. We set a very small goal of 500 books in my lifetime. From our website, we’ve sold just about 300. Then from Amazon and elsewhere, I’ve sold over 700. I feel proud of that.
Check out more of Patrice’s writing:
Fishing for Burbot in Alaska Magazine
Best Backpacking Food of 2021 in Backpacker Magazine
The Hottest New Gear Dropping in Spring/Summer 2022 in Outside Business Journal
Now that you have a book, do you feel fulfilled? Or are you the type of person who’s looking for what’s next?
I’m the type of person who is really content in the moment. I like to relish and bask in that glory. I’m so proud of myself, and I’m so excited to admit that I’m an author. It’s still so new, and I still feel like an imposter. I’m just so all in on this book right now that I don’t have my sights set on another book or any big projects. I’m just keeping it all small and doing all those different jobs. It’s so nice to hear from readers when something in the book resonates with them. All those compliments make me glow and blush every time. But a lot of people have been like, I can’t wait for your next one. I’m like, yeah, of course I want to write another one. I love the writing process, but I don’t love the marketing process. It would take a lot for me to get there.
Have you learned anything new about yourself through the process?
I think I learned a lot about my relationship with Justin. We’ve been married for 15 years now. When I was going through the editing process, my editor suggested that I dive deeper into our relationship dynamics since we live, work, and play together, and that just doesn’t happen often with partners in love. I took their advice and reread the manuscript for probably the twelfth time with that in mind. And it was a reckoning for me. It was almost like I was looking at our relationship from an outsider standpoint. The hike took place seven years ago. So much has changed since then. On paper, the modern day nomad life is very idyllic. But I realized how complicated our life was and how we had sort of morphed into one unit. Revisiting the hike helped me see how different we are. I think at moments, it was really hard to tell where my life ended and his begun. So I needed to unsnarl my identity from the hybrid we had become. The hike taught me to gain confidence in myself, not the circumstances.
What is your creative dynamic with Justin?
His favorite thing is to dream big. He dreams of these big, bold, colorful ideas and then I squash them. Or in a better way, I sort of tone it down so that it becomes a reality. He’s good at coming up with pitches, but then I’m really good at formulating them. I’m the detail-oriented one, the organizational one, the planner. Most of the opportunities I’ve had in my life have been thanks to him. The reason that we hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2011 was because of him. The reason that we adopted that non-traditional life was because of him. The reason that I started a blog was because of him. It’s just because he’s this idea man. I’m very practical and guarded, and I don’t like to take on too much. He’s the complete opposite. I feel like we find balance.
How do you get in the mindset to write about different things?
I definitely triage my writing schedule. One day I’ll be writing about gear, the next day I’ll move onto another project. I don’t feel like I can work on two projects in the same day just because there’s always so much else going on. And I need my play time, too. I do feel like I’m a very good multitasker. But what I’ve found is that I have to shorten my to-do lists for the day so I feel better about accomplishing things and I can give 100 percent to everything. What I’m working on is my whole being, my whole energy level. I don’t know if that’s age or just the chaos of juggling so many different balls. I think the to-do list realization was related to recognizing anxiety and how it impacts me. I started using a paper planner two years ago and it just felt so much better than having this big to-do list. Every morning, one of the first things I do is look at my planner for the day and set those goals.
What fills up your heart and your soul?
Woah, this is a deep one. I think the kindness of others and the connection that you make with them. I also love reading and I love writing, and I feel like a new person when I get to spend a day doing either of those activities. And getting out in nature is where I feel most at home.
Do you think you’re going to be freelance writing for the rest of your life?
Even when I first entered my writing career in a traditional job where there was opportunity to move up, I never wanted to move up. I never wanted the manager role or any of that. I was just so happy being a writer. When I was still a full-time worker, I went remote way back in 2005. It feels like I was at the beginning of that time when people started to work from home. I realized how disciplined I was and how awesome it was to not leave my house. Once that morphed into freelance writing, I can say with almost certainty, I will probably never go back to an office job or work in person anywhere. And I hope to always be a freelance writer, and I hope the work can flourish and sustain me for as long as possible.
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