As a writer of nonfiction, I have always been interested in newspaper and magazine columns. I thought it would be cool to be a columnist like Heloise, Erma Bombeck, Abbey, Ann Landers, Dr. Gott… I wondered, what’s it like to be responsible for writing a daily or weekly column? And how in the heck do these columnists come up with enough material for so many columns?
I actually landed a column in our small town newspaper early in my career (nearly 35 years ago). First, I studied the newspaper to see what was missing. There were already a variety of columns. What could I add to the line-up? I came up with the idea of a business column—Profiles in Business. I interviewed a couple of local business people and wrote up sample columns. I then presented my idea to the newspaper publisher. He hired me on the spot. I was a columnist. I wrote Profiles in Business every week for about three years, earning a whopping 25 cents per column inch.
I almost had a magazine column. In the late 1970s, I contributed a few articles to a new women’s sports magazine. I knew that they were still developing their magazine format, so I pitched an idea for a humor column related to women in sports. I sent the editor three sample columns and they hired me. My good luck turned sour, though, when the magazine went out of business before the column went live.
Isn’t a blog much like a column? As bloggers, we are responsible for filling space with interesting material on our particular topics.
Yes, bloggers are, in essence, columnists. We have the power to write how or what we want in our little blog spaces. We can be funny, sarcastic, satirical, serious or even crass. We create the personality of our blogs. And we can write whatever occurs to us, but it had better relate to our blog topic if we want our readers to return.
If you plan to start a blog, consider what you want it to be. Who is your audience and what will you offer them? How do you want to come across in your blog? Will you entertain, inform or teach? Can you come up with enough material to post at least once a week—preferably every day? Presumably, you will develop a blog related to your book topic/genre or your freelance writing work. So, along with your commentary, interviews, guests columnists, resource lists and solid informational articles, you’ll pitch your book or business.
Here’s your chance. If you’re like me and you’ve ever dreamed of having your own column, maybe the time has come. The blog, it seems, is the new column.