Mary Rose Remington – I have actually six, so if you’re into writing like I am, to take notes, six sequential steps for landing a column.
Number one, before you get started, I want you to examine what you’re writing objectives are. That’s just a fancy term for what do you want to get out of this column. I just listed five different things that you could get, and maybe there are some additional things that I haven’t thought of that you could also get from your column. You really have to ask yourself, and there’s no sin with starting off, “I need to earn money.” Well, if that’s your primary objective, then you’re going to go for publications that pay well. I’ll very soon get to how you find those. If it’s all about publicity, well, maybe you might even do a free giveaway for awhile with your column to get publicity. I think it’s important to decide what’s on the forefront. I was just talking to somebody before we started and she was saying she’s doing all these different things. Well, what’s one or two of those new work objectives that you’re trying to jumpstart. Take a look at your writing objectives as number one.
Number two, and this is somewhat logical and linear and it doesn’t always have the happen this way. The world’s very abundant. I actually got my first column, somebody just asked me, “Would you go interview all these people who have used alternative treatment methods, their success stories and we’ll do a column on it.” A column can even come to you, and be open to that. But here’s a logical, sequential step. After you examine your writing objectives, start getting published clips. You can even start, if there’s a little local paper, just get something published, a little company newsletter that you submit to, an online website that you can actually get it published online and just make a copy. Editors like to see that you’ve been published. So number two, get some published clips—submit your work and get published, and maybe you do a giveaway the first time.
Number three; study the publications you want to write for. It’s the most frequent mistake, I guess, of writers. They start thinking they know what the publication is and they submit work that does not match up at all. It’s a waste of your time and postage and energy. Study. Read the publications you want to write for. Do they have a sense of humor? Do they have controversial subjects? I like to do this one—take a look at a publication, and if you see all male writers, that’s how I got my column in the Catholic Press. I’m like hello, they’re all priests; it’s all collars, or ten collars, and not that there’s no room for them, but the people who reading it are laypeople and the majority of them are women. You can almost teach your editors how bad they need you. Study the publications. Get them, get sample copies, go to Barnes and Noble or wherever you get your material, and sit and read them.
Number four, send for the Writer’s Guidelines, which I won’t go into great detail yet how to get them because we’re going to get there. What those are, are directions from the publications that spell out exactly what they want, how they want it sent, what they don’t want, and who to send it to. Ideally, they list how much they pay. Get the Writer’s Guidelines and then read the Writer’s Guidelines.
Number five is write a column query. That’s going to be a one-page and one-page only letter to the editor explaining what it is that you’re proposing. I’ll go into much greater detail on what exactly this includes. Write the query and then submit—and I say simultaneous submissions. What that means is, you write a letter, you change the address and whatnot to the person you’re sending it to, and flood the market. I teach my students, you’ll get rejected the first 50 if you’re like any normal human being, you’ll get rejected the first 50 submissions you make. I did. But it’s the sheer number. Flooding the market with…and I would say you wouldn’t even send less than ten queries to editors.
Number six, I’m reminded of Winston Churchill, who gave one line for a commencement speech years ago; he said, “Never give up. Never give up. Never give up,” and he sat down. I’m going to say, “Follow up. Follow up. Follow up.” The difference between successful writers and unsuccessful writers is right here, number six, follow up. Seven to thirteen communications is my average before I get an editor to either read and acknowledge that I sent something or to get to the next step—7-13 times.
Those are my six sequential steps for landing a column.