Just thinking about it won’t launch your career.
by Andy Scheer
Unless you live near his hometown of Quincy, Illinois, you likely missed the death notice this past month for Ernest Hemmings.
But if you’re among the half-million people who each month receive Hemmings Motor News and its three companion magazines, you probably saw the news — and expressed gratitude for what he began in 1954. An auto parts dealer who sold items for Model T and Model A Fords, Ernest Hemmings started with a four-page mimeographed newsletter. By the end of the year, he had 500 subscribers.
The monthly publication grew too big for one man to handle, and he sold the operation in 1969.
Today Hemmings Motor News serves as an indispensable resource for people interested in antique autos, with each 500-page issue offering nearly 400 pages of classified ads for cars, parts, and services. Besides the four magazines’ half-million print readers, an equal number each month visit the daily blog.
All from a four-page mimeographed newsletter.
If you’re starting as a writer today, you’ll likely begin with a blog or a website. Or contributing to someone else’s.
If you offer the right content for the right people, your influence may grow.
But only if you start. And usually that means starting small.
