Unless you live
near his hometown of Quincy, Illinois, you likely missed the death
notice this past week 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.
4 comments:
But you're right. They have to start. Nothing happens without a beginning! Great post.
Something that's never written will never get rejected -- but neither will it ever get read.
Starting is hard work! Thanks for the reminder and encouragement Andy. Needed it today; it's too easy to feel that all of these small efforts add up to nothing.
Remember the secret of writing: F.O.K.S.I.C.
Fingers on keyboard. Seat in chair.
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