It is now six years since the late fall of 2007 when Linda
Salzman emailed me and asked if I would be interested in contributing to a
group blog called Interesting Nonfiction for Kids or I.N.K. My first question was, “Does it pay?” When she said the anticipated “No,” I immediately replied that I was in. The marching order for my life and career,
which I’ve always told my kids, was three things:
- · I might learn something
- · It might lead someplace
- · It paid well
Two out of three determined if I would do it; Linda’s blogging
opportunity met the first two criteria.
One post a month did not seem like a heavy lift, besides I had some old,
previously published articles sitting around that I could resurrect if I ran
out of ideas. At that time, people were just
starting to create individual blogs on their websites, which I was reluctant to
do. I was afraid of the pressure of
having to come up with something,
anything, on a regular basis to build a readership in cyberspace where
there seemed to be an infinite number of writers competing for a finite number of
eyeballs. I wanted to make sure that everything
I wrote had enough “dwell time” to satisfy me. (Does that sound like I’m a diva?)
Linda’s request tapped into a deep-rooted insecurity. As a child, I wondered who would ever be interested
in anything I had to say. Pundits seemed
to know so much and have so much confidence.
I never thought I could ever be in such a league. I became a scientist in part because science gave me
authority. After all, I wasn't talking
about my ideas. There was empirical evidence for scientific knowledge. I discovered that once I understood a
scientific concept, I had a gift for explaining it so that others got it. By
writing a lot of different things early in my career (because they paid well
enough) I found my voice and discovered that writing is a craft that changes
one. I was a different person after I had
written a book than I was beforehand.
The process of writing, of thinking through something to share with
others, changes the writer. I discovered
that, no matter what the subject or how many others had written about it, my
take was always somewhat different and furthered the conversation. It was enough to build confidence.
Blogging for I.N.K. opened up something in me. I loved the writing, the community, the
comments, and ultimately, the conversation.
I became concerned with education and began blogging for Education
Update, the online version of a print newspaper here in NYC. I started out there by writing once a week,
but they couldn’t publish as fast as I wrote.
I have been transformed from a girl who was afraid to share her ideas to
a woman of a certain age who can’t shut up.
It seems that my well is not likely to dry up any time soon.
In September, I
became a regular blogger for the Huffington Post. This meant getting approved by a gate-keeping
editor who set up my account. Every post is screened by editors before publishing.
(So far, all but one of mine have been
published.) Huff Post has hundreds, maybe thousands of bloggers. My plan is to publish twice a week, at least
in the beginning to establish a following.
I am writing carefully, so that it doesn’t look like I’m selling
anything (they frown on that at HP) but I do have an agenda. I want to promote our genre to an audience
that, for the most part, doesn’t think about us and the contribution we make to
the education of children (and adults, if they’re interested in learning
something new). This means I can talk
about just about everything.
So please support me so I can support you. Send me ideas for issues you want discussed
(email@vickicobb.com),teachers, please speak to me, nf books that need attention (especially I.N.K.ers),
follow me (click on the rss or google+ feed to get my columns regularly), share,
tweet, comment. It’s helpful if you can
tie your thoughts (or your book) to a news peg. Here's what I wrote for Tanya Lee Stone, David Schwartz, and Jan Greenberg.
It might lead someplace.
And if it doesn't, we’ll all learn something. For the record, blogging doesn't pay, at least not
directly with money.
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