Thread: Compiling 10yrs worth of Newspaper columns into a book

I'm stumped as to how to compile 10 years worth of newspaper columns into a published book. My mother wrote a humorous weekly newspaper column for 10 years during my childhood. I have since gone back to the newspaper archives and made copies of EACH AND EVERY ONE, and over the past couple of years, I have re-typed said columns! It's been a LOT of work, but now that I'm finished typing them, where do I go from here? The majority do not have dates, but by going over them with her, we can narrow it down to an extent, and guess on the rest.

How would you go about putting them in a book?
By category? i.e. holidays, children, pets, politics, housekeeping, etc.
Numerically? trying to get them in order, season to season, year to year?

It's been incredible to get a sneak peek into her life back then, almost like finding a long lost journal.
She is an outstanding writer with another book published, and she's almost finished with her auto-biography, but THIS book will be for the general public and her children and their children, and their children's children...

Any tips? Thoughts? Suggestions?

hey great read this Megaboo2323 and great news too to bring things back from the past and bringthem back to life.
I would personally propably link them to either major events that happened during the writing of each of them, and so that means researching each newspaper and linkling them to that a political/social/media/world/celebrity event.
becaues it is a newspaper you should easily find a headline from each paper and link them that way.
I would be more enclined to read them because not only am I reading something but I am also learning about world/national event which is fabulous for me anyway.
I hope this helps.

I would first categorize each entry, as you are already doing, and also catalog them in a separate index. Just the process of putting each of the columns into a category will give you ideas for the main thrust of the project, as there are bound to be a couple of categories that have way more entries than others. Once they are categorized and cataloged--with an easy to read list on one or two pages--you'll be thinking maybe you've got enough material for one or two (or more) books.

The next thing I would do (I'm telling you what I would do if it was me, right?) is find a talented illustrator to work with you. Even if the columns themselves are absolute gems of writing, a unique design and color scheme, with well-done illustrations, will make more people buy it.

You might want to consider a series...? "Jan Talks About Raising Kids" -- "Jan Talks About Pets" -- "Jan's Favorite Award-Winning Recipes" -- "Jan's Family Reunion and Wedding Disaster Stories" and so on. The first book could be relatively slim, to give an overview of "Jan's" wisdom and wit, with one or two really excellent columns on each subject--again, with cute illustrations and graphics.

As you categorize and catalog each column, you can also cross-reference it on your list with a date JUST IN CASE the publisher ever does want to try publishing them all in order, but in my opinion just having them all be in chronologic order from the get-go might be a mistake. Even if all the columns are really good, only a fan (like yourself) is going to want to sit and read through them all, one after other, see what I'm saying?

Anyway, those are my thoughts. That sounds like a lot of fun! How cool that you get along with your mom that well. Good luck!

I would also go with categories rather than chronological. I think the idea of making a catalogue is a good one, as Scarlett _156 says it will give you ideas, be on the look out for categories that allow you to bring varied pieces together, for example "people" could run from a librarian to the midwife via the paper's editor, if they are by the same person style will tend to hold them together, you want a theme without it being all ten Halloween pieces together. Sounds like a good project.