Interview: W. Bruce Cameron
8/16/02
Where do you live?
I live in a small corner of the house, forced there by the rest of the family. I’m allowed to come out for meals. Otherwise, if I’m spotted wandering around outside of my area, my wife thrusts lists of things “to do” at me, and my children demand I pay them allowance.
Where and when did you start your career as a humor writer?
I published an underground newspaper in college that pretty much established my writing style. Then a very few years later… like, 20… I began selling humor essays to web sites and other publications.
The Cameron Column debuted on the internet in 1995. Were you producing it before then?
Not really, except that I’d write letters to people and they’d write back and say either, “oh my gosh this is so funny you should be published,” or, “stop writing me I will NOT marry you and that’s final.”
You have a phenomenal number of subscribers- how did it grow so fast?
FAST? Are you kidding? It was agony. I remember when I hit my first 100 subscribers, I almost fainted. This was a pretty obscure effort for a long, long time. What changed that for me was being carried on large humor websites and circulated through large joke lists. I can always tell when this happens, because I’ll receive hundreds of subscriptions in a few hours.
Do all your stories come from real life?
Let’s just say that real life shows me the POTENTIAL for humor. I usually exaggerate a little for effect and in order to drive my teenage daughters crazy.
Do the Rocky Mountain News columns differ from the internet column? How did you get the gig?
Sometimes the internet columns are different. The Rocky holds me to 700 words, but on the internet I can be as long as I need to be (often a subject just won’t live within the 700 word restriction.) I also sell to a few web sites, like iUniverse and GenerationA, and those are different. I got the gig by landing the services of a literary agency, and my agent just hounded the paper until they gave up and hired me. Oh, and also I chained myself naked to the newspaper’s bike rack and refused to move until they started printing the column. That was pretty uncomfortable, especially on Bike to Work Day, let me tell you. (See what I mean? POTENTIALLY, this happened.)
What makes you laugh?
Whatever doesn’t kill me.
What writers have influenced you work?
Erma Bombeck comes to mind. She was always so self-effacing. Dave Barry is the master, I am not worthy. And I want to BE Carl Hiaasen, only with a last name I can spell.
What are your goals as a humor writer? What projects are coming up?
I have a book coming out on Father’s Day next year entitled “The 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Daughter.” It’s a how-to book on raising teenage daughters, which is impossible. And I’m trying now to join a syndicate, not the kind that says “Louie the Lip sleeps with the fishes,” but the other kind. So far, the syndicates are saying no, something to do with wanting “quality.” I’m carried now by the Scripps Howard Wire Service, which means I am published all over the place in newspapers, but they don’t have to pay me to do this. I do not like this situation–I like to be paid. Money is my friend.
What’s been your biggest challenge?
Plagiarism. If you do a search on “Rules for dating my daughter,” as an example, you’ll find hundreds of web sites carrying versions of my essay “The 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Daughter” many without attribution, and a lot with different rules than what I originally wrote. I tell anyone who is thinking about posting on the web to get ready to have their work stolen. I’ve had essays appear under other people’s by-lines, even with other people’s COPYRIGHT attached. For the first few years I was pretty angry, but I had to get over it. There’s really nothing you can do about it.
Is being a humor columnist your only job?
I also speak to corporate, church, and writer’s groups, leaving them stunned and drained.—————
We highly recommend getting Bruce’s weekly column. Send a message to [email protected] with the words “subscribe cameron” in lower case as the first line in your message.
His website is brucecameron.com
Note: W. Bruce Cameron is the most successful humor columnist in cyberspace. His website gets over 125,000 hits a month. His internet humor column, The Cameron Column, is sent to over 40,000 people in 52 countries.
He is successful in the off-line world as well- he is the humor columnist for the Rocky Mountain News. His New York Times best-selling book “8 Rules for Dating My Daughter” has been turned into an ABC show airing this fall starring John Ritter. He is also one of the original members of an association of leading internet humor columnists called The Net Wits.
