A Writer's Calendar

Scheduling Seasonal Articles

Dec 29, 2008 Thomas Alan Gray

The lead time for seasonal material can be a several weeks for newspapers and half a year or more for magazines. This handy aid will help you submit your work in time.

Your New Year's Resolution for January will include polishing up that Spring Gala piece for the newspapers and those "summer living" tips for the magazines. Print publications have long lead times of up to three months for the larger daily or weekly newspapers and up to eight months (or more) for monthly magazines.

A wonderful Christmas article idea that comes to mind in mid-November 2008 is not going into the December 2008 issue of Canadian Living! Assuming that it's marketable and appropriate, your article might just squeak into a large daily newspaper, will probably have no trouble at the local weekly newspaper, and will certainly be welcome online at Suite 101. But is that the most effective (and profitable) way to market your work?

A new freelance writer needs to be aware of the varying lead time for different publication media and plan accordingly.

Seasonal Articles in Newspapers

Local community newspapers generally welcome well-written submissions on fairly short notice (four weeks, even less if they have room and the article is relevant and topical; query first).

According to Ray Turchansky, an Edmonton freelance journalist (personal interview), "The [Edmonton] Journal usually gives me about three weeks for a special project. The editor will call or email his stable of freelance writers and say, 'I'm doing a project on such and such for this date, are you interested?' The writer will have two or three days to respond.'" The author has also found this three-week invitational lead time to be typical of trade publications as well.

An unknown writer, however, will have to query well in advance.

For a newspaper published in - You must be prepared to submit by

January - November

February - December

March - January

April - February

May - March

June - April

July - May

August - June

September - July

October - August

November - September

December - October

Seasonal Articles in Magazines

Print magazines have lead times that are considerably longer, typically six to nine months, though some may want material as much as a year in advance. Again, once you are known to the magazine, you may be allowed a shorter lead time. As always, study the publication's guidelines for writers.

For a magazine Issue in - You should be prepared to submit by

January - July

February - August

March - September

April - October

May - November

June - December

July - January

August - February

September - March

October - April

November - May

December - June

Scheduling Holiday Articles

In other words, for magazine publication, the time to write your holiday articles works like this:

New Year: Submit in July or earlier
Valentine's Day - Have them in by August
Easter/Spring/Passover - Do these by September or sooner
Mother's Day/Victoria Day/Memorial Day - You'll want these in by November
Canada Day/Independence Day - Have them by January
Hallowe'en/Canadian Thanksgiving - Submit in April or sooner
Veteran's Day/Remembrance Day - Do these in May
Christmas - Submit in June or before

Scheduling Online Articles

While there is no technical difficulty with posting an article at any time, for maximum impact and to allow traffic to build, you will still need sufficient lead time. A Christmas article published in mid-December will miss the period of peak searches; the same article published in October would maximize the number of potential hits and related revenue. This seems to lie within the newspaper schedule given above.

Proper Scheduling Pays

Smaller local publications and online article sites may have shorter lead times (check the publication guidelines for specific details). But in all cases, plan to have your seasonal material ready for submission well in advance to improve your chances of acceptance and to boost your revenue.

The copyright of the article A Writer's Calendar in Freelance Writing is owned by Thomas Alan Gray. Permission to republish A Writer's Calendar in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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