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Writing
Seasonal and Anniversary Pieces
Updated:
It's a well-known
fact, editors and readers are fascinated by anniversaries and
special events, as can be witnessed by the enormous range of 'On
This Day' and 'In the News X Years Ago' features commonly
found in local, regional and national newspapers and magazines.
Seasonal and
anniversary matters can add sparkle to most kinds of filler.
Alternatively, some writers concentrate exclusively on writing
seasonal and anniversary pieces for numerous markets.
Articles, fillers, 'how to' pieces, jokes, useful tips, and so on,
are all suitable writing forms.
One main thing to bear in mind is lead-times for magazines and
newspapers. For special editions, such as Christmas and
holiday issues, most monthly publications work several months ahead
of publication dates, weekly publications frequently work one or two
months ahead, daily publications a week or more.
Most importantly, you should anticipate the needs of editors, before
someone else gets in first! This means writing for Christmas
issues during early summer, and starting work on holiday features as
the rest of the world tucks into its Christmas dinner.
Anniversary pieces are popular with most publications, especially
where an unusual angle is adopted for a well-known anniversary.
Writers' Rules
* The anniversary of famous 'firsts' and 'lasts' are
popular with most magazines, especially where they apply to
shared interests of readers. So, a magazine read by cookery
enthusiasts might be interested in your piece about the 100th
anniversary of the first time a particular dish was served in
Britain,
the 25th anniversary of some famous Thanksgiving Day disaster, and
so on.
* Build a library of books about famous events, anniversaries,
records, biographies, and so on. A useful selection is listed
later in this course.
Example
I take Thanksgiving Day as my subject, from which I list all
potential angles, markets, related themes.
I might end up with the following ideas to query with editors:
- Ways to cook turkey. For British and American women's
magazines and most publications with a cookery and food theme.
- How Thanksgiving Day started. With a new slant my
article might be of interest to numerous US publications.
British editors might be interested in my proposal for a feature
specifically geared towards their readers. For a magazine
aimed at mothers of pre-school children I might write about how to
create a Turkey costume, how to model balloons in the turkey shape.
For women's magazines I might write about how to organise a dinner
party with a Thanksgiving Day theme.
* Speed and timing are vitally important. Aim to be
first to get your manuscript on the editor's desk and it could well
be the one he publishes.
* More than anything, however, anniversaries and special
events present a fantastic way for writers, new and
long-established, to research facts about the special day which can
be worked into dozens of different well-paying writing forms, for
example, readers' letters, fillers, mini-articles, compilations,
columns, crosswords and puzzles, and much more besides.
For example, this year the Queen Mother reached her one hundredth
birthday, a feat that was marked extensively in publications all
over the world. You will spot crosswords and picture
compilations regarding the life and times of the Queen Mother, as
well as short articles and longer features.
Imagine that you have a few old papers, say from the time of the
early days of the Queen Consort's reign, which might be worked into
a few letters, or you find old publications giving odd tips and
facts from the time, think how well these can be targeted at women's
magazines all over the world.
* For another idea, gardening magazines from the 30s and 40s
contained dozens of tips each issue, many little-used or simply
forgotten today.
So an article targeted at gardening magazines listing those odd tips
would be welcomed worldwide and would also form the basis of an
excellent book for gardeners.
* Another idea we have already benefited from ourselves, is to
collect odd and unusual recipes from wartime Britain and other
periods of austerity which can be published separately as fillers
and simple recipes, or compiled into books and articles.
You see, the openings here are unlimited, absolutely unlimited.
Anyone failing to make good use of these tremendous anniversary
opportunities is wasting a potentially invaluable resource.
So get the pen or computer out now and begin profiting from this
unique writing form, and continue profiting every day.
Remember every day is an anniversary of something, somewhere, from
some time.
Useful
Tips
*
Look for an unusual angle to set your work apart from that of other
writers and make yours most likely to be published. For
example, January 2001 marks the 100th anniversary of the
death of Queen Victoria. Countless writers will cover this
fact for worldwide publications, though few will consider seeking
unusual ways to make their writing more appealing to general
interest magazines. An old postcard I have, however, might be
a great starting point for a short filler on royalty's attitude to
animals over the years. The Queen is giving her views on
vivisection saying in her role she can not agree with either side of
the debate. The fact my filler coincides with Victoria's 100th
will be purely incidental.
* Submit your manuscript well in advance of the appropriate
season or anniversary. Some editors plan seasonal and
commemorative issues several months ahead. Remember, too, that
all publications have lead times, when all material to be used in a
particular issue must be ready. Lead times vary but generally
you should have seasonal contributions to monthly and weekly
publications at least a few issues in advance. Daily
publications, similarly, start work on seasonal pieces at least a
few days in advance, sometimes several weeks.
* Your customers will be editors and publishers from all
corners of the world, regardless of what topics and subjects they
specialise in. The trick is to target one specific anniversary
or event to lots of different markets, based on your initial
research. So, if you decide to write about the 100th
anniversary of the birth of Rudolph Valentino (born May 6, 1895), as
I did in 1995, you should look for ways to make the anniversary
interesting to all kinds of markets. This is what to do.
* Read around the subject first, gathering as much information
as you can about Rudolph Valentino. Make a list of any unusual
facts you discover. Next make a list of possible markets, including
general and special interest markets. To start with, Rudolph's
story will be of interest to movie magazines, women's weeklies,
romance titles, and so on. But look further into the subject
and you will find that Rudolph Valentino was a motion picture actor
who was idolised by countless women as the 'Great Lover' of the
1920s. He came from Italy to the United States in 1913 and
worked for a time as a gardener, dishwasher, and later as a dancer
in vaudeville. Valentino's death caused mass hysteria, several
suicides, and riots at his lying in state. Each year after his
death a mysterious 'Woman in Black', sometimes several, appeared at
his tomb.
If you haven't guessed it already, whatever you find about Valentino
can be weaved into articles, fillers, even a biography about him.
Magazines and newspapers to look out for include anything printed on
the day of his birth and anything published at the time of his
death. Anything published about him in between is vitally
important, too, and remember that he appeared in countless magazines
and newspapers in the 1920s, so you need never run short of
information.
From that short history of his life, I would target my articles and
letters towards ladies' magazines, romance titles, gardeners'
publications, stage and dance titles, all local and national
newspapers, and many, many more.
LINKS
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