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Writing Seasonal and Anniversary Pieces 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.
* Most importantly, for anniversary and seasonal pieces, you must get your work noticed ahead of other contributors. This means working well in advance of publication dates. Shorter pieces like letters and fillers can be sent without querying editors first. Just follow those guidelines given earlier. Longer items, like articles and short stories featuring Valentino should be queried in advance.
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