The Catholic Writers Guild

From an episode of M*A*S*H:

Cpl. Klinger to Radar: “What’s up?”

Radar: “Mrs. Potter called all the way from stateside. She had a premonition that something was happening to the Colonel.”

Cpl. Klinger: “My mother gets those. She had a premonition about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.”

Radar: “She tell anybody?”

Klinger: “Nah. She didn’t get it until December 9th.”

Like nailing the lottery by having tomorrow’s newspaper (name that show), the success of your latest freelance work depends on timing. You can get a clue from your local department store.

In the heat of August, with temperatures in the nineties, the local store has fall and winter clothing on display. In the freezing month of February (for us in Pennsylvania), the stores feature sandals and shorts. What the heck is happening?

Stores plan ahead and get their merchandise in for what will be needed, not what is needed now. Christmas merchandise is available before Halloween, and the week after Christmas you will find displays for Valentine’s Day.

For the freelance writer with that perfect article for Christmas, the submission deadline may be the Easter before. If you want to pitch the perfect summer getaway spot to a travel magazine, their calendar may require a submission by April Fool’s Day.

Six- to ten-month lead times are not unusual for magazines. Some go even longer, planning a full year in advance, especially for big issues like Christmas.

Then there are articles that are known as evergreen. These are topics that magazines run on a recurring basis. An example is the supermarket checkout-line magazine proclaiming “Easy Way to Lose 10 Pounds Now.” Another evergreen article may be “Simplest Meals for Your Holiday Feast.” But the author still needs good timing to pitch these articles. Few magazines run the same type of article every month; their readers want some variety. Many will have evergreen articles run on a quarterly or yearly schedule. The freelance writer can figure this out with a trip to the local library to peruse back issues.

Current events are also an opportunity for a freelancer. A visit by an important person — say, the Pope coming to the United States — is often advertised well in advance. A freelance writer could pitch an idea that ties in to the upcoming trip. In this case the time frame is much shorter, and you can guarantee a bunch of writers will have the same idea, so make your query letter shine!

Related to current events is the anniversary article. “Seventy-five years ago today …” For this type of article, don’t just report facts. Try to put a different spin on the article or tie it in with a point of interest to the magazine editor. Example: For a query to an alumni magazine — “John Jacob Jingleheimerschmidt, class of 1910, received the Gold Star of Valor for his participation in the Battle of Ice Cream Mountain of 1913, rescuing twenty-one men from a landslide of chocolate sauce caused by an enemy barrage of salted peanuts.” Anniversary articles may require a long lead time, eight months or more, so the freelancer is looking ahead on the calendar for these types of gigs. Sources for ideas can be the almanac, online research (“this day in history”), and so on.

A third related category is the dedication months. By this I mean Fire Safety Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Heart Healthy Month, Active Kids Month, Grandparents Month, etc. More and more organizations are trying to educate the public on their particular cause in the hope of solving a problem and raising money to accomplish that goal. The freelancer can mine these annual occurrences for ready-made pitches.

The good news about timing is that once you figure it out for a magazine, it is slow to change. Freelancers can then plan their work ahead, knowing where to send a query and when — a much better scenario than frantically looking for a place to send your latest opus.