How to Write Anniversary Articles


Queen's 80th Birthday
photograph by Michael Gwyther-Jones  on Flickr under CC licence

Here in England. people everywhere are 
preparing for next weekend's celebrations of 
the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.


For weeks, newspapers and magazines have 
been full of articles on everything from The 
Day I Met the Queen to How to Make Royal 
Icing.


Special days and celebrations are ideal 
subjects for the jobbing writer looking for 
publication online, in newspapers or 
magazines.


Well-targeted anniversary articles are 
excellent too for the short 150 word fillers vital for 
plugging those small page gaps. Fillers are 
always needed and  a good way for new 
writers to break into publication in magazines.


How to Check Out Anniversaries


To check out anniversaries for a 
particular day use Wikipedia with care, 
use a search engine or try newspaper and radio 
websites. Your library may have a copy of 
Chase's Calendar of Events.


The New YorkTimes has an on-this-day feature
And Ottowa Researchers provide a similar service for Canadian birthdays and events


What Happened Today?


 In 1819, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom was 
born  and  Nicolaus Copernicus, the Polish astronomer died on this day in 1643.


In 1930, pioneering pilot Amy Johnson became 
the first woman to fly from England to Australia while in 1962  American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbited the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.


It would have made an ideal article for this 
year being a fiftieth anniversary--editors love 
round dates.


They also like quirky and unusual articles. Everyone will be targeting articles on the main stories. But for a writing magazine, you'd be better tackling today as the first publication date of Mary Had a Little Lamb.


How to Find Submission Dates


Obviously check for submission guidelines or request them by email. Remember that many magazines are working as far as six months or more ahead. In other words you might need to submit Christmas dates in May.


And how do you know what the magazine is planning if it's not in the guidelines? Check out the media kit or advertising calendar. It lists the year's planned covers and main focus for each month--useful if the magazine is one which is not visibly open to submissions. Here's an example from the New Hampshire magazine and another from Eating Well.


Footnote
May is also Revise Your Work Schedule month (oh dear, I should be doing that) and if you're looking for a recipe for Royal Icing, here's one from the BBC.




 Anne Duguid is a senior content editor with MuseItUp Publishing and   her New Year's Resolution is to blog with helpful writing,editing and publishing tips at Slow and Steady Writers far more regularly than she managed in 2011.

8 comments:

T. Forehand said...

Love this advice, as I am working on becoming a full time freelance writer these ideas for generating article ideas came at just the right time for me. Thanks.

Donna McDine said...

What a fun and informative article. Great approach and tips. Thanks so much!!

All the best,
Donna
Award-winning Children’s Author
Write What Inspires You Blog

Karen Cioffi said...

Annie, great idea for articles. And thanks for all the details for submitting!

widdershins said...

What great sites you linked to ... just lost half an hour!

Magdalena Ball said...

Great ideas Annie. For novelists and other people looking to promote a book, linking articles that tie your book to an anniversary are particularly powerful.

Heidiwriter said...

Great ideas!!

Mary Jo Guglielmo said...

Great advice Annie. Thanks

Shirley Corder said...

Super ideas, Annie. Thank you. Good suggestions re connecting articles to the dates as well.

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