Working on a project can be a fun and deeply rewarding experience — and seeing the finished product arrive in the mailbox is the icing on the cake. But what do you do if wrangling content from contributors or writers is like corralling cats? And for larger projects, like directories, how do you approach collecting the sheer volume of content?
You’re not alone. Below are some best practices for gathering content, for magazines, directories and everything in between.
1. Reach Out Early and Persistently
Ahead of the issue deadline, you should have received a project schedule. That schedule should include the content deadline, the approval deadline and the estimated time frame to receive copies. Upon receiving the schedule, it’s important to put it on your calendar. And depending on how frequently writers need to be nudged, it could be a good idea to place some dates on your calendar to reach out to them ahead of the deadline. A good rule of thumb is to remind writers of their deadlines 4 weeks and 2 weeks prior to whatever deadline you need to review their writing and send it to Innovative Publishing. (For directories, 6-week, 4-week and 2-week reminders might be more beneficial.)
But you don’t have to solely rely on your calendar. Innovative Publishing’s editorial project coordinators, also called editors, send out 4-week and 2-week deadline reminders, so you can follow those. And if you have more specific deadline needs, you can work with your editor and they can send additional “writing deadline reminders” or something similar if you’d like. Your editor is an excellent resource and would be happy to help!
2. Take Advantage of General Interest Content
But what do you do if, no matter how many times you nudge them, writers aren’t meeting deadlines? Innovative Publishing has a backlog of general interest content that editors can pull from in a moment’s notice. It’s good practice to reach out to your editor and request some general interest articles ahead of time that match your industry. Editors can send a handful of articles for review. This can be done at any time ahead of production, and it might be beneficial to maintain a list of 2-3 general interest articles at all times. That way, if a writer cancels last minute, you can pull from the pre-approved list and keep production running smoothly.
If you give your editor a list of topics, they can also search the general interest database for articles on those topics. And if you need an article updated, be sure to let the editor know ASAP so they can assign those update edits to a writer.
3. Take Stock of Content Composition
Though taking stock of the content in a previous issue is useful for gathering magazine content, it is especially helpful for directories. If you find the directory content deadline approaching and aren’t sure what content to gather, you can check last year’s directory and take stock of its different sections and their composition. That way, you have a point of reference for the current year’s directory or magazine issue.
And if you’re swamped with work and don’t have the time to carefully analyze last year’s directory, you can request a breakdown of needed content from the editor. They’ll be happy to help!
Ultimately, it can be like a puzzle to gather content for your magazine issues or directory. But with the above steps, perhaps those cats can be corralled. And if you’re proactive, you may not need to corral them at all.
Emily Gist is an Editorial Project Coordinator at Innovative Publishing. She can be reached at emilyg@innovativepublishing.com.
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