When you pick up a magazine, read a story and are inspired, you may be reading something that has been years in the making to publish. It can be a long term series that is gathered over time and published in multiple issues of a magazine, or it can simply take a good bit of time to get an article into the editorial run list.
The publishing process isn’t always easy to navigate. Annually, magazines send out request for pitches to writers. This is usually in the summer, and decisions for the following year, or two years out, come in the fall. Unlike a newspaper that is run daily, most equine magazines typically go to the printer two months prior to the issue’s published month.
Writing and photographing content for print magazines means we pull on our patience pants each and every assignment that isn’t specifically event coverage. For me, it can be hard. I get so excited about visiting sources, taking photos and putting their stories together. Take for example, the “Women of the West” article that published February 2025 in Western Horseman. I met and interviewed source Jodie O’Brien in June 2023.
Part of what I enjoy as a freelancer is the freedom to travel, gather stories and them see them published. The trip to meet Jodie included stops to take part in a branding in Kyle, South Dakota, before headed to meet this horsewoman outside of Wall, South Dakota, before I headed on to Montana for more content gathering. Stories from that trip published in two magazines from fall 2023 issues through this final article in 2025.
Waiting to see Jodie’s article in print wasn’t only hard for me, but for Jodie, too. Over the 15 years of juggling source expectations and magazine publishing dates, I’ve found it is best not to promise a certain time or issue to a source unless it is set in stone. The waiting is hard, but the disappointment of opening an issue and not seeing an expected article is worse. However, receiving a message from the source about their excitement seeing themselves or their horse in print is 100% pure joy!
It’s always a joy to see the horses and new parts of the country, as well as meet wonderful people along the way. Putting together a content gathering trip isn’t easy but can become the norm with practice. Magazines will parcel these stories out over a year, if pitching to the same magazine, so as not to inundate readers with a ton of content from one location. That’s when patience is a big factor!
This year, I’ll head back to South Dakota and Wyoming in late May, then plan to head to Idaho in August. Those stories won’t run until 2026 or beyond, and it will be hard to hold back my excitement for those stories to print. Patience, they say, is a virtue!
Want to read more about putting together a trip, visit freelanceremuda.com. You can also read what is in a freelancer’s gear bag, which goes on the planes, trains and automobiles with us to all the destinations!
