I didn't realize there was a big trade show season, I'll have to keep that in mind for next year.

Another angle with trade shows is to hit up all of the trade publications before hand, tell them you'll be at a specific show and offer to be their eyes and ears. It works well with trade shows close to home, but one magazine paid me to go to San Francisco – all I had to do was send them a list of hot trends and some story ideas. If you apply for press credentials in advance, you can get in for free.

One time I even sold an article to a writing magazine on how to mine trade shows for article ideas.

Another thing to point out about magazine budgets: they all don't necessarily begin and end with the calendar year. Some of my editors budgets are dwindling now, but they'll be assigning from their new budget well before the first of the year. It all depends on each magazine's fiscal calendar. A lot of budgets probably do follow the Julian calendar, but some don't.

When pitching holiday ideas ahead of time, don't forget about special events – especially for trade publications. Does the industry have a big annual national award? Pitch a piece on some top contenders, and time it to run a month before the award is given. Is there a specific time of year new models are launched? Plan a trade article idea around that, then spin the same idea off for a consumer magazine – what kind of deals can they get on older models as dealers make space for the new ones?

Happy 4th!!