Here at P&N, we work on a different schedule than […]
Why am I surrounded by storybooks? You’ll find out in August.
Here at P&N, we work on a different schedule than most other folks. We typically work with about a five-month lead-time, which means that I am currently rounding up products for our August issue—yep, in April. It’s crazy. I notice it most around the holidays. I’m plowing away on our December issue in August, before my kids are even back in school. (Back-to-school, for me, took place in May. Or will be taking place in May, since that’s now next month. Sheesh.) By the time the actual holiday rolls around, I’m kind of over it. I typically rally and get back in the mood—some years more so than others—but it often feels like I’m preparing for every celebration twice: once on paper, and once in real life. This isn’t always a bad thing … but it isn’t always a good thing, either. When we’re surrounded by swimsuits in December while I’m still packing away the Christmas cookies at a steady rate, it can be a little depressing. And also a little motivating. So there’s always a bright side. Another publication challenge: We are always working on more than one issue at once. Right now we’re creating content for August—which we planned the lineup for a few months ago—and editing June. We’ll wrap up that issue in a couple of weeks, send it to press, and start working on perfecting July. (The art team is hard at work creating the July pages right now, while also adjusting June as changes are made.) The website operates in a more true-time fashion, which is a nice change of pace. We do a lot of advance planning, but many of the posts aren’t written until the week before—or even a few days before. (In fact, I still don’t know what I’ll be featuring in our
Stuff We Love blog for the last two weeks of this month. Any ideas?) Needless to say, the brains of the P&N team are always at work. Planning, writing, searching, editing … it’s a busy job. But for me, this is a good thing. I like working on several different projects at once—since I have the attention span of a 2-year old, it’s nice to be able to bounce back and forth between tasks—and nothing is more satisfying than finally holding that glossy issue in your hands after you’ve been dropping your heart and soul into for the past five (or more!) months. It’s a happy moment—and I hope you love each issue as much as we do.
