editorial-calendar

name	editorial-calendar
description	Use when turning publishing goals into a single slotted calendar across books, the newsletter, and the podcast — deciding what ships, in which format, on which date, and why it earns the slot.

Editorial Calendar

One calendar holds three formats to one rhythm. A slot is a commitment: a format, an owner, a ship date, and the one sentence that says why this belongs here now.

Steps

1. Start from the outcome, not the idea. Read each request as the result it wants — "own this subject," "lift the newsletter's opens," "launch a season." An idea with no outcome behind it does not get a slot yet.
2. Choose the format deliberately. Match the outcome to the surface that serves it: a durable argument to a book, a timely take to the newsletter, a conversation or a reported story to the podcast. Name why this format and not the others.
3. Slot with a real date. Give every item a ship date, and for long-form back it out into milestones — outline, first half, full draft, revised — so a book's slip shows months early, not at launch.
4. Balance the rhythm. Keep the recurring formats' cadences visible and un-collided; a book milestone and a newsletter send competing for the same week is a scheduling decision, made on purpose, not a surprise.
5. Plan reuse across formats. When an item can feed another surface — a chapter into an issue, a reported argument into an episode — record the reuse as its own slot so research done once travels by plan.
6. Write the reason on every slot. One sentence: why this format, this audience, this week. A slot no one can justify is the first to cut when the calendar tightens.
7. Move dates in the open. When a slot must slip, change it visibly with a recorded reason and reflow what it touches. A quiet slide costs more than an honest move.

Quality bar

• Every slot names a format, an owner, a ship date, and a one-sentence reason.
• Long-form items carry milestones, not just a launch date.
• Recurring cadences are visible and any collision is a recorded decision.
• No commissioned work exists off the calendar, and no slot exists without a justification.

Output format

A dated calendar of slots — format, owner, ship date (with milestones for long-form), one-line reason, and any planned cross-format reuse — plus a short note on what moved this cycle and why.