December Doldrums
by Nancy J Cohen

While retail stores escalate their sales and advertisements during the December holiday rush, other businesses seem to slow down. Between Christmas and New Year holidays, forget getting many things done including house repairs. This applies to the publishing business as well. December has always been a bad month to submit a proposal to a major publisher.

In terms of new releases, we are competing against major authors who might have a new release at this time along with other holiday books and gifts. While I might not have chosen this month, my Bad Hair Day mysteries released in December every year for the nine books I published with Kensington.

Now once again, I face the conundrum of a December release. I’ll receive reversion of rights on four more backlist titles as of December 31st. This means those books will be taken down from sale around that time, and my readers will find a gap in the series. Do I hustle to get new covers, format these books, and upload them as soon as the fireworks explode to herald the new year? Or can it wait a few weeks until things calm down? Could I even get the cover artist and formatter to work on my projects during this busy time?

In January, people who have received new eReaders or tablets as gifts will be looking to load books into their devices. That’s a better month to tout a new release or to launch reissued backlist titles. What do you say? Should I hustle to get these books done now and ready to go the minute the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31, or should I wait a few weeks into January until things settle down?

When do you do your book buying at this season—before the holidays as gifts for friends, during the holidays as a gift to yourself, or in January after all the hoopla is over and we settle into the winter months?

Comment below and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a signed print copy of Permed to Death, #1 in the Bad Hair Day Mysteries.

Also, our Booklover’s Bench December 1-18 book giveaway is open for entries now. Click over and enter the contest.