If you’re self-publishing, remember that the holidays are coming, and that they’re the big-spending times of the year.
Some authors have already published Christmas-themed short stories, or have factored them into their publishing schedule. Others are developing planners and goal-setting templates, ready for the end of the year and January sales.
Have you created goals for the next few months? If you haven’t, now’s the time to plan and create.
Do you have self-publishing goals for the holidays?
This post looks at holiday-themed ideas:
…self-help books do well over the holidays, as well as books on DIY home improvement. If you’ve got special expertise, share it—you never know what will sell.
If you haven’t even begun to consider the immense opportunities in holiday sales, these tips may help.
1. Set achievable goals now: keep them short and simple
If you’re a solo self-publisher who hires editors and other assistance as required, keep your holiday ideas short and easy. Everyone’s busy. You’ll be busy, too. Leave yourself time for all the excitements of the season.
Rather than considering new works, check out your backlist. Could you bundle up some works? On Amazon, more authors are discovering the value of collections, not only their own, but in partnership with others.
Speaking of your backlist…
2. Consider your backlist: get promotional ideas from ecommerce sites
Shopify offers excellent holiday-planning tips:
“Create a dedicated page for merchandising deals, and promote it for ‘Black Friday’ on PPC. If you’re lucky, CPCs will be cheaper and competitors will just be running generic brand ads.”
This is an excellent idea. If you have a large backlist—a dozen or more books—considering adding one or two to KDP Select.
If you haven’t already done so, think about selling your books from your website.
3. Choose one holiday on which you’ll promote
As we’ve suggested, avoid becoming overwhelmed. If you want to create new holiday-themed books and other materials for sale, you’ll need time for creation as well as promotions.
So, choose one holiday: perhaps Christmas, New Year, or even St Valentine’s Day, rather than trying to create for each upcoming holiday.
A tip: book your editor and graphic designer early—your favorites may already be booked solid.
4. Add the holidays and your planned promotions to your calendar
Once you’ve added them, be ready to change them as needed. If you require more time than you estimated, consider that you can sell holiday-themed materials at any time of the year—and you’ll have an early start on the 2024 holiday season.
Most importantly, have FUN with it. 🤗
Fast, fun and easy: a new strategy for self-publishing authors
Take a look at our latest program. If you’re a new fiction author, you can kick off your career fast.
On the other hand, if you’re established, you’ll love The 3-Step Formula: Easy and Profitable Short Fiction in 60 Minutes because it’s so easy. One author took a few snips from his current Work in Progress to create a story, and used it to promote his pre-order.
Enjoy. 🙂
Angela Booth’s Easy-Write Process: Write The EASY Way, Like a Professional Writer
The Easy-Write Process changed my life; I developed it over several years of struggling with writing. Try it: it works for all types of writing, whether you're writing books, blogging, or self-publishing.
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Copywriter and marketing pro Angela Booth maintains a busy copywriting and ghostwriting practice. Fascinated by online marketing, she wrote one of the first business books for internet marketing, published by Allen & Unwin. She’s been an enthusiastic blogger since the late 1990s.
