Episode 21: Publishing and Holidays
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Hello, my beautiful cinnabar moth. So whatever kind of month you want to be, thank you for joining us for another week on the writer’s triangle. I’m so excited to talk with y’all. Today, I’m going to be talking about publishing and the holidays. And because I’m American, I’m going to talk about the American holiday cycle of publishing. And even though I live in Japan, Japan’s holidays really don’t affect us because we’re not publishing in Japanese. And so because we’re publishing in English, we’re going to be talking mostly about Christian Anglo Saxon holiday and solar holidays. So what I mean by that is, I mean, Christmas. I understand there’s Kwanzaa I understand that there’s Diwali, I understand that there are things on the lunar calendar that aren’t on the solar calendar, and so don’t happen at the same time of year. And I understand that there are other holidays besides Christmas and December, like the winter solstice and such. But when we’re looking at sales in Europe, the United North and South America, not so much in Asia, but in Australia, sales are really impacted in December, and they’re driven by the holiday of Christmas. Personally, I don’t celebrate Christmas. So it doesn’t change anything that I do. But it does change a really large portion of people who buy books in English, and what they’ll buy, when they’ll buy, how they’ll buy. And by what date they’ll buy. So all of that goes into consideration for the holiday books. And to be honest, this first December, that’s what made me do the anthology is I was looking at all of our books, and none of them had any chance of selling in December. Because after mid November, end of November, the books really have to have a strong winter theme, a strong Christian theme, or a strong holiday theme. And we kind of have a mix of that in we don’t kind of we totally have a mix of that in the anthology, and that we had, you know, a cold Christmas and the darkness of winters we had both. So that meant that if we put the book out early in December, and since we launched on the first Tuesday of every month, it gave the anthology a fighting chance to have sales in December, and not so much to make the present list. Like buying somebody a book as a present. And if you want to publish a book that’s meant to be a Christmas present rule of thumb as that book needs to be published by September. And this year, we had one heck of a really good Christmas gift and relatively normal secrets. And we also have a really great Christmas gift. And jumping girl or Gracie and Zeus are not my rockets are pixies in the midst. pixies in the mist came a little bit short for the Christmas cycle to get on someone’s radar. And when you’re looking at Christmas gifts,
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or you’re looking at the publishing date of this book would make a great Christmas gift for x y Zed population. What you’re really looking at is getting on their radar. By September. He has by the end of September. Most people who are buying books for Christmas presents, Kwanzaa presents Hanukkah present, the December holiday presents, including the solstice when people give gifts on the solstice, then you have to be on their radar by the end of September, which means you have to release early in September. You’ve had to have done your whatever your campaign is to get reviews, and August and in July and August to get readers and to create a buzz and all of that. And you have to have all of your tours completed by the end of September and that’s interviews, whatever promotions you’re doing for that book needs to be done by the end of September because the hope is that the reader will have either read the book in September or read the book in October. And once they start their holiday shopping in November, then that book will be on their radar. If they haven’t read the book, by the end of October, they probably don’t have a friend of mine who would like the book, sadly. And that kind of bums me out. Because there’s some real, there are some really great books that come out in October. But to be in October, like to have the book come out in October. And to make it to the November shopping list, you have to have almost have to have a best seller and has like something big has to happen. And for the books that come out in the first part of yours, they’re like really strong contenders for holiday shopping, is that August or September book, because those two books will be fresh in the mind when it comes to November and shopping. And it doesn’t hurt if there why a or middle grade or an emotionally engaging book that will really make people think. So looking at our two earlier books, Gracie, aunties and not my rachis to get them on Christmas shopping lists, we have to remind everybody that they’re good books, and remind everybody that they enjoyed reading those books. And so we do another push for for those books. And deciding how you push those books, you really have to decide, are you going to do a winter sell, to try and get those books into the hands of readers. And onto those Christmas shopping list. And I say for everyone, if you’re self publishing, really think about the different discounts that you’re going to do for each of your book. Because it’s also traditional to run a discount on a book on its anniversary. So if you’re looking at running, running a special on a book, let’s say in October, right for the first half of the year books that you’ve published, now, it’d be January, roughly January through June, you have to think about okay, how much am I going to discount a January book to get it on the list? The Chris in hopes of getting it on the Christmas list in hopes of getting those early shoppers and those early buyers? And then you have to think about what when the anniversary come? What am I going to do? So how long am I going to run the special? And then what am I going to do to make the Anniversary Special if you have a January or February book. So this year, we have a February book. And we are doing we are doing some specials. But our specials that we’re doing we’re doing them in November this year, so as not to we’re doing late October, we did them late October doing did them late October.
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And November, because we didn’t want to outshine our October release, right. So we did a special and we didn’t do every single book that was coming out because we have a December release that we didn’t discount because Hello started December release just coming out. And we didn’t discount the October release. Because hello is the October release is just coming out. So when we’re doing a holiday sell, you have to really plan that holiday sell to be when people are feeling like it’s the holidays. And then you have to get the word out about the holidays, and the sell and think about how you’re going to promote that sale. And for me, I feel like that’s something really fun. Because I love a good sale and how to marketing. So of course I love a good promotion, and planning out those promotions for me how I do that. I am so analog and digital when it comes to this. The first one I plan everything is I plan it on my computer first. And then I print out paper calendar. And I write everything in that’s going to happen that I want to happen or that I’m going to do in that calendar year on a paper calendar. So you can print out a paper calendar or you can buy a teacher that’s Japanese for planner. I just think of it as teachers. I’ve been here so long, and I don’t know why I just do. And for me I have because I used to be a therapist. I have a certain brand of planner that I like. I feel it’s really convenient. So I’d like to put everything thing in on that planner because then I can see it I have a month at a glance, I have a week at a glance, I have a data class, all in this one planner that allows me to really visually see it. And then I have the additional printed out calendar with specific dates on it. Because I’m, I like redundancies, I like backups. Since I feel like my computer gets backed up, I want to make sure that all of my paper stuff gets backed up as well. And I don’t like to share my private calendar with the team. And I do have a Google calendar as well that we all do. We have one Google calendar for the team. But they don’t really pay attention to the marketing stuff. And so I make marketing emails and plans and send them to them. And they don’t really pay attention to that either. So I’d like to have a marketing plan that’s up and ready to go. And it works out really well. And because I’m trying to save on paper, and to be economically friendly and good to the earth, I have a dry erase calendar that is there in the office. And that allows me to make changes without having to reprint. So I printed out a blank template for a month. And then laminated it. And once and I love to laminate things. So you know, I’m like yay. Another reason why I’m going to laminate. I love my laminator it is the best thing ever. And I absolutely love that I used it way more when I was doing therapy because I worked with kids, and you have to laminate a lot of flashcards. So, yeah, there’s that. So once you once you plan out your sales or promotion that you’re going to do on the holiday or your launch day, if you’re trying to make it on those Christmas lists, and on those Christmas sales. If you’re marketing to the United States, specifically, you have to have a sale on Black Friday. And Black Friday, sort of launches the shopping season for
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the winter holidays. And it’s the day after Thanksgiving. And Thanksgiving as always, the last Thursday in the month of November. Please forgive me can’t i can’t remember Canada’s Thanksgiving just completely ran directly right out of my head. And deciding Do you want to announce your sale? That you’re going to start your sale on Black Friday? Do you want to do yourself earlier? And again, these are personal choices, what’s your preference, and you can decide to not do a sale at all. Black Friday sales are usually rather intensive, and are usually a pretty good discount. So you have to in my mind do at least 25% off. And that really hits the bottom line for a lot of people. And some authors are like, no, please don’t discount my book. And that’s a conversation as a price that I have with each and every author, no matter when their book comes out. I say hey, do you want to be part of the Black Friday promotion? Yay or Nay? And they can make that choice. For us. I feel like it was the right way to go. And it felt really comfortable. And it didn’t crowd out the anthology it so you know it’s kind of the holiday plan is kind of a tricky thing. And releasing books in November, December and January if you’re doing late November. So late November through mid January is really difficult. Because on the excuse me I have to take a sip of water here Yeah, I love water I don’t know why you did that. Then it really felt like after I drink drink it I was like I’m wanting to like smack my lips and then do the odd sound but I thought that would be horrible sounding. So instead I said dumb. So he says we make when recording. So looking at the flip side of things, and deciding when you’re going when and what you’re going to publish the mid November, December and June. January. This year, I just didn’t feel like I had a November book. Because I felt like the November book really needed to be a winter thing. And also, I felt like this year because we launched the E zine I really wanted to give the E zine and the website cinnabar, moth literary collections room to breathe, and not to be competing with any books. And it also gave us a great month to do sales where we wouldn’t be competing. Excuse me where we win and be competing with any books. And for me, I feel like you can get away with sort of tweaking the theme when it comes to November. Next year, or November book. Well, this year. Got to get used to that. Wow. Yeah, a new year. I am the worst. I’ve talked about this with y’all before. I am like the absolute worst when it comes to yours. So this is 2022. Now officially, Happy New Year’s happy 2022. I should have said that at the top of the cast. Oh, well, if you been listening to the writers triangle, you know, I started off from episode one saying I’m opposite minded. And if you’re a music note, thank you for migrating over to the writers triangle and listening to it. I really appreciate each and every Listen, honestly and truthfully.
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So looking at at publishing, and what book are you going to drop. So in 2022, we have like a really, really wonderful book having tourists that is about a con man, but also has a lot of religion in it. And it’s sort of a tweaking your thumb at religion kind of, or I wouldn’t say tweaking your thought religion. It’s showing how religion can be used to really twist people up, and how religion can be used to con people, and how you have to be careful with who you listen to when it comes to religion and religious experiences. So we felt that was a great November book. And it’s coming out in the early part of November, which makes it also the late part of October. So you had that Halloween, things right in between Halloween and Thanksgiving or like right after Halloween. So it’s a dark book. And that kind of covers people’s taste for something that comes out around October 31. In the United States, specifically, because October 31 is Halloween. It’s also celebrated in Japan and some other countries. And that’s like a spooky holiday. So we’re doing heavens tourists because it gives us it’s a really sharp cutting edge. Look at how religion can be twisted. But it also has a really dark and twisted main character that I haven’t personally liked. But I don’t think anyone else will, because they’re not the most likable. They don’t do the most likable things and they don’t behave in the most likable way. They’re they’re really quite the scoundrel, and I love reading a good villain who is honest about the villainy, and that’s what this main character is. So that’s our November release, because it has that because it’s coming out November 1, that’s right after Halloween. So it has the darker side of things with that Halloween thirst for darkness, that it also kicks off for those people that ride out the day after Halloween starts the Christmas holidays for them. It really has that sort of threading that needle really well. So we’re really lucked out with that. And then our December release for 2022 is entitled with God we burn, and it is about the Crusades. And it is a sort of a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. But through the lens of the crusades, and it’s really heavy, it’s really dark, but it’s also quite religious. So it’s a good fit for early December because that’s coming out on December 7. So that gives us the tie in to religion. Then we have two back to back books that have a religious feel a religious vibe, and those tend to sell pretty well in November and December. So that gives us our strategy for for what we’re doing in November and December. So every November We’re going to try to have a book that kind of threads that needle, where it has the darkness of Halloween, but kind of has a kind of go back, back and forth on that, like I like because we do early November, maybe just going dark and extending that, that Halloween holiday
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or threading the needle like we’re doing with Heavens, tourists. And so I go back and forth, I think the press because I go back and forth, I think the press will be going back and forth on that. In December, I do want it to be something that is winter themed, were religious themed. And for me, that’s fairly strict. And I don’t see myself budging from that, because I have a really firm belief that these are the books that sell in December. And it’s what all of the market research says, right. So this isn’t just me making things up and making up my own rules. This is me reading 1000s and 1000s of pages on publishing and marketing and how to sell your book, and also taking a publishing, marketing and publishing course and how to plan your schedule and those types of things. Because switching from therapy to publishing is a big job. And I was just completely lost. So I took a six years, I said this in the first cast, I took a six year running start at this site, I’ve done a lot of research. And then after I did the reading, I actually looked at book sales, because that information is available on the internet, for a lot of a lot of presses, not for our press, but a lot of press was putting out there what what their cells are. And you can also look at what a particular book did and what was the best seller in December. And for any month, you can Google bestsellers for this month or that month and see what those bestsellers are about and say, Okay, this is what people are buying in this month. And that’s a big part of how we make up our calendar is we look at what’s selling, what were the best sellers and previous years for those months. And for the holiday months, I don’t really pay attention so much to the other month. But for the holiday month, I do pay attention. And for things like middle grade I do, I do pay attention. So that’s the, my my take on those months, those two months of November and December, in January, shopping takes a nosedive. People just don’t shop in January. And I think that’s because those credit card bills from December start coming in. And people don’t have a lot of disposable cash. And the first thing to go is, of course, books, it’s one of the top things to plummet in sales in the month of January is book sales. So if you’re thinking about launching your book in January, I’m not telling you don’t I’m I guess I’m saying don’t have high expectations. And for me, I want all of our books to do really well. But I’m also really realistic about what this what the statistics say. And the statistics say that for a first time author first book, that the average sales are between 102 150 bucks for the first year of the book, unless like I talked about in the first class, you’re doing like a 99 cent sale, or you’re doing Kindle Unlimited, something like that can really boost sales. We don’t do those kinds of things. So we’re not boosting sales in that way. And our books vary. Not all of them were doing 150 The first year not all of them were doing 100 Not all of them were doing 250 Some are doing more than you know 300 Some are doing less than just various book by book and not every. And to be honest, we don’t even know right, because we haven’t even had a book out for a year yet. Our first book not my rackets how this anniversary actually next month, so we won’t even know what any book has done in their first year until this year. And that’s exciting to know and see and look at. We’re not publishing a book this month. And the reason that I decided not to publish a book this month, is I wanted to give our new author and residence for the evening, time to shine. And that’s really exciting for me, giving that author in residence, their space to shine and also Not having to deal with the economics of January book sells, and everything that you have to do to make a book popular in January. And it also gives us a chance to get a running start on this year’s books that we’re publishing to make sure everything’s organized to make sure that the team has reset. It allows everyone to take a vacation.
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And that’s a really nice thing to be able to do is give everybody you know, some time off to reboot and relax, and all of that, because we set the release of things are fairly automated. So the release of everything we’re doing in January is recorded early, including this podcast, this episode, excuse me of the podcast. And with the podcast, they have to be recorded a little bit early, because they have to be transcribed, and we put all of the transcriptions are on the cinnabar moth.com. website. And that’s really important to me, because of extra accessibility, I want to make sure that everyone can access the podcasts at the level that is comfortable for them physically. And also auditorily. Not everybody enjoys listening, a lot of people read the transcripts. And that’s how they consume the podcast. So that’s important to me. And I kind of use every January myself personally, to reboot, rethink and figure things out, like, what do I want my goals to be this year, I don’t do any sort of new year’s resolution. What I do do is think about who I want to be this year, what I want to do, and I think about what I want to accomplish in the next six months, and what changes and growth do I want to see in myself and the business in the next six months. And my birthday is in June. So that is for me, I kind of look at January to June and then on my birthday, I think about okay, what am I going to do with the next six months? And what do I want to accomplish? And what new projects do I want to do? And those sorts of things. So that’s all really, really exciting to me. And here’s the thing, everything I’ve just said is my personal opinion, based on my interpretation of the data that I’ve looked at, and the research that I’ve done. It is no way meant to be a you have to or a you better, because I don’t know better than anyone else. And I think even the experts don’t really know. booksellers are kind of a mystery. If we hadn’t figured out everyone will be having everyone would have a best seller. Every publishing house, all of their books would be bestsellers if we had it figured out. So for me, when I start thinking about the the big four, or anyone who gives advice, I look at their book sales, and I look at their book reviews. And I feel like if you’re going to say that you’re that you know everything about marketing, when it comes to books, I need to see your numbers. Be transparent. Put your numbers out there. I’m not putting my numbers out there. I’m not an expert. We’re still a brand new press. I know we’ve had the anniversary of being a press. But we haven’t even had the anniversary of our first book yet. So I know enough to know what I don’t know is where I’m at. And I’ve made the decision that 11 books are comfortable for me. 11 books allow me to balance the other projects I have going on like the E zine and such. And I just don’t believe people buy books in January. And I could be wrong. They’re our best sellers in January. So that right there shows that I’m wrong. So I should say I don’t think I can market a book in January. I don’t think that I could do a book at this point in time in my life. I don’t think that I could do a January book justice. So we’re not putting a book out this month but we are putting out an amazing easing. And we the we do have tons of reviews and tons of great stuff going on social going on with social media. So we have stuff going on and things are dynamic. And I’m excited. I’m excited about what this new year is going to bring for the press and I’m excited about what this new year is going to bring for all of you all of our beautiful cinnabar moss or any kind of mock Do you want to be Are you can even be a butterfly I’m not Mariah Carey I’m not trying to bite her rhyme I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season and I hope that this is the best year ever for all of us thank you for listening and I’ll talk to you in two weeks bye