So I wrote a holiday novella. It jumps back in time to 1807 and tells the story of Martha’s and Will’s older brother Andrew, and his fateful Christmastime road-trip of that year. I’d meant to publish it this month.
However, my editor and I agreed that it was a revision or so shy of ready. And, long story short, I needed a burst of energy to execute the revisions and take care of all the other odds and ends that go into self-publishing a book, and instead I’ve felt sad and enervated the past few days (as has much of the nation, I think), and don’t feel like I could summon the right festive spirit to promote the thing even if I did revise it to my (and my editor’s) satisfaction. So, as of yesterday, I made the decision to hold it back until next year. If the Mayan apocalypse happens, the joke will be on me.
I hope to feel festive enough by year’s end to post my list of Top Ten Favorite Romancelandia Blog Posts of 2012. There were a lot of good ones.
Another whole YEAR? What the world needs NOW is love, sweet love!
I know, right? Well, this Christmas they’ll have to get it from someone other than me. Assuming we’re all still around after the 21st.
When you say ‘next year’, you mean like when you leave work before Christmas and they say, ‘see you next year!’ Don’t you? You’re not seriously going to make us wait until *December* 2013?!
Holiday novellas sell just as well in January (maybe. Possibly… Possibly not….)
Understand though. It’s not easy to feel chirpy and romantic with recent news. (Sings) “All I want for Christmas is a law against civilians carrying military grade weapons.”
No, on my side of the ocean the Christmas season (and with it, the window of time in which people want to read Christmas-themed books) pretty much shuts down on December 26. We don’t do Twelfth Night over here. I think a holiday novella needs a stretch of at least a week before Christmas in order to get any kind of decent exposure and sales in the US market. So I think I’ll do better by releasing it in early December next year.
I’m really glad I made the decision to not try to scramble and get it out this week, though, because on the very day I made that decision, a family member was hospitalized and life went topsy-turvy for awhile. All’s well that ends well; he’s out of the hospital now and will be fine, but there’s absolutely no way I could have gotten the edits and publishing done with all that going on.
Meanwhile, I have an idea for a non-holiday novella, and I’ll see if I can’t shape that into something I’m happy with. I’ll keep you posted :)