December – My Month of Disk Work
December – My Month of Disk Work
December is a strange month for selling books, I have always thought. I have tried to rationalise it many times…
Many people try to get all their presents ‘out of the way’ before Christmas Eve, so paperback sales are governed by the postal service. In general, that means that there will be no to minimal paperback sales after about the fifteenth. Some authors hope for ebook sales after this point, but I, personally, would never give anyone an intangible present for Christmas, although I would buy one for myself.
I think that a lot of older people might buy themselves an ebook for Christmas. However, whatever goes on, up to three years ago, I was selling about three hundred dollars worth in December, but that has now dropped to about a hundred dollars, despite the fact that I now have fifty novels on sale and then I only had three!
Seventeen times more books sells a third as much as before.
It doesn’t make sense to me, but the trend has continued for the last three years… cutting ever deeper.
Anyway, that is why I don’t bother to do a lot of promotion in December, especially the second half. There will be millions of owners of new e-readers, and trying to get into them is worthwhile, but there is no need to do more than a little promotion from the 23-25th – a few hours…
From the fifteenth of December, for a month, I basically concentrate on cleaning or Spring Cleaning my hard drive, polishing any books that I think might need it, and developing a rough sales strategy for the forthcoming eleven months.
In short, it is the nearest I get to having a ‘down time’ – I can’t remember ever working on a book during this period, although I might write the odd article, like this one 🙂
For me, Christmas and the New Year are periods of reflection, cleaning and planning… a time to let the batteries of creativity fully replenish themselves. After all, you cannot draw from a well that has run dry.
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All the best,
Owen
Podcast: December – My Month of Disk Work
