When is the best time to publish a Christmas story?
Sage Kay
Writer, reader, outfit repeater.
As temperatures drop, you may find yourself sitting by the fireplace, a hot choccy in hand and the slight ring of jingle bells in your ear. Do you hear that? It’s the spirit of Christmas encroaching like an avalanche of candy canes, Hallmark movies, and Michael Buble. People can’t help craving activities that’ll get them into the Christmas mood, and if you have a Christmas story you’ve been sitting on, that's the time to publish it!
What month of the year should you publish a Christmas novel?
The best month to publish a Christmas story is between mid-November and early December. This is the time people shop for gifts and love consuming holiday media to get themselves in the spirit. Easy, right? Still, publishing just doesn’t happen whenever you want it to. Whether you’re pursuing self-publishing or traditional, there are a lot of preparations to be made.
Book retailers report that an astounding $ 40% of all book sales take place from December to mid January$ , so setting your release date for December is hitting two reindeer with one car.
While this range is best for publishing the novel, your marketing efforts should begin months before. This might include social media marketing, ARCs, and a presale campaign.
If you only market your book in December, you’ll likely miss the opportunity to plant that little seed in your reader’s head to keep your book in mind when they’re making their holiday book purchases. So, marketing as early as August or September will give your book plenty of time to reach as many readers as possible so that when people are finally in the mood for a Christmas vibe, your book will be waiting for them.
What day of the week should you publish a Christmas novel?
The best days of the week to publish a Christmas novel is Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
Avoid Tuesdays because traditional publishing companies generally publish new books on Tuesdays. Don’t ask me why—the best answer I’ve gotten in my research is "it’s how it’s always been done." Yawn.
But if you’re an indie writer looking to self-publish, you won’t want to publish on a Tuesday as you’ll be competing with larger publishers and your novel’s sales might suffer. Aim for any other day except weekends, as book sales tend to be lower on Saturdays and Sundays. Really, the day that you publish your novel won’t have a huge impact on your sales, so focus on publishing in November or December (and writing a good book), and you’ll be golden.
Are Christmas stories profitable?
Yes, Christmas stories can be quite profitable. $ With 25% of all book sales being gifts$ , you’ll definitely want to capitalize on the season of gift-giving.
Christmas stories are full of popular tropes and feel-good content that make them extremely popular during the Christmas season. While most holiday-tied book genres do well, the Christmas genre performs best in cross-genre content, like holiday romances.$ $
Additionally, readers during this time want books that make them feel all warm and fuzzy inside, which is a staple of the Christmas genre. In 2021, December sold the most books it ever has in the last previous years, and book sales during this month have reached 30 million in the past. Just imagine 30 million books. You can’t, it’s impossible.
With there being more and more reasons in the world for people to be looking for feel-good escapes, it’s time to seriously consider dropping a Christmas story filled with sparkling trees and colorful wreaths.
How much do Christmas story writers make?
Because Christmas isn’t so much a genre by itself as it is a subgenre paired with more prevalent genres, it’s hard to find exactly how much money the Christmas subgenre makes for its writers. This can be used to your advantage, though. Like I mentioned, Christmas is very flexible when it comes to its cross-genre content. This means that no matter your genre, you can pair it with the holiday subgenre and call that a Christmas special.
The top five most popular genres with the highest grossing profits are Romance/Erotica ($1.44 billion), Mystery ($728.2 million), Religious/Inspirational ($720 million), Sci-Fi/Fantasy ($590.2 million), and Horror ($79.6 million), each of which can (and have) been paired with Christmas to make a story that all genre readers can enjoy during the holiday.
If you pair your Christmas story with one of these genres, keep the November/December publishing schedule.
With the season of gift-giving and curling up with a good book by the fireplace approaching, it’s time to publish that Christmas story!
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