Don’t Let the Holidays Stop You From Writing Your Book

Ho! Ho! Ho! Thanksgiving is next week and the holiday season is officially upon us.

Everyone gets busy around the holidays, but it’s actually a great time to write your book. The thousands of writers around the world who are participating in National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, know this to be true.

But why exactly is now a good time for all authors and aspiring authors to be writing and editing their manuscript? For several reasons:

• Writing a book in November and December gives you time to launch your new title into the spring book market (before the summer slowdown). If you wait too long, it could be another year before your book launches, which means you can’t start enjoying the benefits of authorship for a long time.
• For many people, the holidays afford a few precious days off. If you maximize these days (get up early to write and edit), you’ll still have plenty of time to enjoy holiday activities with friends and family.
• Let’s be honest, you’re always busy, right? That’s just life in the modern world. Don’t let the holidays become an excuse. Make writing your book a priority and you will find the time. You’ll thank yourself later when you are enjoying the many benefits of authorship.

One thing we’ve done at Bublish to help authors jump start their book projects is create the book cover and synopsis before the writing is done—and in some cases, before the writing even starts.

This approach can be highly motivational—finally, you get to “see” your book. It actually has a cover! Your ideas and stories are becoming a tangible book product.

In writing a synopsis, you’re learning how to describe your book to others in a succinct and effective manner. Now you can talk confidently about your story to potential readers and begin to promote your book well before its publication date. You can put the book cover and synopsis on your website to let the world know it’s coming.

Using this sort of “reverse engineered” process, we have seen nonfiction authors land lucrative consulting engagements and fiction authors start selling preorder copies—all without a finished manuscript.

So give yourself the perfect gift this season: start or finish your manuscript before the new year. Let the holidays motivate, rather than hinder your writing efforts. Finishing 2019 strong will provide a solid foundation for a fabulous 2020! Happy holidays!