The 3 Phases of Holiday Book Sales (and How to Win Each One)

Ferol Vernon (00:32.941)

Hello and welcome to the Written Word Media Podcast. I am Ferol here today with Ricci and Ricci, we’ve got so much to talk about today. We’re both got sort of fall travel plan. You’re coming off. I’m going. Before we get into it, talk to us a little bit about about your recent trip.

Ricci (00:58.877)

Yeah, so I just returned from a women’s leadership retreat, which was amazing. I’m still buzzing after being with 25 other women up in the Catskills for three days. And they were all entrepreneurs. And so I came back just feeling like I have community, that I got to hang out and commune with all these like amazing, incredible women who were so inspirational. And it just reminded me the power.

Of being with people in person and also being with people who understand what you’re going through. I know a lot of authors can probably relate to this with Author Nation coming up, and a lot of authors are in writing groups or smaller groups or my masterminds. And there’s just nothing quite so powerful and special as being in a room with other people who are experiencing the same challenges, the same wins, the same losses.

as you are. And so it was great. And I’m feeling awesome. also really energized now that I’m back and excited to chat with you today about holiday and holiday sales and and all that good stuff that’s right around the corner.

Ferol Vernon (02:04.436)

Yeah, we we are, you know, really heading down the final stretch of the year here and holidays on everybody’s mind. And that’s what we’re gonna be talking about today. And, you know, what we did when we were preparing preparing for this episode is we thought, you know, let’s really look at the entire holiday season and break it down for authors so that you really understand kind of what is happening and what you can do and and what you shouldn’t do.

and really I think when we did the analysis, the thing that I felt was really interesting is you know, the holidays is actually three distinct periods. And so everybody kind of thinks about the holidays as like this one time, right? In America, it’s sort of Christmas and Thanksgiving sort of are like mushed together. But from like a running a business standpoint, that’s not really how it works. There are these three times. So there’s November 21st through November 30th.

So that’s kind of like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, which has expanded beyond just a day or two. And we call that the Turkey 10, that kind of 10-day shopping period. There’s December 1st, kind of through the 21st, sort of through like shipping cutoffs. And we call that the holiday hustle. That’s really around sort of in America Christmas. And then I think this is something that a lot of folks miss. this third sort of golden era.

of marketing that happens right after Christmas, December twenty-sixth through January. And so we’re gonna talk about all three of those things, but I thought it was really enlightening when I was doing research to think about the holidays in those three periods instead of just one one mushy bucket of stuff.

Ricci (03:44.861)

Yes, welcome to the wonderful world of being a marketer. I I, you know, I would it’s but it’s awesome. This is like as a marketer, this is the most exciting time of the year. I before in my previous life, before Written Word, I used to work for the body shop, the beauty company that was based out of the UK that sold the most amazing body butter and cosmetics and things like that. And right around this time of year, we’re gearing up for holiday and it gets super exciting.

Ferol Vernon (03:48.682)

Get comfortable with it, authors.

Ricci (04:13.939)

But yeah, this is the big push around, you know, Cyber Monday, which we’ll talk about phase one. Then there’s all of the gifting that happens. And then there is my favorite time of the year, right after Christmas, when everything gets super cheap. When if you’re a marketer who doesn’t have to market during that time period, and it used to be like the best kept secret, no one would talk about it. Everyone would be like, Shh, don’t tell everybody like how cheap Facebook ads are in January.

Ferol Vernon (04:27.667)

Better.

Ferol Vernon (04:37.385)

I’m spending all my money in January.

Ricci (04:40.475)

Now it’s kind of like a well-known secret. So we are sharing that secret with you here today, authors. And we’ll get to that third wave, you know, towards the end. But it is, there’s just so much opportunity during this time of year because everybody’s shopping and everyone’s spending money. And we just want to make sure they’re spending money on your books. So let’s jump in, Ferol. Where should we start?

Ferol Vernon (04:55.654)

Yeah.

Ferol Vernon (05:02.97)

Okay, so let’s start where the calendar starts with this sort of Black Friday Cyber Monday world. And you know, it’s interesting because I was listening to some stuff in preparation for this, and I didn’t really actually know why it was called Black Friday. but like a lot of retailers who depend on Q4 sales were in the red, like they were losing money, until this shopping period, and they literally made

All their money in this in this until on that Black Friday when they went into the black when they started becoming profitable. So there’s a long storied history of generating profit around this time. And authors, you should take advantage of it. and as we break it down, kind of what we thought was to be easiest for everybody is to really break each section of time down into do’s and don’ts. So things you should do during this period and things you should not do. And so for each one of these times, we’re going to go through that. And so I think the the do.

Ricci (05:57.959)

Let me interrupt you for one second, just for our non American friends out there. just want to set the stage a little bit because I I used to be one of you living outside the yes or the US or not so familiar with the the the holidays. but Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, and that’s the anchor to this time period because when we talk about the Turkey tent, and everyone eats Turkey on Thanksgiving, so that’s where Turkey comes from.

Ferol Vernon (05:59.13)

Yeah.

Ferol Vernon (06:02.981)

Yes, sorry, good call.

Ricci (06:24.295)

So this Thanksgiving is always on the Thursday. I believe it’s the last Thursday of November. And then everyone looks at that as the anchor and says, okay, that’s Thanksgiving. usually we’ll talk about, you know, some of the marketing starts right before that. The day after Thanksgiving, historically in the United States, has been like one of the bigger shopping days. And so when there were malls, people would head out and go to the malls and like shop the sales, and people would wake up at five in the morning and go to Walmart. and then with the rise of

digital the internet and digital media. A lot of the shopping’s moved online, but you have your Black Friday, which is a big day, and then you have your Cyber Monday, which is that Monday right after the Black Friday. So it goes Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday, Friday, Saturday’s actually small business Saturday, Sunday, and then Cyber Monday. And so the 10 day period we’re talking about has those holidays as kind of their anchor. And then it’s the days before and the days after that.

Ferol Vernon (07:20.952)

Yeah. And historically, basically, those, you know, Black Friday and Cyber Monday were two days where there was a lot of shopping. Like one was in person, one was online. But, you know, over the last years, call it five to ten years, marketers have extended that period because it’s so profitable and people are so willing to buy into this kind of turkey 10 where it’s it really almost starts that weekend before Thanksgiving. And so we really encourage you to think about it that way. Don’t wait until that the last minute. It’s it’s this extended period of sales.

and I think, you know, one of the things Ricci alluded to earlier in the episode, and this is gets to our first do, is you know, during this time, people expect deals, right? So everybody’s looking for a great deal, a Black Friday deal is kind of what they call it, right? So discounts. So this is a great time. If you haven’t done discounting, definitely do it now. Everybody’s expecting it, everybody’s in the mood to get a deal, like it’s in the air, you can smell it.

so even if you’re somebody who historically has been like, well, discounting’s not for me, this is the time to try it. So definitely under the do column is do discounting during the turkey 10 period.

Ricci (08:28.509)

Yeah, absolutely. People are expecting those discounts. And something else to note is people, yes, are shopping for gifts, but actually they’re doing a lot of shopping for themselves as well. So a lot of people wait throughout the year to buy the things that they want because they know they’re going to be on sale. So don’t think like, why would I discount my Kindle book to 99 cents because somebody maybe can’t gift that? No, people are on Amazon, they’re on the websites, they’re shopping, they’re looking for deals. So like you want to make your books.

fit into that category and the person who’s shopping, you want them to actually purchase some of the stuff for themselves as well.

Ferol Vernon (09:04.416)

Right. And so, you know, doing the discounting is a really important thing, but also it’s really important to understand the general sort of e-commerce landscape beyond just books. So, what’s happening during this time, all the stuff that we just mentioned, retailers, you know, people that sell t-shirts and candles and physical stuff are pouring money into meta ads and Google ads and all these platforms. So CPCs and CPMs, sort of the the cost of advertising on those platforms.

Goes up pretty dramatically during this period. And so another one of our dues is during this period, you want to spend money, if you can, on fixed price marketing services. So those are things like written word media, where you know our prices stay the same. They’re not variable, they’re not higher during the holidays. But your costs for running, you know, meta ads or Facebook ads or Instagram ads, those costs are gonna go up during this Turkey 10. And that’s because of competition and not just competition from books.

But competitions from everything like e commerce retailers, anybody that’s trying to sell something online is bidding on those ads right now.

Ricci (10:10.067)

Yeah, to Ferol’s earlier point, this is when a lot of those companies go into the black. It’s when they make their money. So they hold back a ton of them their marketing dollars and they dump it into a lot of these platforms during this time of year. So things do get very expensive. the cost of of running ads, customer acquisition clicks can go up anywhere from you know 50% to like double or triple. so our recommendation would be to dial your ads back.

and if you are running ads, you really want to keep an eye on them because things can go sideways really quickly with so many people in the auction and bidding for the eyeballs that are on these different platforms. and for sure do things like promo sites and promo stacking because that’s all through email marketing, you’re not in competition and you paying the same amount that you pay the rest of the year.

Ferol Vernon (10:59.465)

Yeah. So it’s a it’s a much better bang for your buck during that period. And and the other thing that, you know, on the do column, just like in this world where deals are swirling and everybody’s inboxes full of awesome stuff, you you have permission, you have you have my permission, you have Ricci’s permission to send more email, okay, to your list. The people that are on your author mailing list, if you don’t have one, you should have one. Listen to some of our earlier podcasts where we talk about that. But you have permission to send.

A lot of email to your fans during this period because everybody’s doing that and it’s expected. So while maybe sending an email every day to your fans might be, you know, a little bit too much in a random weekend in April, during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, that’s expected. And so, you know, you should feel the license to take whatever gear you are on email and kick it up one or two, or potentially even three.

Ricci (11:55.337)

Yeah, 100%. Email people. The only caveat here is make sure you’ve emailed them before you start emailing every day. So what you don’t want to do is like you haven’t emailed your list for six months and then you’re like emailing them every single day and they don’t know who you are and they’re going to unsub. But if you have been sending, you know, a monthly email or an email once a week and now you want to do three or four days in a row, that’s absolutely fine. People are not really going to unsubscribe during this time period because they’re waiting to see like what the next deal is.

And you should really lean into this fervor in your emails. You can be like, here’s today’s deal. I’ll be back tomorrow with tomorrow’s deal. and you can use this opportunity to highlight different books, to discount, you know, different titles, to put together bundles and editions that you can then say are discounted if you’re trying to maintain some margin. and then also like look around your your

your garage or whatever room you’re keeping, all your like swag. If you have a bunch of old bookmarks or t shirts or things that you are struggling to sell, you don’t know what to do with, just throw it in for free. People love free. So be like, buy my book and get a free t-shirt. Buy my book and get a free bookmark. And people are in that mindset where they’re like, how much can I get for my dollars? And this is a great time to actually clear the inventory of the stuff that’s not necessarily selling for you.

Ferol Vernon (12:46.108)

Yeah.

Ferol Vernon (13:07.29)

Yeah. Yeah. And I know that no authors listening to this podcast have ever overordered books, right? Nobody has a cardboard box of books in their garage or in that corner of their office. Of course not. But on the off chance that you do, this is a great time to get rid of it. This is a great time to get your books in the hands of readers. Maybe, you know, you can make your money back, maybe not. But like you can move product during this time much easier than in normal times. So go for it.

Ricci (13:35.913)

Yeah, the last thing on messaging when you’re doing your emails, when you’re going on socials, small business Saturday, that’s the Saturday after Black Friday. that’s for you authors. You guys are small businesses. So shout it from the rooftop, send an email on Saturday and be like, are you supporting small business today? Guess what? I’m a small business. I would love your support. You know, please support me. Here’s here are all the different things you can buy. You can even do like a push for Patreon on that Saturday and be like, hey, small business Saturday.

Ferol Vernon (13:50.915)

Yeah.

Ferol Vernon (14:02.393)

Yeah, it’s a great idea.

Ricci (14:03.985)

Why don’t you become a, you know, one of my Patreon supporters, or why don’t you buy a membership to this, that, or the other? So that’s another place to do messaging. and then if you are a social person, if you are on social media, people are, you know, scrolling through socials, they’re looking for the deals. So be on there, you know, be posting, go live. Like this is a time to like really get caught up in the frenzy of the of these days and have fun with it because everyone else is having fun with it and it.

Ferol Vernon (14:22.009)

Yeah.

Ricci (14:32.711)

You know, readers will respond to that.

Ferol Vernon (14:35.608)

Yeah, absolutely. So let let’s move on to some of the things that like maybe you shouldn’t do, right? We did the do’s, some of the tips for like making the most of the turkey tent. What what are some things, Ricci, that that we want authors to avoid doing?

Ricci (14:47.165)

Yeah, a lot of these are just the, you know, the reverse of of of what we said. So, you know, don’t spend a ton on these platforms that are going to get really expensive. So that’s Meta, TikTok Ads, Google, Amazon. again, if you already have these running, you just want to watch them, you maybe want to turn down the volume a little bit. this is also not a time to like go and try and do list building. You don’t want to be acquiring customers at this time of year. You really want to be harvesting your customers.

Ferol Vernon (14:58.754)

Google.

Ricci (15:15.923)

So worry less about building your list and focus more on like really sending, you know, and talking to your fans who you already have. and then I think the biggest one is like do not wait to book your promos or if you’re going to do swaps with other authors, whatever. And this is gonna be a theme, whatever holiday plans you think that you have. Now’s the time. If you’re listening to this podcast right now, like go out and start booking. we unfortunately have a lot of authors come through.

you know, the week of Thanksgiving, who write in and they’re like, hey, I really wanted to run a promo. And I see that you guys are like sold out on everything. And authors do plan far in advance and and inventory does get sold out, not just with us, but a lot of the other platforms. So you want to get in early and you want to make sure that You want to make sure that you’re lining everything up and you’re not scrambling at the last minute.

Ferol Vernon (16:19.99)

Yeah, so get get your promos booked early. Okay. we don’t want we don’t want disappointed authors coming and looking for stuff that’s that’s already sold out. So I think, you know, that’s like our summary for what’s happening on this Turkey 10, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, small business, Saturday era, right? Deal focused, frenzied, high activity. Then we get to the next phase of the holiday marketing world. And that’s really this like December timeframe.

And it’s really around gifting, right? It’s really around people finding gifts to give friends and loved ones. and they’re searching, and like, yes, people are searching for you know, a a shirt or like a shaving set or like any of the classic things you would think about gifts, but books are a really big gift. And so I think it’s a it’s a unique opportunity for author. So Ricci, let’s go through the do’s and don’ts, you know, for for sort of the the gifting era in December.

Ricci (17:19.475)

Yeah, so we call this kind of the ho the holiday hustle time period. So it kind of starts right at the beginning of December, you know, after Cyber Monday’s ended. So call it December one, two. And it’s going to run through almost up until Christmas. Generally, it ends when the shipping cutoffs occur. So basically, whatever the last date is that you can ship something so that your customer can actually get it in time for Christmas, that’s the end of your holiday hustle period. This tends to be

You know, if a Amazon’s a different animal, if there’s stuff in the warehouse, but if you’re doing POD, you probably have, you know, three or four days before Christmas that’s going to be your cutoff. So you really want to like know what that cutoff is, because the worst thing you can do is disappoint customers who are expecting to gift your book. you can also use this urgency in your messaging. Be like, don’t be disappointed and you know, don’t procrastinate and miss the shipping cutoffs. Like today’s the day. come on in and order from me. 

people are really shopping for gifts. So authors, you want to lean into your giftables. That’s gonna be more of your physical books, you know, people are gonna be buying your paperbacks, your hardcovers. If you have collector’s editions, this is your time, right? This is your time to shine. You wanna be showing them off on social, in ads, and really playing up the uniqueness factor. Like, look at this gorgeous book. You know, it’s kind of one of a kind, you know.

Ferol Vernon (18:44.85)

Yeah, do it.

Ricci (18:54.383)

have a reader in your family who’s read everything, bet they haven’t read my book, get them a collector’s edition, get them a signed edition. You know, even if you don’t have collectors, but you have paperbacks or hardbacks and you get it signed, that’s a gorgeous gift to give to somebody, something that’s actually you can say, hey, this was signed by the author. So this is really the time of year to highlight your products, your titles as the perfect thing to gift for this time of year.

Ferol Vernon (19:18.951)

Yeah, and I think something that, you know, a lot of authors don’t take advantage of is this print on demand. And so, like, you know, if you haven’t ordered a huge box of books with sprayed edges and these beautiful and they are beautiful, like I I love these things every time I see them. But like if you just want to get your print on demand paperback loaded on Amazon, like don’t wait. Like it’s a great time forcing function for you to go get that set up. You need to have a physical product. And even if you just have an ebook.

Getting POD set up through Amazon, it’s a little bit of a pain in the butt, but it’s it’s very doable. so I’d encourage you to get that ready because even if you’re promoting during this time your ebook, some portion of people will land on your Amazon page and they will buy your paperback book, right? And whether you get a little bit extra margin or whether you just manage to land a nice gift to one of your readers, it doesn’t matter. Just make sure your physical stuff is available during this time.

Ricci (20:14.633)

Yeah, absolutely. And if you’re not on Amazon and you’re not you don’t want to do like Amazon POD, there are a lot of other providers out there. Go check out Ingram Spark or Lulu. there are a bunch of people who can help you with this, but it really, really, really helps to have some kind of physical product that people can purchase to then gift during this holiday hustle time period.

Ferol Vernon (20:19.687)

Yeah.

Ferol Vernon (20:35.685)

Yeah. And I think, you know, one one of the don’ts, and it’s kind of something Ricci mentioned earlier, but I just want to underscore because it’s so important, is just don’t ignore this shipping cutoff. Like when people are buying a book during this time, they want to give it to somebody for Christmas. So like you can’t ignore that. Like you have to make sure that your marketing is happening early in December, that you’re giving people enough time to buy that book, get it shipped to their house, wrap it, and give it to a friend. So it’s like really ignore these shipping cutoffs at

at your own peril, like do the research, figure out how long it takes for a book to get, you know, whether you’re doing POD or or whoever your your retailer of choice for physical is, whether that’s yourself, just make sure you understand those dates and plan for them.

Ricci (21:18.012)

Yeah, and you know, something you can do during this time of year is you can actually charge a little bit extra for expertited shipping. So you can say to your customers, like, we want to make sure it gets there in time. So yes, shipping’s a little more expensive, but that’s because we want to make sure it arrives at your doorstep right when it needs to. So do what you need to do to make sure that that gift is gonna get there on time. I think my last do in this section is around this time of year in December, there are lots of like little local.

fairs and festivals, or like sometimes like we have a really cool hotel here in the triangle that does like little like holiday pop-ups where they bring all local vendors to come in and sell their wares. and those are awesome opportunities for authors because you can just bring you know bring 50 books and you can potentially sell all of them.

at those types of events because you’re getting to talk to the people, you get to sign the book, you get to hand it to them. And in those scenarios, you don’t have to deal with shipping at all. And it also makes connection with some of the, you know, local readers who might be interested in supporting you. So take a look around, you know, ask Google what events are coming up locally. And if you can do, you know, one even one of those, I think it also will get you into the holiday spirit. And it’s an another easy way to move inventory without having to sit there boxing stuff up yourself.

Ferol Vernon (22:25.039)

Yeah.

Ferol Vernon (22:32.803)

Yeah. And I just, you encourage you to put yourself in the mind of a of a present shopper. So I’ll tell you a story that has obviously never happened to me is that you’re wandering around a mall or hotel or someplace around this time when you’re looking for the perfect gift, but you have no idea what you’re gonna buy. Right. And so as you’re at one of these fairs, you’re selling your books, have that in your mind. That’s what yeah, people are walking by. Don’t know what to give somebody. How about a like a special edition book that’s got a story behind it? It makes a great gift. I think

Just put yourself in the mind of the gift shopper and then sell your book as the answer to that problem. What to give a friend or a

Ricci (23:10.835)

And it’s like the easiest sell because so many people read, right? So, like your question when somebody comes past past, it’s like, does your person know how to read? they do. Give them a book. This is perfect for them. because literally a lot of shoppers are at that point just trying to, you know, find something that they can kind of sweep by. So it’s it’s a great opportunity, and you do have a captive audience of potentially some procrastinators who are out there looking for gifts.

Ferol Vernon (23:18.67)

Then this is perfect.

Ferol Vernon (23:39.756)

Yeah. okay, so I think, you know, my my final do here, which is actually a a good segue into the the golden era of January, is we often get one of like the top questions we get is like when is the best time to release a new book? And the truth is, th there’s really not that many bad times to release a book, but December is one time that we recommend that you don’t release a new book. And the reason is because just a few weeks later is a great time to release a new book.

And that’s January. And so Ricci, let’s talk about, you know, and this is a little bit of the inverse of some of what we talked about already, but let’s talk about why December 26th, which in our marketing world is the beginning of January, why that is such a great period for for authors to sell and release new books.

Ricci (24:28.667)

Yeah, so this final period, which you know is known by many names, some people call it the golden period, some people call it the the windfall window is is is something. But it’s just it if you’re if you’re a marketer who’s you who has generally advertising on a lot of these platforms throughout the year, it’s the one time of the year when actually the costs drop. Now, this is only relevant for you if you’re in an industry.

where you’re not trying to like move all your inventory for holiday, which is like 90% of the world. So that’s why the costs drop because every major retailer is like, okay, my year’s over, my inventory’s gone because I was trying to sell it all before Christmas. But if you’re in an industry that’s not trying to do that, or like at Written Word Media, you know, we’re adding readers to our lists, this is go time, baby. This is when you get to go and get out in front of all of these consumers, readers who are out there,

At a fraction of the cost of what it costs you for the rest of the year. So, you know, we this is when we dial up our budgets big time because the volume at the lower cost gives you an amazing start to the new year. So if you’re an author, because you have inventory in the form of your ebooks or your print on demand, which never runs out, right? You’re never like, I’m actually out of stock. You get to take advantage of this period. You also get to take advantage of the fact.

That so many people got gift cards, usually for Amazon, but more and more, sometimes also now for Shopify. And they’re looking at where they can actually spend this. So you want to be in front of these people, these readers who have gift cards that they’re looking to spend. You want to be on Meta and Amazon ads and all these platforms because they’re so much cheaper. And this is when you can start putting all of your stuff in front of them, including your brand new book, if you’re looking to launch something for the new year.

Ferol Vernon (26:22.408)

Yeah, it’s this is like sort of the the opposite of what we say. Like, you know, during that sort of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, during holiday, you’re competing with all these retailers. And all of a sudden in January, you’re not. All that spend comes out of the system. CPMs get great, CPCs are good. So that’s a time for you as an author to maybe dial your meta advertising up a little bit because your costs should be better. And I think the the other thing that that people sort of discount is this like new year, new you, right? And so like

Everybody out there pretty much sees January as a new beginning. It’s the beginning of a calendar year. Some people do New Year’s resolutions, some people don’t. But everybody is thinking about how they can do things a little better or a little differently at the beginning of the year. And for a lot of people, that’s reading more books, right? For a lot of people, it’s like, hey, I want to read more books this year. And that’s like what one of my New Year’s resolutions, and I did a little research on this. I thought it was a fascinating statistic. That actually, you know, of New Year’s resolutions, which are, you know, they’re usually like the butt of a joke.

Right. They’re things that people don’t actually keep. Right. but actually 40% of them become long-term habits. So, like, yeah, most of them fail, but like a good amount of them stick around, right? And so I think it’s a really interesting time when everybody’s trying to be better. And books, you know, for all of us in this industry are wonderful, beautiful things. And and very few people say, Hey, I want to watch more TV in January, or like, you know, I want to eat more cookies.

And so I think, you know, it’s really a good time for you to get in front of people, both from like the cost of advertising standpoint, but also what’s going on in popular culture and what people’s behavior is in January.

Ricci (28:03.197)

Yeah. And then the third element of what’s happening, the trifecta here, is that people are on vacation. So most people are not working, right? So what’s happening is they’re a sitting at home. They are there more people are on social platforms. They’re scrolling Insta and doing all of that because they’re not at work. but

Their bank account is pretty depleted because they just spent all this money shopping for Christmas. So they got these gift cards that they have to use, but they’re not going out and spending as much. They’re looking for kind of cheaper forms of entertainment. And books and audiobooks are a really fit that bill because it also dovetails with all these other things that Ferol has mentioned and he’s talking about. And whether you’re a fiction or nonfiction, reading is viewed as a healthy habit. And so when people are talking about their habits for the year, reading tends to be on the list.

Ferol Vernon (28:48.57)

Yeah.

Ricci (28:52.751)

And if it’s, you know, New Year’s New Year’s self-improvement, then it’s maybe more of a lean to nonfiction books and audiobooks. But if it’s just like New Year’s New You, I want to decrease my screen time. Well, reading fiction books can be a substitute for for that. And it’s actually a really affordable one. So it’s a great time to be in there. And again, lean into that messaging. Like, is your new resolution to read more? Put out stats about right, reading is good for your brain, for your focus, reading is the antidote to social media. Those are all the types of messaging that’s really going to resonate at this time of year.

Ferol Vernon (29:22.17)

Yeah, Ricci’s just spitting out gold here. So every everybody should be listening, just like writing down these headlines, and you can use those. Yeah.

Ricci (29:26.569)

Dude, this is my Super Bowl. Like this time of year, it’s it’s really can’t get really excited. It’s very fun. so yeah.

Ferol Vernon (29:34.339)

some of the don’ts here are are, you know, the the other side of the do’s. But I think, you I I do want to say them out loud and make sure authors understand it. And like January, like this golden period, you know, it starts December twenty sixth. Like Ricci said, that people are off work, you know, between Christmas and New Year’s. But like this is not the time to take your foot off the gas. Like, don’t pull your marketing down in January. It’s a really bad idea. Like if you want to save money, there are time you know, do it later in the year, but don’t miss out on January.

And I just want to make sure that, you know, authors hear that because, you know, we really recommend that you come into the new year, you know, both financially is a good opportunity, but also psychologically. You want to come into the new year strong. Right. And it and January presents a great opportunity to to really move copies.

Ricci (30:20.233)

Yeah, if you take one thing away from this pod today, it’s that when you stop listening to it, go and plan your holiday marketing. and when you’re thinking about your holiday marketing, the time period is mid-November to mid-January. It’s not mid-November to just before Christmas. because of all the things that we we’ve talked about, we do find that the golden window really extends through around mid-January MLK Day. and it does start, it starts on the 26th.

Ferol Vernon (30:47.534)

Yeah.

Ricci (30:59.761)

I it’s actually what we’ve started seeing is it’s it’s actually starting on the twenty fifth a little bit, which makes me a bit sad because what it means is that like on Christmas Day, people are sitting there and already like they’re grabbing their gift cards and they’re starting to shop. they’re redeeming right away, or they’re like, you know, opening their emails, they’re like on their phones, whereas I feel like, you know.

Ferol Vernon (31:02.391)

Almost before, right.

Ferol Vernon (31:12.832)

Redeeming right away, yeah.

Ricci (31:21.789)

Back when I was in retail, Christmas Day was kind of a sacred day. Like you would not send marketing emails, you would not expect people to be shopping. But we’re definitely seeing like, you know, the creep into Christmas Day. but that’s your golden window, Ryan, is like Christmas Day or the 26th Boxing Day through mid-January. And so every window provides a different opportunity. and if you only had to pick one window, which I really hope you don’t, 

Ferol Vernon (31:48.918)

Yeah.

Ricci (31:52.733)

The golden window is going to be the one where you’re going to get the most bang for your buck across all of your channels, whether it’s running promos, whether it’s, you know, running ads on different platforms, whether it’s on your socials. but ideally you can have a marketing plan that hits all three of those because that momentum really is going to be a wave that pushes you into the new year. And like it feels so great to start the year to be in mid-January and be like, I’m already beating my goals from last year. My business is growing. you can’t really.

Ferol Vernon (32:15.496)

Yeah. I’m selling books.

Ricci (32:21.285)

overestimate the psychological impact of starting the year with the wind at your back. it’s just gonna help make the whole rest of your year, your whole 2027 even better than you maybe had expected.

Ferol Vernon (32:23.723)

Yeah.

Ferol Vernon (32:33.643)

Yeah. And like, you know, here we’re more in media, we’re big fans of experimentation. Try things, see what works for you as an author. And I think, you know, during this period, this is really the time when you, you know, you you try some things with discounting, but like this golden January time, play your greatest hits, right? Like like roll the ad the ads that work, turn up, you know? and really just sort of double down on the things that work because everything that that usually works is gonna work that much better.

Ricci (33:01.373)

Yeah, now I feel like I want to take it back because now I’m like, but you really need to do something during like the Cyber Monday Turkey Ten push. You really do. So don’t choose. If you only had to choose two, do those two. But like really you need to do it all. So you need to do it all and you need a book early. but also don’t get don’t get overwhelmed. Like even if you just do one thing in each of those periods, that’s really gonna, you know, push and propel your business to to the next level.

Ferol Vernon (33:05.973)

You do, yeah, you have to.

Do it all.

Ferol Vernon (33:27.882)

find a little bit of quiet time, sometime here. You know, you’re listening to this probably, you know, late October. Find some time in the next week, an hour, get yourself a nice hot cup of coffee or cup of tea or whatever you like, and write down what you’re gonna do for the holiday. There’s three things, right? There’s there’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday, that Turkey 10, there’s the the December period, and then there’s the golden sort of January period. And just write down

one thing that you’re going to do in each of those periods and start there. And if you can do that, you know, maybe you’ll have a few extra ideas after listening to this pod for a few things. But I think, you know, to Ricci’s point, make sure you do something for each one of those. And I find always the the way to keep myself accountable for doing these things is is is a quiet time and a piece of paper and a really simple task. Right. And so I think if you can take that away from this pod, that’ll be really helpful for you attacking the the holiday season with with the best chance of success that you can.

Ricci (34:26.665)

Yeah, and as always, we’ll have show notes. We’ll also have a blog post with a little like infographic cheat sheet with all of these dates and kind of what we recommend you do and what you recommend you avoid during each of the three periods. and as a lot of you hopefully know, like we have an incredible team here at Written Word Media who just loves to help authors. So if you’re a little stumped or if you’re like, hey, I think I have a plan, but I want to run it by somebody, you can always email us and we’ll take a look.

Or we’ll you can email us and say, I want to promote these three titles, like help me figure out when to promote them and what I should do with them. And we’d be happy to help you with, you know, the the bones of a plan. But the most important thing, as Ferol said, is to do something, take advantage of this, you know, very special time of year to give your your business a very strong end to this year and a very strong start to the year that’s coming before we’ll before we all blink, it’s gonna be here.

Ferol Vernon (35:20.317)

2027, right there. all right, authors. Well, that has been our rundown of how to handle holiday. Hopefully that was helpful. Like Ricci said, please reach out to us if you have any other questions. we’re wishing everybody holiday success. Go slay your goals, get it done, and we will see you next time. 

Ferol Vernon (36:08.701)

Okay, all right, that’s it. That’s the pod. Authors, go write something. We’ll see you next time.