It's the time of year when Christmas-themed stories flood the romance market. I went looking for a new read last evening and my search for "contemporary gay romance" yielded two pages of nothing but holiday stories. Don't get me wrong, some of them are really good. Then again, some of them are not. I've read a few that I sensed were rushed through to meet a holiday deadline. That's the very reason I haven't done one. I don't want to rush it, yet if the season isn't upon us, I don't have the connection I need to the story.
Then there is the possibility of such a book having a very limited shelf life. Would one leave the book on sale for the entire year, or pull it at the end of December and then re-publish it the next mid-November?
So much of this time of the year is like that - limited shelf life. I debated about sending Christmas cards this year and decided to simply cut back and send only to those who, like me, still embrace the tradition. But as much as I like the tradition, it may be time for me to let go of it. Prices have increased. Postage has increased. The cards themselves become landfill fodder.
I am in no way saying holiday-themed stories are bad. I'm not saying we should avoid buying and reading them. I'm saying as writers, we need to make sure our Christmas stories have substance, that we don't rush to finish them. We need to assign the same worth to a holiday story as we do all of our stories. Chopping off the story in the middle of chapter three because we MUST get the book out doesn't help us in the long run. Readers are savvy. They can tell.
Do yourself a favor and make sure your Christmas-themed story has a good shelf life. It's fine to start it this season while you've got the holiday spirit, and not have it published until next season. You owe it to yourself to create a story that will last for many holidays to come.
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My home on the web- Between the Keys:
http://kckendricks.blogspot.com
Visit my bookshelf at:
https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/bookshelf.html
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