A few posts ago, Kristi mentioned that she had never written a holiday-themed story and it got me thinking. I subbed to Wild Rose Press a while back, and they had specific times when they would accept holiday-themed stories.
I'm wondering about the other pubs...if I were to have one of my "flashes" about a Christmas story in say March, have it written by July, do I then sub it in August? Or wait until the eds get in the holiday mood? Maybe Mid-October?
This might seem silly, but I'm serious.
I know we sub stories set around the 4th of July in January, but there's something special about the holidays. Would an editor be turned off, sitting in a hot, stuffy office in the dog days of August and pick up my Colorado-set, snow-deep holiday-themed manuscript? Or should I wait until the season is getting close? Of course, if I wait too long, I might get in the pre-holiday desk cleaning we've all heard about. Janauary doesn't really work either, cause by then we're all sick to death of holidays.
I'm beginning to see why Kristi has never written a holiday-themed manuscript.
I'm wondering about the other pubs...if I were to have one of my "flashes" about a Christmas story in say March, have it written by July, do I then sub it in August? Or wait until the eds get in the holiday mood? Maybe Mid-October?
This might seem silly, but I'm serious.
I know we sub stories set around the 4th of July in January, but there's something special about the holidays. Would an editor be turned off, sitting in a hot, stuffy office in the dog days of August and pick up my Colorado-set, snow-deep holiday-themed manuscript? Or should I wait until the season is getting close? Of course, if I wait too long, I might get in the pre-holiday desk cleaning we've all heard about. Janauary doesn't really work either, cause by then we're all sick to death of holidays.
I'm beginning to see why Kristi has never written a holiday-themed manuscript.
Just my opinion, but if I were an editor and I received a good holiday story during the summer months - I'd love it! But them I'm a self-proclaimed Holiday Dork... I know from a magazine standpoint, editors are always looking at about a 6 month lead, so sending in a holiday manuscript in the summer is probably a good idea. Not so sure about books because they have a greater lead time. Just my opinion, but I bet if an editor got a good holiday story in January or February, they'd still bite..
ReplyDeleteI think they want them in summer, or even late spring. For me, this means writing them in November-December then holding them to submit, because I need to be in the mood. BTW, I'm baking cookies today if anybody wants any. :-)
ReplyDeleteMe, me! I want cookies!!!
ReplyDeleteI have a holiday short story coming out December 13th. Of course, it's not a romance story. It's a children's story entitled "Ella's Eyes" that will appear in The Kids' Reading Room, Sunday Supplement of the Los Angeles Times. But holiday stories can sell.
ReplyDeleteI would think you could sub them any time because it's a long process from submission to publication.
ReplyDeleteJerri is right. At Lyrical Press, we're usually booked out on our release schedule about 8 months (or more). Cobblestone bought my Xmas novella in October for this year's holiday special project, but it had to be subbed by August if I remember right. If you're thinking of a full-length novel and subbing to HQN, time of submission is irrelevant because they take up to 2 years to review submissions, and even after acceptance there (or in another "large" house), you could be anywhere from 18 months to 3 years out to release date!
ReplyDeleteI've thought about this, not so much for the holiday-ness of things but merely the timing of setting. I tend to write books set in whatever season I'm writing, so right now, I'm writing a winter story. I figure I'll finish sometime in the spring, and sub in summer, which is probably about right (6 months or so before the intended pub date?). If they read quickly-ish, they could buy and publish 1.5 years later -- right on time. I figure a 1.5 year leadtime is good for big print pubs.
ReplyDeleteSo, are you writing a holiday story??
Not right now, but I had thought of it!
ReplyDelete