Yes, I am mentioning Christmas in August. But seeing as Christmas is a popular deadline for launching books (who doesn’t love getting a book for Christmas?), let’s see what’s involved to get your book published for Christmas.
I imagine you’re thinking that August to Christmas gives you LOADS of time for publishing, but if Christmas is a deadline you’re working towards, there are several factors to consider. While I am referring to self-publishing your book in time for Christmas, we can use the model used by the bigger publishing houses to work out what stage you need to be at by now (August) to be in with a chance of launching for Christmas.
What do you mean by publishing your book for Christmas?
Launching for Christmas doesn’t mean launching at the start of December. The latest you want to have your book ready to purchase is the start of November. That’s for two reasons: 1) some customers will be more organised than others and will be getting their Christmas shopping sorted by the end of November and 2) you need enough time to promote your book.
If you just want to be able to gift a copy of your own book to your nearest and dearest for Christmas, then you can afford to push the publication date more towards the start of December (then perhaps focus on a wider audience in the new year).
The big publishers promote pre-orders weeks and even months before the publication date. While you don’t need to have pre-orders open for as many weeks as the big publishers, an important part of marketing is building hype around your book and letting your customers know when it will be available for pre-order or when the publication date will be.
Ideally, then, by August you should already have your book cover sorted so you can really entice your readers to pre-order or buy your book when it’s out. You can put your book up to buy without a cover (and add a ‘cover to be revealed’ graphic on there) but recognition and constantly putting your cover in your customer’s mind will make a huge difference to your marketing.
The self-publishing to-do list
The book cover isn’t the only thing to add to your to-do list when it comes to publishing your book. Whether you’re going for a big launch for the Christmas market or you want your book ready for friends and family to read over the Christmas period, you need to work backwards with your timeline or to-do list to figure out what stage your book should be at and when.
If you’re still working on your first draft in August, then it’s going to be incredibly tight to get the final book out by December. Not impossible if you don’t have much (or anything else) on between now and December, but it will be pretty relentless, as you need to consider sorting the following (as a minimum):
Editing
Book cover
Proofreading
Typesetting/book layout
Book upload to Amazon KDP or other self-publishing companies like IngramSpark or Bookvault
Speaking frankly, you’d have to be willing to miss out certain stages (at least the option of using a professional service or individual for some aspects) to get your book published in time for Christmas. For those stages of the book you do want to use a professional for, you’ll have to compromise on finding your ideal freelancer, because most of us get booked about 3 months in advance.
So if achieving that November/December publication date is non-negotiable, you need to start deciding now which aspects of the book you are doing yourself and which you will use a professional or informed friend for.
How to achieve publishing by November, starting from the end of August
Here’s a best-case scenario for going from first draft in August to publishing your book by mid-November (overview first, then I follow up with some details):
September: self-edits, beta readers, or manuscript review with an editor. Also work on book cover or find book cover designer and figure out actual publishing process.
First half of October: incorporate feedback or final changes from the September edits.
Second half of October: book the copyedit, proof-edit, or proofreader, or find someone you feel would fit the bill to take this on. Spend this time finalising the book cover (whether doing it yourself or working with a professional).
End of October/beginning of November: final version of your book!
If you finish your first draft in August, publishing in November to December could just about be achieved if you can spend most of September doing some intense self-edits, using beta readers, or having a manuscript review from an editor. If you can send your book to beta readers or an editor, use that time to draft a book cover or find a book cover designer, and brush up on the essential self-publishing process for Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, etc. If you are solely self-editing, you’ll need to juggle the time you spend editing with time spent on your book cover or looking for a book cover designer.
Make sure you get the feedback from beta readers or your editor back (or finish your own self-edits) by the end of September so you can use the first half of October to add the changes from the editor or beta reader. Then you’ll need to choose between booking a copyedit, proof-edit, or proofread for the second half of October. While it’s with the editor or proofreader, spend that time finalising your book cover. Remember that proofreading is all about finding and amending errors, not improving word choice, flow, or structure (remind yourself of the difference between proofreading and editing).
Whichever service you choose, you need to have the final version of your book back by the end of October or start of November. Remember, you have the final amends to check and accept/reject, or one final read-through to do before you upload your book.
This is a whistlestop tour through the stages from draft to pre-order, but shows how by mid-November your book should be available to pre-order or for you to promote if you just want to put it up for sale straightaway.
Do you need to publish your book in time for Christmas?
Working on and publishing your book is a fine line between giving it the love and attention it needs (and deserves) and working to deadlines to ensure you actually reach the publishing stage. As you can see, going from first draft to published book in 10 weeks means missing out at least one editorial stage (it’ll be a choice between copyediting or proofreading) and also means you haven’t given your book time to rest between the first draft you finish and the final draft you’re happy with before sending it off for editing.
I find the time taken between the first draft and final draft is crucial for working out what you want your book to be about and whether that’s how the current version of the book has turned out. It may be that you had one book in mind when you started writing, but you ended up writing something completely different, whether due to new experiences along the way or just the way the writing took you. The time between drafts is when you can gain ultimate clarity on the purpose of your book. Such time would be lost if you rush the timeline between draft and publication.
As I said earlier, if you want to publish your book for Christmas because it’s a project mainly for friends and family to enjoy, then perhaps you don’t need to worry quite so much about that critical eye on your manuscript. However, if your book is being written to complement your business or you have high hopes for it to lead to new opportunities (such as speaking spots or workshops), then the time needed to make your book the best it can be is worth more than a (perhaps) arbitrary publication date.
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