Whatever Holiday Shopping Guide 2015 Starts Monday!
Posted on November 27, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 19 Comments
Every year in the first week of December I run a shopping guide for the holidays, and over the years it’s been quite successful: Lots of people have found out about excellent books and crafts and charities and what have you, making for excellent gift-giving opportunities during the holiday season. I’ve decided to do it again this year.
So: Starting Monday, November 30, the Whatever Holiday Shopping Guide Returns! If you’re a writer or other creator, this will be an excellent time to promote your work on a site which gets tens of thousands of views daily, almost all of whom will be interested in stuff for the holidays. If you’re someone looking to give gifts, you’ll see lots of excellent ideas. And you’ll also have a day to suggest stuff to other folks too. Everybody wins!
To give you all time to prepare, here’s the schedule of what will be promoted on which days:
Monday, November 30: Traditionally Published Authors — If your work is being published by a publisher a) who is not you and b) gets your books into actual, physical bookstores on a returnable basis, this is your day to tell people about your books. This includes comics/graphic novels.
Tuesday, December 1: Non-Traditionally Published Authors — Self-published? Electronically published? Or other? This is your day. This also includes comics/graphic novels.
Wednesday, December 2: Other Creators — Artists, knitters, jewelers, musicians, and anyone who has cool stuff to sell this holiday season, this will be the day to show off your creations.
Thursday, December 3: Fan Favorite Day — Not an author/artist/musician/other creator but know about some really cool stuff you think people will want to know about for the holidays? Share! Share with the crowd!
Friday, December 4: Charities — If you are involved in a charity, or have a favorite charity you’d like to let people know about, this is the day to do it.
If you have questions about how all of this will work, go ahead and ask them in the comment thread (Don’t start promoting your stuff today — it’s not time yet), although I will note that specific instructions for each day will appear on that day. Don’t worry, it’ll be pretty easy. Thanks and feel free to share this post with creative folks who will have things to sell this holiday season.
Will you be able to post each day’s instructions early in the day? Because I’m on the road on the day I’m interested in and will miss the instruction if it’s posted later in the morning. Not that I’m suggesting you get up before the sun rises to post the instructions on any day… say Tuesday Dec. 1, for instance. But it would be good if you did.
Thank you for all you do!
There are some nice things happening right now. I just purchased 6 works yesterday at discount prices. It is Black Friday. Is this the time/place for that information.
lif strand: Generally speaking it’ll be the first thing I do on the day.
Intriguing. Do you accept submissions from those who are mere bloggers? Perhaps an original piece that folks could feel free to share at no cost?
nananoyz:
Blog entries? No. Something that has been published as its own self-contained piece of writing, available via retailers? Probably would go on Tuesday.
Stop giving back so much! You’re ruining the narrative.
@lif strand: if you search the blog for “Holiday Shopping Guide”, you’ll find John’s posts from previous guides, and I suspect he’ll probably run this year’s guide the same way.
Thank you Arby’s Mom!
If you happen to be familiar with Sara King’s Zero books, they would fit perfectly into Tuesday’s session. IMO that series is the pinnacle of the indie branch of hard Sci-Fi. Just saying.
Have no questions, just want to say I’m excited and looking forward to see what gets shared. Also I’m excited to make a submission on Wednesday, yay!
Do books include children’s books?
Yup!
John, this is a really nice thing for you to do. Thanks.
How do we submit our work, precisely? Should we send you a link? I’d love to participate.
I love the holiday shopping guide! It keeps me from going to stores without a plan, which is just a really bad situation.
Well this is awfully nifty! I read about it last year and totally want to play this year. But I find myself unsure which day is best for what I do.
I (just to be difficult, I know) self publish knitting books. So I can totally make a good argument for either Tuesday (books, books that I published myself) or Wednesday (knitters, because really my audience is ‘folks wanting to knit’ more than ‘folks looking for books’).
So I both want to follow the rules, and want to go where it’s most appropriate. Any strong feelings one way or the other? If not, I’ll likely aim for Wednesday. But if that is a problem, I’ll totally do Tuesday instead.
Hunter Hammersen:
Tuesday, please. Trust me, there are tons of crafters and knitters who are looking on that day. If you have knitted stuff you want to sell, that would be Wednesday.
[Deleted because in the wrong place — but deleted after it was posted in the right place! So. – JS]
And of course, I posted in the wrong place…ack ack ack.
Ellen:
Go ahead and repost in the right place!