Good Morning!
It is always a pleasure to introduce to you a brand new-to-me author so please give Cara North a huge, SWLA W-E-L-C-O-M-E as she talks to us about Holiday Prep.....
It’s that time of the year when the Halloween decorations start to go on sale and all the bright lights and ornaments begin to appear. My decorating timeline is probably a bit earlier than most. I take Halloween down (mostly) and put Christmas up at the start of November. I’ve considered leaving the tree up year-round and just decorating it for the various holidays. I’m a bargain shopper. This means if you get a holiday card from me, it is from last year’s batch when they went on clearance. You see how my holiday planning is not as much before the holiday as it will be for after the holidays, all holidays. Right now, October 25th, I have my eye on a Zero decoration. I will be stalking the Halloween section at that store in hopes I will get it when it goes 50-75% off, whichever they do the day after. If I miss it, that is totally fine. I don’t NEED it. I just WANT it, which is why I will not pay full price for it.
My personal planning is simple, I usually mail out cookies to the various households since most of my nieces and nephews are of an age they just want a gift card anyway and the ones who are younger are already going to get too many toys and such, so I tend to send a hat, glove, scarf combo for them.
My author planning is far from simple. The first week in December, I send out my Patreon supporter 4th quarter mailings. Because it is the holiday season, it is what I call “the big mailing” because other authors send me goodies to ship out to them. My high tier patrons get a box, low tier get an envelop but they are both filled with a variety of stuff. In addition to the Patreon mailer, I send out cards every year and not just to my family. I have been mailing cards every year for a while, so I have about a hundred people I send cards to. I will continue to do that because I never know who isn’t getting anything for the holidays, especially in these crazy times. This is the link to sing up for my snail mail mailing list: https://forms.gle/Vn729gAqTbYM7Xhc6
Essentially, for author holiday planning it looks like this:
1. August, put the call out to all authors I know if they would like to get their promo and books in front of my Patrons, to send that before the end of Nov. as I mail 1st week in Dec.
2. Keep an eye out ALL year long for great sales in low quantities. Journals, pens, adult coloring books, and more. Pick those up and save them for the 4th Q mailing.
3. Use Cricut to customize some things for them. (This can take 8-16 hours, so I space it out starting in November. 1 day cutting, 1 day weeding, 2 days ironing or transferring)
4. Add new addresses to the label list
5. About 15 November, begin batching cards for mailing: signing, adding stickers (holiday and my promo ones). Once all the cards are signed and sealed, I put the labels on them and then drop them in the mail either the last week in Nov or 1st week in Dec.
Look for Cara North in the upcoming Limited Edition Box Set: Holly Jolly Rom Com this 2021 Christmas! Available at Amazon in Kindle Unlimited or only pick it up for only $2.99!
Find out more about Cara’s other books by visiting her Amazon Author Page
6 comments:
Wow you are so organized 😯 Happy Holidays D.
Great ideas, Cara. I need to start earlier in my Christmas prep. The holiday always sneaks up on me.
Gosh! These are great tips. Thank you!
So glad they are helpful! :)
Excellent tips. I don't think I'm organized enough to do all of this, but I'm impressed and I'll certainly try at least some of it. The Christmas set sounds fabulous. Congrats and best wishes!
I should send out more cards. You are right, some people may be in great need of our thoughts.
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