Christmas

I Remember

Posted on by Brenda Poulos
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I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t have a friend or relative with some forms of dementia. 

You may be searching for an appropriate gift for someone you know, other than a blanket or sweater.

Why not consider tapping into memories from “days gone by”?

When my mother was diagnosed, I wrote three interactive picture books: I Remember The Seasons, I Remember The Holidays, and I Remember Bible Stories. Each one has beautiful artwork, original poems, stories, and discussion questions–all of which help family and caregivers reconnect with their loved ones.

Writing them was truly a labor of love. Join me this season in giving the gift of memories to a special person in your life.

Book Gifting for Christmas

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

My weekly post usually focuses on some aspect of writing. I share ideas, opinions, and information for authors.

However, readers are the reason we write, so this blog’s for you!

I just perused the books on The Kindle Book Review and on Book Bub. 

For the most part, the books I saw have Christmas and/or Holiday themes. Writers purposely focus on these, hoping to publish at least by October and thus, being ready to capture the “gifting” crowd.

While this may make sense to authors, is this really what readers want to read? Or would readers in colder regions of the country rather read stories with beach/tropical settings? 

Or, does it even matter? 

Perhaps you choose your books for gifting differently than those for reading. Maybe you select gifts based on ones you’ve read (and liked yourself) or ones that have been recommended to you by friends or those having lots of five-star reviews.

There are many reasons readers choose the books they do. If you are a reader (or a writer who is also a voracious reader), please write back and share your reasons for gifting books for Christmas.

Do This To Increase Book Sales

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

I always find it helpful to look back at what I have learned in the past year, before I can look ahead. As I reflected this past week, I read some of my past blogs. I think most of what I learned I passed along to other writers.

However, I saw something interesting that you probably already know: if your goal is to sell books, plan to finish writing by June, use the next few months for critiquing/editing/cover design. And publish by October so that you can cash in on the biggest sales period of the year: Christmas.

Furthermore, it will help if you have the word Christmas or Holidays or other words “of the season” in your title. Beyond that, if your cover has a Christmas tree or snow on it, sales will increase.

Now, let’s say that you don’t want to write a Christmas story, per se. You can still have your book ready in October, design a cover with a winter scene, use a word in your title that might tend to be Googled, such as JOY or HOLIDAY. (I once saw a book that was about a place named Holiday Farms. It had nothing to do with Christmas. The last name of the individual was Holiday.)

You can use similar ideas for Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, and so on. I leave you to your imagination and creativity in boosting your book sales around the holidays.