Thursdays with Amanda: Should You Take a Holiday Break from Marketing?

Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Disclaimer!!! I apologize for any typos! I have a blinding migraine today (yes, those are real things!), but I wanted to get the post out. 🙂

Every year, around this time, I struggle to figure out what to blog about. I’m so very tempted to slap a Christmas meme up for my Thursday post, or do something easy and less informative like last week’s list of author marketing books. This desire to cop out is INTENSE. And I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about.

After Thanksgiving, that weekly column you do seems like busywork. Those individuals who have Tweeted you, expecting a response, come across as more things to add to your to-do list. That sale that your publisher is doing on your book doesn’t have the full marketing push behind it that your previous sales have had.

Basically, you’ve run out of steam because your life is just so full of so many other things.

This can happen at any time of year; not just the holiday season. The difference, however, is that December is a month of spending. And gift-giving. And things. It’s a retail rush, not only in the weeks leading up to major holidays, but in the weeks following (you gotta spend those gift cards!). So where am I going with this?

I do believe wholeheartedly in taking time off during the holiday season. I believe in focusing on family and friends and others. But I also think it’s important to have some kind of a marketing strategy in place during the holiday season. It can be as intensive as you want. It can be something that you even plan out months in advance so that you’re relatively off the hook for day-to-day maintenance. But I think it’s important that you keep your marketing mindset. Your career is a business, after all. (So often we treat it as a hobby that can be set aside). And most business close for a week at the most during this season. So I encourage you to adopt that mindset and to keep marketing. Keep doing what you do to spread the word.

Because all that gift card money that people end up with has to be spent! And it may as well be spent on your book.

What’s your plan of attack this time of year? Take the month off? or try to keep going as usual?