Are Christmas-themed Novels Worth Your Time? This Author Says "YES!"

I love Christmas. 

One of our Living Nativity pics with sweet pre-schoolers... Oh my heart!

I love the preparation, the beautiful winter season here in Western New York, the calm, the quiet, the long dark nights, lit with a community wide twinkle-fest, joining in the celebration of Christ's birth. Advent is a true season to me, to my church, to my faith community. It's not just a song fest (although who doesn't love non-stop Christmas music????)

(Straight No Chaser's "Twelve Days of Christmas" from 1998)

In England, the Twelve Days of Christmas are renowned. They begin on Christmas and end on January 6th, Twelfth Night or the Feast of the Epiphany. The song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is based on those twelve nights, a fact lots of today's kids don't know!

In America, Thanksgiving unofficially marks the beginning of the Christmas season... but lately the Christmas decorations are in full swing by late September, and take center stage as soon as Halloween is kicked to the curb.

What does this mean to us as authors? Does it pay to write a book that is so specifically designated to a particular holiday?

Absolutely.

And I say that for good reason. A lot of good reasons, in fact. I have a current Grace Haven Christmas-themed book releasing in four weeks:

Due on shelves 10/17/17!!!!

Love Inspired is re-releasing this beautiful duo  this November:

And look what's coming out from Harlequin's popular Reader's Service in October! I'm coupled with Jillian Hart in a Classic Christmas collection... or you can buy my highest selling book of all time... "His Mistletoe Family"... on its own!

This is the cover from Jillian's original book....

This is the newly redesigned cover of "His Mistletoe Family"..... Love it!

AND... The amazingly talented people of Harlequin's art team re-designed this cover... they must have gone back to my original facts on my Art Fact Sheet, the design sheet all authors fill out to help the art team envision your work... because the two little boys on THIS cover look like the pictures I sent! The pictures were of my grandson Dave and my little buddy Nolan Tydings, and these little fellows look like they did six years ago! Adorable! 

Raise your hand if you like the Hallmark Channel.

Are you a "Heartie"?

Do you love mysteries?

Do you love CHRISTMAS MOVIES????

Do you love that Hallmark now shows them All Month Long???

Hallmark discovered something that Harlequin figured out a long time ago. We love the idea of romance at Christmas.... We love the bonding, the family, the sacrifice, the holiday cheer, the drama, the longing, the loneliness, the kindness of strangers.

WE LOVE THESE THINGS, and how nice is it that we can write about all of this with a thread of faith?

Harlequin doesn't re-release these beloved Christmas stories on a whim.

They want to make money.

Writing's a business, publishing's a business, the romance we love comes to one thing and one thing only: NUMBERS.

The dollars and cents of the situation.

So yes, if you've been considering a holiday-themed book, I say do it! Go for it! Be big and brave and bold...

You can offer it for sale from September through December. You can do a Christmas in July sale. You can market it any way you want, but first you have to write it.

Go for it.

Have fun. And some tips for writing a Christmas story when it's not Christmas... Listen to Christmas music... slide a holiday movie into your line-up. Read the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2... 

This beautiful creche was in the Oakdale Mall ... How beautiful and how fun to have a Nativity scene in a mall!  Oh... Hello, boy!

Imagine being that young mother, on the road, traveling mile upon mile to obey a government edict.

I have a CD that begins with "Breath of Heaven" and goes through a dozen beautiful, heartfelt Christmas hymns and/or songs that make me THINK... and FEEL... because that's the guts of a great Christmas story. We want the reader to be immersed in all aspects while wrapped in a blanket of caring and empathy.

Think of all the famous Christmas stories/movies/themes you love. The pauper... the princess... the single mom or dad... the child buying shoes for his sick mama... Caught in an airport... caught in a skyscraper with terrorists/thieves!!!!... Babies.... sick babies.... newborn babies.... pregnant single mothers....  Abandoned babies.... Lost loves.... new loves.... Small towns.... big cities.... Leaving the big city for the small town....

There are so many tropes that go well with Christmas. Let's finish this up by sharing ideas: What Christmas tropes/plot ideas do you love most? What story would you love to write?

To celebrate the beautiful fall season, I've got copies of "The Lawman's Yuletide Baby" (NancyMae on facebook said she couldn't put it down, and I never argue with NancyMae!!!) and "Yuletide Hearts/Mended Hearts", two top-selling books from my Men of Allegany County series!  Two people will get both books... a delightfully fun package to get in the mail!

Come on in... coffee's hot and fresh and I brought chocolate dipped pumpkin spice cannolis to go with... Happy fall, everyone!

Ruthy Logan Herne loves writing sweet books with unforgettable characters, the kind of folks who live next door to all of us. With over forty published novels and novellas (and more on the way!) Ruthy is living her dream of crafting stories while baking cookies for the Blodgett Family Farm in Western New York. Friend her on facebook, follow her on Twitter or swing by her website... she's always happy to see you!