How is a writer to write about Christmas when there’s no snow on the ground? Is that your question?
Yes, I live in South Florida, where the only snow is artificial (or in snow globes),but what many non-writers don’t realize is that Christmas books are, of necessity, written long before the holiday season. In fact, they might even be written when the snows of the previous winter—up north—are still melting in the spring thaw. It isn’t just South Floridians and Southern Californians who need to ignore rising temperatures when writing about sleds or Santa.
Books published by a self-publishing outfit tend to go through the publishing process faster than books published by a traditional publisher, but even with a self-publisher, you need to allow time for editing, layout, cover design, proofreading,printing, trimming, binding, and shipping, as well as such items as securing an ISBN and generating a barcode. And, as there are inevitably other books being worked on in-house, you can’t expect your book to go through each of these processes lickety-split.
With a traditional publisher, the time is even longer—and don’t forget the three months it may take before the acquisitions editor even gets back to you with an offer to publish. (Or a decline, the industry term for a rejection, which can delay your quest for your book’s publication even longer as you resume your search for an interested publisher or decide not to delay any longer but to go ahead and self-publish.)
So it’s very possibly sweet springtime or even sweltering summer—and that’s pushing it if you’re going with a traditional publisher—when you write your Christmas picture book, Christmas romance, Christmas mystery, or holiday decorating how-to or Christmas goodies cookbook.
How does a writer trick herself into a Christmas frame of mind when the air-conditioning is fighting the summer heat and the swimming pool outside her window is sparkling in the summer sun? Well, if you live in South Florida, as I do, unless you are a new arrival, you have long since acclimated to writing about crisp autumn leaves when there are none, writing about snowy trails and carrot-nosed Frostys when no such sights are on offer anywhere around, and relying on imagination (or memory, if you are a transplanted northerner) to write your winter holiday-themed books.
Maybe you crank the a/c down to where you need to don a sweater and a muffler for comfort as you sit at your computer. Maybe you put Christmas music on the stereo. Maybe you’ve saved snow scapes and other wintry scenes, cut out from magazine, which you now tape onto your wall to look at in order to get yourself in the right frame of mind.
It’s no tjust us book authors. I have heard that songwriters write their Christmas songs in July.
Some professions require good imaginations.