Write a Holiday Novel – Jingle All the Way

[Attention: This post is blatantly commercial. Purists be warned. You may want to stop reading here.]

Novelists, newbie or otherwise, have you ever considered writing a short novel set during Christmas? Or Hannukah? Or Kwanzaa? Or any solstice celebration for a culture-based audience with significant buying power?

Holiday novels are what editors call “evergreens.” Hit the bullseye with your story and it becomes a stocking-stuffer, producing near guaranteed sales year after year. Green forever.

: Image via Wikipedia

The Christmas business has been humming ever since Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol one of the most influential works of fiction ever. In a single stroke he practically created Christmas as we know it today. “The Carol” was an instant franchise, selling so well he followed it with 30 more. None of them are read today, but you can bet they put some jingle in Dickens’ pocket on publication.

The same goes for the modern holiday classics A Christmas Memory (Truman Capote), and A Child’s Christmas in Wales (Dylan Thomas), both of which still sell briskly when December rolls around.

Okay, if I’m so smart, why haven’t written one myself? People have asked me this question for years, and here’s the answer: I’d love to. I just never had a story I considered worth the labor. Oh, I could cook one up, any of us could, but one thing I’ve learned: when it comes to cash-crop fiction, you can run, but you can’t hide. Meaning, if the story you write doesn’t absolutely knock you out (as Dickens story did for him) fold your cards–the finished work won’t impress a reader either.

For more on Dickens as perhaps the prime force behind “Christmas,” check out this: Dickens’s enduring gift to Christmases future.