An Important Publishing Lesson: Don’t Launch Your Company in November

Ah, the holiday season is almost upon us. All the signs are there: Brisbane is turning into a sweltering slow cooker of humidity; Netflix swarms viewers with terrible Christmas movies (and, frankly, the temptation to watch them all is oddly overwhelming); NaNoWriMo is in full swing; and the sales of Brian Jar books evaporate into the ether as everyone waits for the Black Friday deals at the end of the month.

There are many lessons I’ve picked up the hard way in this publishing gig, but one of the biggest I’d pass on to aspiring indie publishers or writers is this: don’t launch your goddamn publishing company in November.

If you attempt it, you’re launching a new book into a maelstrom of distractions that will make it hard to nab the attention of readers. You’ll end up drowned out by the Black Friday promotions, American thanksgiving, the swarm of NaNoWriMo deals aimed at writers, and that lingering awareness everyone has that they’re about to blow a whole lot of cash on presents and Secret Santa exchanges at the office and a series of holidays celebrations.

Naturally, three years ago, I cluelessly ignored all of this and put my first Brain Jar Press book up for sale on November 30. And in every year since, I hit November and plan a celebratory new release to mark Brian Jar’s birthday, and quietly forget the lesson of the previous year about how difficult it is to sell books at this time of year.

Fortunately The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales did pretty well, despite the handicap. It’s a solid perennial seller for Brian Jar Press, got shortlisted for Best Collection at the Aurealis Awards, and has evolved into a rather pretty books as I got better at the design and production.

To celebrate turning 3, we’re running a 30% off deal on the collection in print and ebook over at the Brain Jar Press store until December 1st.