Whether you’re facing the stresses of commuting home for the holidays–like sitting in a car or airport for hours–or the stresses of hosting and feeding your extended family for days on end, you’re probably not getting much time in as far as writing or book marketing goes. The past few weeks we’ve done blogs focused on how to bolster your marketing efforts during the holidays, but you may find yourself unable to make time for those efforts.
While some holiday stress may be unavoidable, your support team at a company like mine (Outskirts Press) may have some suggestions for at least mitigating it and remaining as productive as you can in the midst of the flurry of holiday travel, shopping, socializing, hosting and dining.
Let’s say that your flight has been delayed due to inclimant weather and you’re stuck at the airport. This could be seen as a wild inconvenience, or as an opportunity to sit down and write a chapter of your book, or maybe even spend some time on book marketing. Write a blog and broadcast it on all of your other social media networks to get more traffic on your pages–then your time has inadvertently gone from being wasted to being productive!
Squeezing out these windows of productivity doesn’t have to come from unfortunate travel mishaps, though. If you find yourself stuck in the kitchen waiting on Christmas cookies, ham or pie, why not bring along the laptop and get some work done? And when you present your goodies to your company, maybe suggest that everyone bring along a favorite holiday themed poem or writing clip to read before you feast. This will provide you the opportunity to share something you love–writing–with those you love most. I’m always surprised by how excited people become when sharing a few words of their favorite authors. This seems to give me newfound motivation to produce more thoughtful material, especially after experiencing a shared enthusiasm for the written and spoken word!
While those are two small examples of how to stay sane and at least slightly engaged in your writing and marketing during the holiday season, that’s not to say that you’ll make an abundance of progress in any small window of time. Mitigating stress should be your number one priority, and if thinking about marketing your book during the holidays is too overwhelming, never forget the power of asking for a helping hand. We at SPA are always here to help you get through the holidays, and if I can put in one little plug for my employer, Outskirts Press’s Holiday Marketing Bundle is a great way to make sure your book marketing doesn’t falter just because you’re a busy bee!
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com. And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠
Self Publishing Advisor 
I haven’t traveled much yet, but the short couple hour flights I’ve been on gave me time to write, market or even read. Even whilst commuting you’re able to at least get a few hundred words on the page if you remain focused. There’s always time for writing and book marketing, the issue is most people don’t utilize their time to be productive, instead they would prefer to be “busy”. Happy Holidays!
And to you, Kbeezyisviral! We, too, have a habit of trying to milk each spare second of whatever it has to offer, for marketing or otherwise. But I suppose it’s fair to say that for a lot of people, this wouldn’t be considered fun and relaxing–and rest is important. I just know that for me, personally, travel time is often a “wasted space” that could be spent more productively, and that’s my goal. Best of luck with your holidays!
-Kelly S.
Definitely not relaxing or fun to work whilst travelling during the holidays or on business, but the grind waits on no one. The wasted space for me is at home. I don’t have an office yet, so if I stay home, getting work done is feasible, and I’ve done it very successfully in the past, but I’m not as motivated as I would be working at the library, for example.
Best regards,
Kyle Bell