Working in the publishing industry myself (albeit for not yet six months now) I have come to see at least a few seasonal patterns. There are certain times during the year that people just aren’t going to be around the office that much, or, even if they are, they’re going to be so stressed out and crammed for time that they won’t have much of a chance or desire to deal with queries and other such submissions. This is commented on by BookEnds, LLC, A literary agency in their holiday slump post. Their recommendations cover this Christmas period and also extends to the upcoming January. They say:
“And a little tip for those querying agents. Stop. December might not be all that slow when it comes to sales, but agents are looking to wind down the year and might not be as eager as you would like them to be to read new submissions. If I were you I’d wait until February 1. Let everyone else inundate them in January, when they are too busy opening the mail to actually read it, and you can hit them in February when they finally feel caught up and might be able to actually sit and read the letters as they open them.”
What to do during the holidays, if not query and submit and file rejection letters? It doesn’t mean you should stop writing, most certainly not. But maybe this can be a great time to pull out an older story and give it a good ol’ revision, complete with hacksaws and varnish.
I see that smile.
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