The Legend of Decimus Croome  Flying Off Bookshelves

I just dropped off a stack of the 2017 Halloween novel The Legend of Decimus Croome: A Halloween Carol at a local bookstore. By the time I’d left the store, one of the Samhain tomes had already sold. This speaks to the importance of authors and book distributors delivering that personal touch as well as delivering books. We can’t just assume that readers are going to make a beeline toward our bookstore offerings, no matter how good they are. People won’t know how good they are until they’ve had an opportunity to read the books. And they won’t know they’re supposed to read the books until we’ve told them how good they are… or someone else (such as a book reviewer) has told them how good they are.

Seasonal Books & Holiday Books

The above lesson is especially true of seasonal books or holiday books. The good news is that people are always looking for good holiday books to read around Halloween or Christmas or one of the other wonderful holidays. There’s just something about curling up with a good Halloween book when those first colorful leaves begin to fall.. or cuddling under a blanket, with a good Christmas book, while those first snowflakes begin to pile up on the ground. The bad news is that the holiday season has a limited time frame, so bookstores, book distributors and authors need to make sure that they get the word out about the best holiday books during that finite window of opportunity that is known as the holiday season. During my recent visit to the local bookstore, I discovered the importance of talking directly to the bibliophiles and helping them make an informed decision about the best Halloween book on the shelves.