Christmas survival guide for authors

• Attend as many Christmas parties, lunches, dinners, meet-ups, writers’ days and readers’ days as possible. They can be offset against your tax payment as ‘networking’ and/or ‘research’.
• Do as little Christmas hosting as you can get away with (unless you can invite people who you can put in your books, of course). You need the Christmas period to refill your well of creativity and running round screaming ‘The turkey isn’t cooked!’ is detrimental to artistic output.
• Delegate Christmas shopping/wrapping. You have to write as much as possible before Christmas  to free your mind to enjoy the festivities.
• When you hear anybody say, ‘I can’t think what to buy for so-and-so’ instantly suggest the title of one of your own books. Offer to sign it. And supply a bookmark.
• You know how a Christmas cake is ‘fed’ alcohol at regular intervals? And it makes it richer? Why not try regular alcoholic intake of your own and see if it makes you richer, too?
• Email or message every writer or reader chum you fancy a gossip with. This definitely comes under the heading of ‘networking’ or ‘market research’ or even ‘PR’. And your editor and agent are probably on holiday by now.

• Plan your research trips for next year.
• Do not make any New Year’s resolutions that may impede your writing career. We’re all going to have a fantastic 2016, right?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.