I was reading one of the publishing blogs I follow earlier today during a coffee break from my next book in The Virgin Billionaire series and I came across something that made me wonder. It doesn’t matter who said it. What matters is there is still some inaccurate publishing advice going around.

The theme of the blog post was about making mistakes while querying editors or agents (groan,) and one of the examples of what not to do referred to a comment the querier made that suggested the book in question would be ready as a “Christmas release…” in publishing.

The blogger jumped on this. The blogger said there was no such thing as a “Christmas release” in publishing because all Christmas related books are released in October and November. And this is what made me stop and think.

I know this is how it used to be in print publishing, back in those good old days. It also used to take a year or two for a book to actually be published once it was submitted to a publisher. There were slow times of the year in publishing, and people actually took Fridays off in the summer instead of working to get books released faster. Until recently, publishing has been widely known as the slowest industry in the universe.

But all that has changed in the past five years. In the past three years alone I’ve personally had several “Christmas releases” in December that have sold many copies…some in mid-December. I would never, indeed, release a Christmas story or book in October now because it would be tired by the time Christmas comes around.

Millions of e-readers, iPads, and tablets are sold as Christmas gifts each year. This year I’m sure the numbers will go up as more people switch to e-reading. And the first thing people want to do after they open their new electronic reading device on Christmas morning is download a few books.

In fact, right now I’m working hard on edits with loveyoudivine.com to get a “Christmas release,” The Computer Tutor, out by Thanksgiving and I’m worried that might be too soon. We’re actually debating about whether or not to hold back and release in mid-December. But more than that, my publishers refer to these books as “Christmas releases.” I don’t think the advice the blogger gave was bad advice on purpose. I just think it was inaccurate advice and not keeping up with all aspects of publishing.

So yes, Virginia, there is a Christmas release.