A Birthday on the Ventorship!

It's, um...mine 🎂

We interrupt our usually scheduled programming to let you know there’s cake in all our ship’s restaurants!

In all seriousness, I’ve made a choice not to make this newsletter about me, but about connection between writers at all stages of their career through shared experience. It has been so much more rewarding than just a “Hey, here’s some news and forced posts about me” blog. We’ve more than doubled subscriptions since this was just a JJ info dump, and that makes me so happy to know that y’all see this as a safe space to hang on these writer seas.

So I’ve been hesitant to give any JJ updates here to not taint (haha) the vibe of the Ventorship, but I’m hoping if it’s brief and can potentially tie into a vent that other writers may have, it won’t feel too off topic. To that end, if any of you want to preorder my upcoming dual POV, YA Christmas rom-com, FLOPPING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND, as a little hooray it’s your bday (not that you owe me anything *at all*), I’d be forever grateful!

So what does this have to do with a vent? Well the reason I’ve found this massive stretch of a way to present FLOPPING is that I’m worried as hell about it. It’s always been a huge goal of mine to create a Christmas book. I am completely and totally robsessed with the holiday, and as you’ll see in my author bio on the book, being Mrs. Claus truly is my dream job. But publishing a holiday novel to success presents some challenges. We have a very limited holiday season, and even though there are people like yours truly who listen to Christmas music all year long or who plan out their holiday movie watch list months in advance, we’re a small percentage of the book-buying public. This means that there’s basically only six weeks to sell this puppy before it waits for the holidays to roll out the following year, which really limits sales potential, which limits earn-out ability, which sets me up for having low sales numbers publishers look at to determine if they’ll want to buy my next book.

I know, I know. I SET MYSELF UP FOR THIS! But that’s how much I love the magic of Christmas! That’s how much I believe in Santa! I’m willing to put my sales record on the line because that’s how much I believe the spirit of Christmas will look out for me! And of course, by that, I mean the generosity and support of fellow authors and readers like you. So if you wouldn’t mind preordering FLOPPING to give this book the best chance it’s got, I wouldn’t be able to thank you enough! And of course, if it’s not in the cards, I’m still forever grateful to you for going on this writer journey with me and keeping this little community afloat ❤️ I’ll include a synopsis of FLOPPING and more buy links (which can also be found in the hyperlinks above) below! 🎄💖🌈

-JJ

How about you, fellow author-passengers? Anybody written holiday-themed books? How did you deal with the limited sales window the books present? Did you resort to cheap gimmicks like me mentioning my birthday and begging for orders (this is a whole other post topic we could discuss: the desperate means we’ll go to in order to get sales and keep our careers alive 😅). Feel free to comment below, or if you’d like to remain anonymous, you can email your thoughts to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com and I will include them in this post.

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If you’d like to vent about anything author/writing related, write to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject: VENTORSHIP. I’ll give you my take in a post, and we’ll crowdsource author opinions in the comments. You’ll remain anonymous, and any haters will be thrown overboard. Ultimately, I think you’re going to be buoyed up by author love and support as we realize we really are all in the same boat 🛳️

About FLOPPING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND

Sparks are flying in Winter Wonderland this Christmas in this LGBTQ+ young adult rom-com from Jason June, New York Times bestselling author of Out of the Blue, Jay’s Gay Agenda, and Riley Weaver Needs a Date to the Gaybutante Ball!

All Aaron wants for Christmas is for his brother, Casey, to get over his ex, Raquel. He’d prefer not to be at Winter Wonderland, the island north of Alaska that’s home to a year-round Christmas theme park. But Casey loves Christmas, so here they are. Unfortunately for Aaron, Casey’s determined to do anything to win Raquel back.

All Kris wants for Christmas is for his uncle to move back to Winter Wonderland to be the first gay Santa. To make that happen Kris needs to win the Race, his grade’s annual competition to see who can get a guest to fall in love with them first. Winning means a trip to New York, where Kris would be able to plead his uncle’s case to the founder of Winter Wonderland himself.

After some slippery ice sends Aaron and Kris literally flopping into each other, Kris agrees to help Aaron with his plan to keep Casey single. But in all their scheming, both can’t stop thinking about kissing the other, and it’s not just because of the mistletoe around every corner. Too bad true love isn’t on either of their Christmas lists. . . .

This adorable rom-com from New York Times bestselling author Jason June unwraps the healing power of love and the magic of the Christmas season. 

Buy FLOPPING on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, or your favorite local independent bookseller!