This post was originally sent through my author newsletter on November 18th, 2022. To subscribe to my newsletter and receive up-to-date news, musings, and more, click HERE.
It happens around this time every year: the "Best Of" lists start showing up.
Every author I know has a love/hate (let's be real, it's mostly hate) relationship with these end-of-year lists. Hundreds upon hundreds of books are traditionally published in a given year, and in mid-November, every media outlet that discusses books starts rattling off the titles you absolutely can't miss.
Why does this occur in mid-November? To jump-start holiday gift-giving season, of course!
And why do most authors groan and hide their heads in the sand as the lists start popping up online? Because very, very few of us will ever appear on one.
It can be easy to feel, as these lists get bandied about by every influencer in the biz, that your own book is a flop. That no one read it, and since it didn't hit a "Best Of" list, no one ever will.
That's simply not true. Books do tend to find readers, whether or not they receive the world's biggest promotional push. (Do they find more readers with heavy promo from the publisher and media outlets? Obviously! But the number without that backing is still not zero...) The lists tend to be highlights reels, featuring the same couple dozen books that have gotten attention all along—and there's much more to this industry than the highlights reels.
I've had two books be named Editor's Picks for Best of the Month by Amazon: The Distance Between Lost and Found (in February 2015) and Tally Tuttle Turns into a Turtle (in September 2021). Neither of those books went on to make the site's year-end roundup. But that doesn't diminish the accomplishment of being a monthly pick! Nor does my other books not being chosen by Amazon's team as Best of the Month upon their respective releases mean that those books are of lower quality. Getting starred or listed or featured is amazing, but it's not everything.
I will admit, I've been struggling with how much the Class Critters series seems to have flown under the radar. I'd expected a bit of a slow build for a new series, especially launching during an ongoing pandemic, but the momentum never did pick up with each new book release the way I'd anticipated and hoped.
And yet! The readers that have found the series seem to have really loved it. I haven't come across any bad reviews online. (I just got an incredibly positive mention for Tally Tuttle on Twitter this week!) Compared to my YA novels (each of which earned its fair share of one-stars on Goodreads...), my chapter book series has been incredibly well-received.
All of which to say, I will be very, very surprised if either David Dixon's Day as a Dachshund or Madison Morris is NOT a Mouse! shows up on any Best Children's Books of 2022 lists. (I will eat crow and share everywhere if I turn out to be wrong!!) But I've been doing this long enough now that it's no longer a disappointment not to, say, be nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award. I can be happy for my friends who are getting the honors and mentions, and then I can get back to work.
~Kathryn
What I'm:
Reading: The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston. This is romance/women's fiction about a ghostwriter who can literally see ghosts. Florence Day writes romance novels, but after a bad breakup, she no longer believes in love herself. After her father dies, she finds herself back in her hometown with a to-do list of eccentric requests for his funeral, a manuscript that she can't seem to finish, and a host of literal and metaphorical ghosts—including, surprisingly, her new book editor, who seems to have died right after she last saw (and kissed) him. I'm not done with this yet, but I feel confident recommending it to you even without knowing how it ends!
Writing: Remember how, last week, I got to the last page of the manuscript I'd been revising? Well...I started a reread from page one on Monday, quickly found a new plot hole, and had to rework a bunch of things. That's what I get for writing triumphantly about momentum last week! *facepalm*
Watching: We're about halfway through season 5 of "The Crown." From what I understand, a lot of Brits are up in arms about how the royal family is portrayed...but honestly, the Windsors were a total mess in the '90s! The depiction of now-King Charles doesn't shy away from his many scandals, but does show someone who is eager to support charities and modernize the institution. Maybe it would hit differently if I were a monarchist...
Loving: This "koila" my daughter drew as part of her kindergarten homework. ("Draw something that starts with K and try to sound out and spell the word.") It just makes me smile. :)
