If you’re thinking of joining the Christmas publishing list then you need to get a move on as several of the main ebook retailers and distributors are taking a break over the holiday period.
Distributor Draft2digital.com will be closed from Wednesday, December 24 through Monday, December 29 and again on January 1.
Apple
Apple’s publishing systems will be shut down from Monday, December 22 through Monday, December 29.
Any changes to be in effect over the holidays need to be made by December 18 to be live for the holiday period. Any new submissions should be completely through the approval process by December 18.
Draft2digital says it anticipates heavy submission volume during the week of December 15-19.
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble will close early on December 24 until December 29.
Book submissions and metadata changes supplied to B&N through Draft2Digital are processed the next business day. D2D recommends submitting new works and changes to B&N by December 22 at the latest.
Kobo
Kobo’s publishing system will be closed from December 22 to December 29. D2D recommends getting everything to them by December 18.
Due to the volume of submissions during the holiday season, Draft2digital expects other vendors to take longer than usual to implement changes and publish new work.
Pre-orders scheduled during the holiday periods will go live as expected, so long as the final manuscript is in and approved before the cut-off date of December 18.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing operation will be open for business throughout the holidays, with books becoming available for sale about 12 hours after publishing.