Earlier this week, my book, Reach: Create the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, passed its 6-month mark. I used this as a motivation to reach out to my list for additional support in reaching more readers. I got a fantastic response, including a bump in sales and at least one new Amazon review.

The calendar can provide ongoing inspiration as you seek to bring your book’s value to the world over time. 

Anniversaries of your book’s release (like my book’s half-birthday), and other holidays or special days, can provide a space for you to talk about your book. 

With the end-of-year gift-giving holidays coming more quickly than you think, NOW is the perfect time to plan some book promotion for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and Hanukkah. 

Authors of business books may also want to be thinking about bulk sales to organizations for end-of-year gifts as some small business owners may be looking for expenses to offset tax liability.

Here is an example to give you an idea of how this works. 

Our client Karen Baum Gordon wrote a memoir called The Last Letter, which focuses on her father’s story and the traumatic effects of living through the Holocaust reverberating in his life and to other generations of her family. Eventually, this led to her father’s suicide attempt. 

Based on her book’s themes, Karen can share value from her book at nationally and internationally recognized holidays:

  • Mental Health Awareness Month (October)
  • National Suicide Prevention Month (September)
  • Holocaust Remembrance Day 
  • International Holocaust Remembrance Day 
  • Father’s Day
  • Relevant Jewish holidays 

Karen can also use calendar events like her father’s birthday or the anniversary of his death to share her journey with potential readers of her book.

There are also lots of book-related times Karen (and any author!) could promote their book:

  • Independent Bookstore day (the last Saturday of April)
  • D.E.A.R. Day – Drop Everything and Read Day
  • National Read a Book Day (next one is September 6, 2023)
  • International Literacy Day
  • National Book Lovers Day 
  • National Library Day

Try these steps: 

  1. Brainstorm a list of dates and ideas for marketing your book.
  2. Add those dates to your calendar as appointments. 
  3. Week by week, as you are planning your content, look ahead for any dates so you can create relevant, valuable content to share related to those dates.
  4. Add these dates as recurring so that you can reuse and repurpose your ideas in different ways next year, too. 

Share a comment below or send me an email to let me know what ideas you plan to try! 

For additional learning: 

Listen: Holiday Book Promotions with Barb Roose

Listen:  Holiday Letters with David Greer

Watch: Holiday Book Ideas 

Read:  Five Ways to Promote Your Book During the Holidays and Boost Sales