It’s time to think about holiday book marketing—and I don’t just mean Christmas. The Fall book buying season begins in October. Halloween is a book-buying holiday, especially for young adults and children’s books, but also for any ghost stories, horror stories and supernatural tales for any age group. If you have a book that fits this category, plan an Amazon marketing campaign for anytime in October.
Thanksgiving also has its own book-buying trends. Cookbooks, of course, are particularly popular, but other books, particularly home related, such as home decorating books, are popular, too.
And then comes Christmas.
Books are always popular Christmas gifts in every age range and every genre. To take advantage of the gift market, look at your keywords again. Keywords can always be changed to fit the season, so think about what keywords you can accurately use to identify your book as a great gift for a reader.
Be specific. The term “keyword” is misleading. You can and should be using phrases. Let’s say your book is young adult sci-fi. Make sure that is one of the phrases in your list of keywords. Think like a gift-giver. When giving a gift to a person who likes to read, I may not have a specific title in mind. Instead, I’m looking for a book of a certain type that I know will please that person. “Easy Dessert Cookbook,” for instance, or “Police Procedural Mysteries.” You might even try “Gifts for readers who like sci fi,” or something similar.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the last week or so leading up
to Christmas are the worst times for an independent author to advertise. This year Chanukah is Nov. 28 to Dec. 6, falling only a few days after Thanksgiving, which means the advertising frenzy will begin even earlier. The cost per click is highest on the days that are most popular with advertisers, and you are fighting for attention with every other advertiser—both big and small. This doesn’t mean you should go silent, however. Do use your own social media accounts to advertise your books. That way, you are talking to people who are already your fans.
Do use the week between Christmas and New Years to advertise your e-books. This is the time when people are looking to spend those gift cards they received, and since plenty of people are off work that week, they have time to read, and if they like e-books, or have gotten a new e-reader for Christmas, they will be particularly prone to use those gift cards to try out the new toy.
Finally, if you are planning any type of in-person event where you will be selling your books make sure you order now. Deliveries always take longer as we get closer to the holidays, and with the shortages and delays we have all experienced in 2021, order as soon as possible.
Make your plans now and set reminders on your calendar so you don’t forget to promote your book as things get busy in the coming months.