As we wrap up a busy April that features more book-related days and weeks than any other month, it’s time to look ahead to other types of special occasions in May.

Here in the U.S. Northeast (where snow sometimes makes an appearance as late as mid-May), we welcome the typically warmer temperatures and how neighbors only mow their lawns when they see we have our windows open during Zoom meetings.

The merry, merry month of May brings us spring flowers and leaves on trees and, oh joy of joys, spending time outside without down coats and heavy gloves.

May bright spots

The fifth month brings with it in the U.S. “normal” occasions that include Mother’s Day on May 12, Memorial Day on May 27, and high school graduations and college commencements throughout the month.

Australia’s Queensland celebrates Labour Day on May 6 – which is also May Day in the Northern Territory – and Reconciliation Day on May 27 in the Capital Territory.

There are also so many unconventional, unique, and often downright irreverent holidays and special occasions to celebrate. And you can use them to bring attention to your book.

How to leverage May book promotion opportunities

What’s the best way to take advantage of so many fun May book promotion opportunities? Once you identify those occasions that are a good fit for your book or promotion goals from the list below, how can you use them?

Here are a few examples to get you started.

May is Mystery Month

Do you write mysteries, thrillers, or suspense novels? This is your month! And there’s so much potential.

Here’s just one idea: Use social media and your email list to poll people about their favorite mystery book and why they like it. You can use this information in multiple ways:

• Compile what you learn into a round up article (“here’s what readers told me about their favorite mysteries”) for your blog or to use as a LinkedIn post.
• Record videos where you read some of the nominations and reasons.
• Create social media quote graphics with the entries.

May 9, Lost Sock Memorial Day

Are you a poet? Write your “Ode to the Lost Sock.”

A humorist? Explain where the socks that don’t come out of the dryer end up.

Schedule an Instagram Live so you and your followers can pause together at a specific time to honor and remember all the socks they’ve lost. Be sure to promote it in advance.

May 20, Be a Millionaire Day

Do you write about money?

Call attention to your book on Be a Millionaire Day by sending a tip sheet to the press or guest blogging about money mistakes people are making that will prevent them from being able to celebrate this special day.

Go live on Instagram to talk to millennials and Gen Y about how to save now so they can retire early.

To reach a younger audience, create a series of TikTok videos that explain each “must-do” for anyone seeking millionaire status sooner rather than later.

Your May book promotion opportunities

Here’s a partial list of the merry, merry month of May marketing opportunities you can add to next month’s book promotion calendar. Get the full list on the Holiday Insights site. (And while you’re there, look ahead to other months.)

• Date Your Mate Month
• Gifts from the Garden Month
• Mystery Month
• National Recommitment Month
• May 1 Save the Rhino Day
• May 3 Garden Meditation Day
• May 3 Lumpy Rug Day
• May 3 Space Day
• May 4 National Candied Orange Peel Day
• May 5 National Hoagie Day
• May 6 National Tourist Appreciation Day
• May 7 National Teacher’s Day
• May 8 National Outdoor Intercourse Day
• May 9 Lost Sock Memorial Day
• May 10 Clean up Your Room Day 
• May 11 Eat What You Want Day
• May 11 Hanging Flower Baskets Day
• May 11 National Babysitters Day
• May 13 Frog Jumping Day
• May 14 Dance Like a Chicken Day
• May 17 Pack Rat Day
• May 18 Visit Your Relatives Day
• May 20 Be a Millionaire Day
• May 21 National Waiters and Waitresses Day
• May 23 Lucky Penny Day
• May 24 International Tiara Day
• May 25 Tap Dance Day
• May 26 National Paper Airplane Day
• May 31 Flip Flop Day

Be sure to check out the list of book-related occasions during May in our downloadable 2024 literary calendar, too.

Which of these surprising May occasions speak to you? How will you use next month to help generate conversation and call attention to your book in a lighthearted way?

Book marketing tips from a first-time author

By Andreas Wagner

Authors often see themselves as artists. When they write their first book, things like marketing and advertising are often not on their mind.

Once the book is out there and nobody buys it, however, writers have to start thinking about how to generate attention for their book. In the weeks after I published my nonfiction book Get Rid Of Your Small Addictions through Amazon’s KDP, I faced these challenges.

I don’t have an email list; my Instagram profile only attracts a few of my writer friends, and my author page on Facebook has one like so far – from my father.

I had to come up with other marketing tools to make my book launch a success. As my advertising budget is slightly smaller than Coca-Cola’s, I needed to be creative. Here are book marketing tips based on what I’ve learned.

Emailing friends and family

My first measure didn’t cost any money, but was very time-consuming. I went through every single contact in my address book and wrote almost everyone a personal message and sent those out on the day of the launch. I even messaged some of my ex-girlfriends after I hadn’t been in touch with them for years.

You might wonder if this is really of any benefit, but my aim was not necessarily to sell the book to my contacts, but to spread the word.

A lot of my friends and acquaintances seemed happy for me that I had published a book and some of them recommended it to friends. The important thing, however, is to genuinely personalize the messages because otherwise they come across as mass mails that won’t get you anywhere.

As I offered the book for free in the first couple of days after the launch, I got around 50 downloads through these messages alone. For someone starting out afresh, it is certainly a success.

You shouldn’t underestimate the time investment for this, especially because some of your friends will reply and then you need to answer their questions or thank them for congratulating you.

Facebook for the long term . . .

Another option for free advertising that I used was to join Facebook groups about the book’s topic. If you keep engaging with other members and give them tips, you will establish yourself as a helpful member of the community, which in turn could lead to a few book sales.

This is especially true for nonfiction authors, but this can be a great idea even for fiction writers. This is something that should bear fruits on the longer term, though.

. . . podcasts for the win

For short term sales success, I recommend trying to get booked on popular podcasts. This measure is also time-consuming, but for me it was lucrative.

I had to send numerous messages to podcast hosts (personalized messages are also essential here), but every time I made it onto a podcast, my sales figures went up in the following days.

Non-fiction writers have an advantage here as well, but there are podcasts for mysteries, thrillers, romances, etc. It’s not easy to identify those, but it can pay off. And on top of boosting sales, a podcast interview can establish an author as an authority and helps to build the author brand.

Guest posts like this one are equally good. Writing an article for an established blog can create some buzz around your book and lead to new readers. However, be under no illusion: this method also requires a lot of effort.

Advertising in deal newsletters

New authors who are willing to spend real cash have different possibilities to do so. The most commonly used advertising measure is to book a slot in an email newsletter sent out by professional companies. I paid to be in the newsletters of Freebooksy, Bargainbooksy and OHFB, but there are a lot of others.

These can be useful, but neither I nor any of my author friends have actually made their money back from these bookings – at least not directly. But they can be good to push up Amazon rankings or to drive people to your own newsletter.

Paid advertising to push up Amazon rankings

Booking advertising directly on Amazon through its pay-per-click service is also an option. But this is usually only profitable if cover and blurb are very appealing, you research the right keywords, and you have enough good ratings. I had to experiment quite a bit with this and lost some money.

Bottom line: There are numerous options for your marketing mix. None of them are inherently superior; it just depends how much time or money one is willing to spend. I found what works for me — for now. What works for you?

What book marketing tactic has given you the best results? Please tell us in a comment! 

Tip of the Month

I like to share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

This month it’s Hunter, a tool you can use to find email addresses for influencers, journalists, and others you want to connect with for book marketing purposes.

Hunter crawls the web and indexes publicly available professional email addresses. The data is easily accessible via a simple user interface to either find the right person in a company or to find how to contact someone whose name and employer you know already.

The Domain Search lists all the people working in a company with their name and email address found on the web. With more than 100 million email addresses indexed, effective search filters, and scoring, you’re bound to get the contact information you need for someone using a business domain name email address.

A free account will get you 50 searches a month. Sign up at Hunter.io and start connecting.

And that’s where today’s list of fabulous and fun Friday holidays and special occasions comes in. You can use it to create a blog post that generates comments and shares, get media attention, or start a lively discussion on social media.

You can use this strategy every month to keep people talking about your book, too. Just check HolidayInsight.com’s month-by-month list of weird and wacky special dates for inspiration.

February ideas you can plan around now

I find that examples help me understand a new-to-me concept, so I’ll get you rolling into February with a smile by showing how authors can use some of the upcoming fun February dates:

• February 1 is “No Politics Day.” No matter what country you’re in, people are probably talking about politics quite a bit. It’s even possible that they’re talking about it a little too much, eh? Create a “No Politics Day” challenge, inviting your social media connections to abstain from political discussions for 24 hours. Create a social media image that announces the challenge; “brand” it with your website URL and site or cover colors.
• The 92nd Academy Awards event is February 9. Write a blog post about the nominated movies that started as books and why you think they were made into films. Post on Facebook about who you’d cast in the movie version of your book or what you’d say in your acceptance speech. Interview the author of a book that was made into a movie on Facebook Live or your blog.
• February 18, “National Drink Wine Day,” allows the authors of The New Wine Rules* or The Wine Bible* to create and distribute a tip sheet to the media or do press interviews about how today’s consumers make wine selection decisions. (*Those are Amazon Associate links.)

See how easy it is to find ways to use these holidays or events to your advantage? Get creative! Have fun!

Festive and fun February book promotion opportunities

Use this short list of fun February holidays to inspire you. See all of them on the Holiday Insights site.

• February 1 No Politics Day
• February 1 Spunky Old Broads Day
• February 3 The Day the Music Died (Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash in 1959)
• February 7 Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbor Day
• February 9 National Pizza Day
• February 9 Academy Awards/Oscar Night
• February 10 Clean out Your Computer Day
• February 11 Make a Friend Day
• February 11 White T-Shirt Day
• February 12 National Lost Penny Day
• February 17 Random Acts of Kindness Day
• February 18 National Drink Wine Day
• February 19 National Chocolate Mint Day
• February 21 Card Reading Day
• February 23 International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day
• February 26 National Pistachio Day
• February 27 No Brainer Day
• February 28 Floral Design Day
• February 29 Leap Day

How can you link any of these to your book or its theme, message, characters, or mission?