When you combine the right holiday with a message, theme, character, or setting in your book, you can get ideas for an engaging blog post, a lively online discussion, or ways to get media attention.

Try using this strategy every month to keep people talking about your book long after the launch.

Ideas you can use

To get things started, here are a few examples of books that can take advantage of these fun February opportunities:

• February 2 is “Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.” This is tailor-made for self-help book Ice Cream for Breakfast: How rediscovering your inner child can make you calmer, happier, and solve your bullsh*t adult problems, Richard Scarry’s children’s book Ice Cream for Breakfast, and memoir Of Course You Can Have Ice Cream for Breakfast!: A Journalist’S Uncommon Memoir.
• Randi Minetor, author of Backyard Birding: A Guide to Attracting and Identifying Birds, can use February 3, “Feed the Birds Day,” as the timely news peg for a tip sheet on what seedy treats to use to attract certain types of birds.
• February 15, “Susan B. Anthony Day,” lets the author of the children’s book Who Was Susan B. Anthony? or Strudels with Susan B. Anthony schedule school visits.
• Any author with a book involving dogs (think A Dog’s Purpose: A Novel for Humans) can create social media images that will start a conversation for February 22, “Walking the Dog Day.” Use them to get your network talking about how walking the dog contributes to or benefits their lives.

Festive and Fun February occasions

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

• February 2 Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day
• February 3 Feed the Birds Day
• February 4 Thank a Mailman Day
• February 5 National Weatherman’s Day
• February 6 National Chopsticks Day
• February 7 Send a Card to a Friend
• February 9 Toothache Day
• February 10 Umbrella Day
• February 11 Clean out Your Computer Day
• February 11 Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day
• February 11 Make a Friend Day
• February 11 National Inventors Day
• February 14 Ferris Wheel Day
• February 14 National Organ Donor Day
• February 15 Singles Awareness Day
• February 15 Susan B Anthony Day
• February 16 Do a Grouch a Favor Day
• February 20 Hoodie Hoo Day
• February 20 Love Your Pet Day
• February 22 Be Humble Day
• February 22 Walking the Dog Day
• February 26 Tell a Fairy Tale Day

You can also look ahead to March and April so you’re well-prepared for the next few months.

Which of these holidays can you link your book to? How will you use it for book promotion?

Look for an odd October occasion you can leverage on the short list below, or skim the expanded list on Holiday Insights for one that’s a good fit for your book.

Have a little fun combining the right holiday with your book to spark conversation online, write an entertaining blog post, or even get media attention.

How I’ve done it

I’ll share one experience I’ve had with this strategy that I hope will inspire you.

This image I created and shared on my Facebook page on August 9 for “National Book Lovers Day” had more reach, engagement, and clicks than anything I’ve posted in the previous year. (It also generated lots of book suggestions that I added to my “to read” list.)

Don’t you want this kind of engagement with your readers, too?

Ideas for those odd October occasions

Here are just a few examples from the list below:

• Are you a cookbook author? Share cookie recipes on October 1, National Homemade Cookies Day or offer your secret to sweet-tasting angel food cake on October 10, National Angel Food Cake Day.
• Do you write romance novels? Do something for National Boyfriends Day on October 3.
• Does your book involve technology? Write an ode to the tech-savvy of the world on October 3, Techies Day.
• Is your book about how to entertain? What can you do with October 11, It’s My Party Day?
• If you write about motivation or inspiration, use October 12, Moment of Frustration Day, as a springboard.
• All authors can make the most of Dictionary Day on October 16.

Odd October occasions

Use this short list of odd October occasions to inspire you. See all of them on the Holiday Insights site.

• October 1 National Homemade Cookies Day
• October 1 World Vegetarian Day
• October 2 National Custodial Worker Day
• October 2 Name Your Car Day
• October 3 National Boyfriends Day
• October 3 Techies Day
• October 5 Do Something Nice Day
• October 9 Leif Erikson Day
• October 9 Moldy Cheese Day
• October 10 National Angel Food Cake Day
• October 11 It’s My Party Day
• October 12 Moment of Frustration Day
• October 13 International Skeptics Day
• October 14 National Dessert Day
• October 16 Bosses Day
• October 16 Dictionary Day
• October 17 Wear Something Gaudy Day
• October 19 Evaluate Your Life Day
• October 21 Count Your Buttons Day
• October 24 National Bologna Day
• October 27 National Tell a Story Day in Scotland and the U.K.
• October 28  Mother-In-Law Day
• October 29 Hermit Day
• October 30 National Candy Corn Day

You can do this with several holidays, of course. And, if you don’t see anything that’s a good fit for you in October, look ahead to November and December.

Which one of these will work for your book? Tell us why in a comment! 

Starring Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler, the movie’s about what happens when parents who have blown their daughter’s college fund start an illegal casino in their basement to generate enough money to cover her higher education expenses. (Hilarity ensues!)

If you’ve written a book on how to pay for college, you should be capitalizing on the buzz around this movie starring two bankable comedians. (More on that in a moment.)

In general, you always want to look for ways to link your book to current events, whether it’s breaking news, celebrity gossip, or, as in this case, a movie that’s getting a lot of attention. It’s about being opportunistic — the opportunity presents itself and you grab it to get book publicity.

How to be opportunistic

But how do you do that?

Let’s use “The House” as an example. It might get you thinking about how you can be more opportunistic with your book publicity in the future.

In the movie, the couple has to do something outrageous and illegal to raise enough money to pay for college. Kind of sounds like real life, doesn’t it? So apply that concept to real-world media opportunities that can include:

Op-eds (opinion essays)

Write an op-ed about how for some families, this doesn’t seem too far from reality. Sure, it’s all fun and games in the movie theater, but what about in real life? How does the average family pay today’s skyrocketing college costs?

Article interviews

Pitch a newspaper, online media site, or blog on an article about more realistic ways to pay for college than what’s portrayed in the comedy. The movie provides the “hook” that will get media outlets interested in your more grounded and practical advice.

Radio interviews

Using the movie as the hook, contact radio talk show producers to offer an interview segment where you offer alternative funding options. “While the parents in this movie felt that opening an illegal casino was their best option, there are other more, um, practical ways to pay for college when you haven’t saved enough.”

TV interviews

Talk to a local TV talk show producer or evening news assignment editor about doing a stand-up interview outside a local theater playing the movie. “Crowds are flocking to theater X to watch the comedy about how Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler open a casino to pay for college, but one local expert says you don’t have to go to those lengths if you haven’t saved enough yet.”

Be prepared

Because many of the opportunities you can leverage appear and disappear quickly, you have to be able to react quickly. There’s often just a 24-hour window to use the headline or breaking news to your advantage.

It helps to have the basic tools ready to use:

Pre-write op-eds around topics that tend to be newsworthy over and over and have them ready to use when the opportunity arises. You can adjust what’s in your files to tailor it for the current news topic, then send it out quickly.

Let’s say you’ve written a young adult novel with a story built around what happens when students are bullied. Your opinion of bullying won’t change from month to month; solutions you recommend won’t either. Package all of this in an op-ed that you tweak when a story about bullying makes news and get it out to the right publication quickly.

Have a good, short author bio that’s relevant to the topic. Be prepared to copy and paste it into an email pitch.

Make sure your author head shot is labeled with your name so that when you send it with an op-ed or the newspaper asks for it during an interview, it’s ready to send. (Check now: Does it have your name? I suspect that for half of you, the file you’ve been using does not.)

Have templates in place for pitch letters that you’ll email for newspaper article ideas, radio interviews, and TV news or talk show segments. Templates streamline the process for you so you can respond quicker. (I’ve got templates for everything you need, plus samples of what your finished pitches should look like, in Build Book Buzz Publicity Forms & Templates.)

Create, and regularly update, your media list. Whether you’re seeking local, regional, or national media attention, you want to pitch the right people. You can maintain and update your own list, or use one from a distribution service (affiliate link). Either way, reaching the right people with the right information at the right time will help you score priceless publicity.

Two-step process

As you’ve learned here, it’s a two-step process:

1. Be alert to opportunities.
2. Respond quickly and appropriately.

Some people will tell you it’s all about luck. Me? I think that “luck” happens when you’re ready and looking for it, able to recognize it when it’s in front of you, and in a position to act on it.

I hope you’ll be ready for the good luck that comes from leveraging opportunistic author publicity.

Are you ready for your next opportunity? What’s in your publicity toolkit? Tell us in a comment. 

Tip of the Month

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

This month, it’s a guide to book cover colors and what they communicate to readers. For example, according to Cover Design Studio, a red cover suggests energy, enthusiasm, emotion, and power.

Learn more about which colors work best together along with what the colors mean in “Best Colors for Book Covers.” You don’t want to design your own covers, but you do want to know enough about colors to guide your cover designer.

I recently read an article in my daily newspaper about the grand opening of a chocolate shop that included a guest lecture by a local physician who talked about chocolate as “not a food but a medicine.” If that doc had written a book on the topic, he would have sold out after speaking to the chocoholics gathered for the celebration.

These types of opportunities offer both publicity and in-person book sales opportunities for authors of all types of books:

• A romance novelist can speak at the grand opening of a lingerie store
• An author of a financial planning book can present to bank customers
• A parenting book author can welcome parents to a new daycare center
• A young adult author can speak at a tutoring center

While some authors are high-profile enough locally that they receive invitations to speak at these types of gatherings without making any effort, most of us have to look for the opportunities. Also, to take advantage of “grand opening” opportunities, you have to know about them before they happen so that you can offer your services at the right time.

Look for opportunities

Uncover opportunities by staying informed:

• Monitor retail storefronts for remodeling (and the “coming soon” signs that go with that activity)
• Be an active member of your Chamber of Commerce
• Participate in business membership groups such as Rotary and the National Association of Women Business Owners
• Read the local daily and weekly newspapers for relevant announcements
• Follow local leaders and elected officials on Twitter for advance information

When you uncover an appropriate situation — a good fit for your knowledge and the company’s target customers — start first by calling or e-mailing the business owner to introduce yourself, offer your services, and schedule a face-to-face meeting to discuss a potential collaboration.

Be certain to give the business owner a complimentary copy of your book when you meet in person. Offer to help generate publicity for the event with the news media and to share information with your social networks. Make it clear that you will work with the owner as a partner on the event to make sure it’s a success and you’ll get a warm reception to your ideas. Do a great job with your presentation at the event and you’ll have a friend for life who will help you find other ways to get visibility for your book, too.

What sorts of things have you done to get the word out about your book in your local community?