I pulled out a few of my favorites (below), but before scanning these and the full list at HolidayInsights, consider how you might leverage one of the many special days coming up next month.

How to leverage whacky holidays

Here are just a couple of ideas:

• Write a blog post about why one of the holidays resonates with you. For example, “Old Stuff Day” speaks to me as I spend a little time each evening donating, tossing out, or recycling some of what I’ve accumulated during two decades raising a family. I’m getting rid of “old stuff,” but maybe you’re hanging on to it. Write about why.
• Create a social media image for your favorite occasion in March and share it with a question that generates engagement. I’ll be doing that on the Build Book Buzz Facebook page on March 1, so I hope you’ll join the conversation there then.
• Write and distribute a tip sheet related to a holiday you can link to your book. Proposal Day on March 20 can lead to a tip sheet on how to propose marriage or anything else.
• Create a contest. Ask readers to submit a picture of their favorite food on a stick on March 28 and give a copy of your book to the winner.

I’m sure you can think of many, many more things you can do with any of these quirky holidays next month.

The quirkiest of quirky holidays in March

Here are a few of the whackiest special days, but be sure to check out the full list on HolidayInsights.com.

• March 1 Peanut Butter Lovers’ Day
• March 2 Old Stuff Day
• March 3 If Pets Had Thumbs Day
• March 6 National Frozen Food Day
• March 9 Panic Day
• March 10 Middle Name Pride Day
• March 11 Worship of Tools Day – guys, you can relate
• March 13 Ear Muff Day
• March 15 Dumbstruck Day
• March 16 Everything You Do is Right Day
• March 18 Supreme Sacrifice Day
• March 20 Extraterrestrial Abductions Day
• March 20 Proposal Day
• March 22 National Goof Off Day
• March 23 Melba Toast Day
• March 25 Waffle Day
• March 27 National “Joe” Day
• March 28 Something on a Stick Day
• March 28 Weed Appreciation Day

Which of these can you have fun with? Tell us about it in a comment.

Don’t you love it when you receive outside validation on the advice you offer people?

That’s what happened to me when I read my daily newspaper this past Sunday morning.

One of my buzz-building tips for authors has been to host a contest to name a character in your next book, as recommended in a post on this site, “How to host a book contest” (see second bullet point), and in my e-course materials.

Best-selling author and former NFL player Tim Green did that on his Facebook page on February 21 when he casually announced that he was accepting nominations for the name of a character in his next children’s book, Home Run.

Fans made the nominations, Green narrowed down the list, and fans voted from the list of finalists. Support for two candidates was so overwhelming that Green decided to use the first place winner’s name in Home Run and the second place winner in a future book, Full Ride.

As reported in the newspaper article, the first place winner, Ty Rylander, will be the name of the Nike representative in Green’s next book. Rylander is a young man from Pittsfield, Ill., who died last year. The second place winner, Tyler Hutt, was a young football player in my area who also died unexpectedly last year. “Tyler Hutt” will be the name of a character who’s a high school football coach in the future book.

Let the news media publicity and fan buzz that Green generated with his contest inspire you to not only host a newsworthy contest, but to reach out to the press when you do.

What’s the best book-related contest you’ve seen recently?

Get inspiration from an unlikely source – Bill Cosby.

After years of ribbing about the sweaters he wore on his classic “Bill Cosby Show,” Cosby is hosting an online contest to select viewers’ favorite sweater.

A brilliant idea

Is it a coincidence that his website’s header promotes Cosby’s latest book? Of course not. This is a brilliant way to drive traffic to the Cosby site, where tournament participants will learn about the book.

Called the Cosby Sweater Tournament and set up in an NCAA college basketball tournament bracket format, the contest started with 32 sweaters. The NCAA bracket uses school names; the Cosby bracket uses photos of a sweater-wearing Cosby snagged from the show. Mouse over each image on the bracket to generate a larger version of the photo.

There are five rounds of voting that cut each round’s remaining contenders in half until a winner is selected.

Let it inspire you

You could do this with book covers, couldn’t you? Or, like Cosby, you could do something similar with a topic related to your book.

Even if you don’t want to bend this bracket contest concept to fit your book, use it as inspiration to think differently about your book contest. Don’t do what you see everyone else in your genre doing. Be like Cosby (whose wife suggested the sweater contest) – try something unexpected and different.

Stumped? Find contests in other consumer products categories and see what’s getting people engaged. Then modify and adapt the concept to your book. You’ll not only attract attention from people already in your networks, but you’ll expand your reach as they – and others – learn about and start talking about your clever book contest idea.

Sometimes good is good enough. But as Bill Cosby has shown with his sweaters and their contest, you can do much better than “good.”

Do you like contests that require you to do something, or sweepstakes where all you do is enter to win?