For Authors, Every Day Can Be A "Red Letter Day"

Marketing books is an all year round task, as any successful Indie author can tell you. However, there are times of the year when doing a little bit of extra marketing pays off.
 
The obvious times are Black Friday, Cyber Monday and during the whole of December. Books make a great Christmas gift, so putting some extra effort (and maybe more money) into your marketing at that time is a ‘no brainer’.
 
But what about other times of the year. Well, we believe that there are many ‘red letter days’ for authors, when they can increase their sales if they promote their books on those days.
 
Looking through the calendar there isn’t a month goes by that doesn’t offer some marketing opportunities, depending on which genre you write in. Take February, for example – it’s the month of romance, so a good time for romance authors to put a little bit of extra oomph into their sales.
 
What days fall in which months varies from country to country. Even “world” days aren’t observed everywhere. But this blog tries to identify some of the days that appear in the calendar during each month so that you can see where your books may sell a few extra copies.
 
There seems to be a day for just about everything, so we’ve selected the ones that we think may be important for authors. However, we provide a link to a calendar of all the “days” at the end of the blog, just in case we missed any.

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New year, new beginnings. Diet books, health and fitness books, self improvement books and books about giving up bad habits should all do well.
 
2nd – an unofficial day of celebration for sci-fi fans, chosen because it is the birthday of Isaac Asimov. Get promoting your sci-fi books.

4th – World Braille Day – but it could also be a good day to promote audiobooks

20th – Martin Luther King Day. Writers of black history or fiction get your promotions ready. Also World Religion Day – a good day to sell religious themed books.

24th - International day of education – a text book day for promotions
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27th – Holocaust Memorial Day – Jewish and Holocaust themed books.

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Half term holidays fall later this month, so children’s authors get to work selling your books so the kiddies have something to read while they are off school.
 
Black History Month, so if you write about black history and culture, this is the time to promote your books.
 
4th – World Cancer Day. Is your book about living with, or surviving, cancer? This is the day to promote it.

7th – Charles Dickens Day – a good day for promoting stories set in the Victorian era.

12th – Darwin Day – love him or hate him, it’s time to promote those books for or against evolution.

14th - Valentines Day of course. – so shout out those romances. Also International book giving day. Time to remind people your book is the ideal one to give.

17th - Random Acts of Kindness Day – tie your free book giveaway to this day and send a few coupons for free copies to random social media followers.
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27th – Pokemon Day – but books about gaming in general may do well.

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Women’s History Month, so time to promote your history books or historical fiction that features women.
 
Mother’s Day also fall this month in the UK and Ireland, so a good time to promote books as a present for mums.
 
Depending on the lunar cycle, Easter may also fall this month, so Christian literature should do well.
 
4th – World Obesity Day – another chance to plug those diet and exercise books. It’s also the start of British Pie Week … coincidence? We don’t think so.

8th – International Women’s Day. See above.

17th - St Patrick’s Day. Get your Irish themed books in front of your readers.

19th – International Read To Me Day. I hope I don’t have to explain this.

20th - Alien Abduction Day. Conspiracy theories and sci-fi
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 21st – World Poetry Day. Come on poets, show the world what you’ve got.

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Again, depending on the lunar cycle, Easter may fall in April.
 
1st – April Fools Day, so get those joke books out and tell a few crackers.

2nd – International Children’s Book Day. Like International Book Day – but for kids.

7th – World Health Day – get those lifestyle and wellness books noticed.

23rd – World Book Day. Schools go big on this so children’s books could do well. But it is also a good time to remind adults about the undoubted benefits of reading a book.

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Elsewhere around the world, it’s Mothers’ Day in May, so giving a gift for mum (or mom) might be a good idea.
 
In the UK half term falls at the end of this month so the kids are going to need more books to keep them occupied.
 
2nd – International Harry Potter Day. Why not cash in with your children’s and YA fantasy books?

4th – Star Wars Day. May the force be with your sci-fi books.

5th – World Laughter Day. Time to promote your humorous books.
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12th – National Limerick Day. There was a young author from Devizes, who forgot he had to advertises. OK, maybe not my thing.

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Father’s Day falls this month so time to promote books that dads might love.
 
With the better weather (maybe) here, it’s a good time to promote books about outdoor activities, such as BBQs and golf.
 
6th – D-Day Anniversary. 2024 marks the 80th anniversary. World War II themed books should do well.

8th - Global Wellness Day.

21st - International Yoga Day. Don’t tie yourself in knots while you promote your fitness and yoga books.

23rd – National Writing Day. Tell people what great fun it is to be a writer, at the same time as you promote your books.

27th - Micro-, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Day. We’d never heard of this one, but what a great day to sell your books on business management.

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In the northern hemisphere, most schools break up for the summer vacations this month and that’s when the holiday season starts for many people.

​If your book makes ideal reading while lounging by the swimming pool, for either adults or children, now is the time to start promoting it.
 
4th – Independence Day, USA. American history obviously, but you can tie in so many books to this day if you think about it hard enough.

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Keep the holiday themed book promotions going.
 
9th – National Book Lovers Day. The publishing industry has worked hard to find us so many days in the year for book promotions, so don’t let them down.

14th – National Financial Awareness Day. A good day for promoting books about financial management, budgeting etc.

16th – Tell A Joke Day. But people need jokes to tell, so promote your joke books.

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The northern hemisphere holiday season is drawing to a close and the kids go back to school.

But now is the time when all those grandparents who have been on child minding duties take their holidays. So, keep promoting that holiday reading.
 
6th – Read A Book day. Need I say more?

8th - World literacy day.

13th – Roald Dahl Day. Piggy back your Children's books onto this.

19th – Talk Like A Pirate Day. Well, all those fake pirates are going to need some inspiration, aren’t they?
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22nd – Hobbit Day. Get those fantasy books out there.

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A big opportunity for horror writers to get their books noticed as Halloween falls at the end of the month.
 
2nd – Random Acts Of Poetry Day. Poets, commit some random acts of book promotion.

3rd - National Poetry Day. Same as the one in April, but this is for Brits mainly.

4th – World Space Week. The time to promote all things sci-fi.

21st – Trafalgar Day. One for the naval historians and naval fiction writers.
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30th – Samain. Like Halloween, but very special for witchcraft.

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​Black Friday Falls on the last Friday of November and Cyber Monday follows at the start of the following week.


Yes, we know it is all commercial hype - but they do sell books!
 
1st – Native American heritage Month For writers of books about Native Americans.

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Christmas is one of the biggest times for book buying so if you don’t promote your work at any other time, promote it this month.

But don’t forget that a lot of people are given book tokens or gift vouchers for Christmas and your book is the ideal thing on which to spend them.

For many people the gap between Christmas and New Year is a holiday, so they’re going to need books to read too.
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And so we end our year of “days”. I’ve selected the ones I think will work for authors, but to find the full list of dates for all the things that are marked, celebrated, remembered or noted, click here.

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