by Diana Urban (from BookBub October 30, 2019 Reprinted with permission)
Believe it or not, ‘tis almost the holiday season, so consumers are starting to look for the perfect gifts for friends and family, or for themselves! Books make excellent presents; in fact, 25% of trade books are bought as gifts, according to Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah. That means it’s a great time for authors and publishers to boost their promotional efforts and get more eyes on their books.
This holiday sweet spot isn’t limited to the week before Christmas. According to Google Trends, search terms related to “gifts” in the United States trend upward starting in early to mid November through Christmas Day.
1. Design a festive cover for a holiday-themed book
If you’re launching or promoting a holiday-themed book, a festive book cover can help attract your target audience. Holiday-themed covers often include a lot of wreaths, decorated trees, festive lights, snow-covered landscapes, and roaring fires. Here’s a sample of holiday-themed book covers we love (and you can check out 68 great examples here).
2. Launch a holiday-themed book series with other authors
Although coordinating writing a book series with other authors is a massive undertaking, having several authors promoting the same series can be a great way to generate buzz and sales.
Seven romance authors teamed up to create the seven-book series Return to Christmas Falls. Their goal was to provide a sweet holiday romance series where readers could spend time with the same characters throughout seven full-length novels. Since the books were released simultaneously, readers didn’t have to wait to find out what happens next. And the cross-promotion efforts let each author gain exposure to new readers.
One of the participating authors, Susan Hatler, explained how they coordinated this effort:
My good friend, Melinda Curtis, a USA Today bestselling author, was part of a first-ever effort by a group of Harlequin series authors to write 12 connected novellas set in a small fictional town. From Melinda’s experience, we learned that readers enjoy falling in love with a supporting character in one book, only to find that character has her own story in another book in the series. With the Return to Christmas Falls series, we are implementing shared setting and cast of characters, as well as overarching plots.
To promote the preorder, I plan to use a BookBub Preorder Alert to let my fans know that my book is available! We launched our preorders on iBooks and have been featured in their iBooks Exclusive Preorders. The series will later be available for preorder on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble as well. During the preorder period, we’ve started Sweet Romance Speak, a romance reader community where all seven authors reveal exclusive information about the characters in the series, share locations in the town of Christmas Falls, post giveaways, and talk about writing sweet romance.
Ciara Knight drafted a fantastic marketing plan for our series, which includes paid advertising, blog blasts, social media campaigns, author website series landing pages, an exclusive preorder period, mailing lists, newsletter blasts, the exclusive romance reader community (Sweet Romance Speak), and submission to review teams.
— Susan Hatler, author of Forever Yours in Christmas Falls
Here’s another post from one of the other participating authors, Jennifer Peel. With all seven authors actively promoting this series, they had a wide reach!
3. Send a BookBub Preorder Alert Near the Holidays
If you’re launching a new book before the holidays, sending a BookBub Preorder Alert a few weeks before the launch is a great way to increase the book’s exposure at a time when readers are looking to get a head start on their holiday shopping. At only $0.02 per follower, these alerts are a cost-effective way to let an author’s fans know that a book is available for pre-sale. Also, read these ideas on how to get more BookBub followers.
4. Publish a Holiday-Themed Short Story
If launching an entire new book or series, co-written or not, doesn’t fit into your schedule, no worries. Instead, you could publish a short story that takes place over the holidays!
Debbie Macomber made use of her print backlist and republished one of her short stories as an ebook, repackaged it with a new cover, and made it available for sale at $1.99.
Sharing a holiday-themed short story for free is also a great way to keep readers engaged between book launches. Jhumpa Lahiri shared her short story about a family holiday visit with her fans on Facebook.
Diana Urban is the industry marketing manager at BookBub and was previously the head of conversion marketing at HubSpot. She’s an expert in inbound marketing and lead generation. Diana is also an author of dark, twisty thrillers, including All Your Twisted Secrets (HarperTeen, 3/17/2020). Follow her on Twitter at @DianaUrban.