{"id":6570,"date":"2011-12-09T19:00:50","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T13:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/?p=6570"},"modified":"2014-12-23T16:10:27","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T10:40:27","slug":"have-a-holly-jolly-promotion-season-for-your-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/have-a-holly-jolly-promotion-season-for-your-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Have a Holly Jolly Promotion Season for Your Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or How to Jazz Up a Writing Career with Holiday Promotions<\/strong>
\nExpert: Carolyn Howard-Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you heard of The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans?<\/p>\n

It was originally self-published. Evans believed in himself (and his book) when big publishers didn\u2019t. When it did well, \u201clo and behold,\u201d as they say in the Christmas stories. Someone saw the light.<\/p>\n

The motto here, for writers, is “Seasonal material sells.” Especially things that can be given reasonably inexpensively during gift-giving seasons. Seems that books fit the bill. They\u2019re generally $15 dollars or less. They lend themselves to the inspirational (always high on the list of gifts people like to give). And they lend themselves to great cover and book design including religious, whimsical, cartoons, and on and on. Oh, and books are easily and inexpensively mailed or e-mailed!<\/p>\n

So, are you using the seasons to build your writing career?<\/p>\n

There are all kinds of ways to do it. Magdalena Ball and I are seasonal poetry partners. That is, we have written the Celebration Series of chapbooks. She contributes half the poems, I the other half. And we also share publishing and marketing skills. Blooming Red: Christmas Poems for the Rational<\/a> is the Christmas entry for that series. We also have entries for Mother\u2019s Day, Father\u2019s Day, Valentine\u2019s Day and even one with a feminist theme to celebrate women for\u2014maybe their birthdays?<\/p>\n

Gordon Kirkland is a humorist (Canadian, bless his little soul!). He has written a couple of very funny (and extremely giftable!) books including Holly Jolly Frivolity<\/a> and The Plight Before Christmas<\/a>. I met him when we both spoke at a writers\u2019 conference and I know he believes in marketing almost as much as he loves writing.<\/p>\n

And that brings me to using seasons to market any of your work. Here are some ideas for doing that, even if you don\u2019t have an entry in the seasonal category (Yet!)<\/p>\n