5 Tips For Promoting Your Book This Christmas

Authors often see the Christmas period as a peak time for promoting their books. But how worthwhile is promoting your book in the festive season, and how can you make the most of the holiday opportunity?

1. It’s not such a great time to launch on Amazon

Unless you are selling incredibly well, it’s doubtful that over the Christmas period, say from around December 10th through January 5th, you will garner many sales or reviews on Amazon. If you are looking to launch a new title, you may do better to wait for the holidays to be over. This is because at Christmas time, Amazon users are looking to buy gifts that are already wished for, such as perfume and games, and Amazon will be pushing Best Selling books from traditional authors, i.e. authors you can’t really compete with as an independent author, and you could see a very flat release if you attempt it.

2. Editorial Reviews – A Good Time To Get Reviewed

Instead of falling on your face with Amazon, you may do better to build up your professional reviews and giveaways during the break. Many services, such as ours, are open all year round, and have reviewers available to review your book despite the holidays. These reviews are great for your author profiles on Amazon and Goodreads, and you will start the new year with a bang.

3. Giveaways on Goodreads Can Help Promote Your Work Over Xmas

If you have an Amazon Kindle version, it may be worth gifting it to readers stuck at home over the break. You can do this by Listing A Giveaway here. You will need a Goodreads account to do this, but you will be prompted to either log in or create an account when you list your book. You can also do this with print books.

4. Wait till January to Promote Business Books

In the same way you don’t want to work over Christmas, nobody else does either. It’s probably going to be a waste of energy trying to get people to buy your book right now.

5. Use Instagram/TikTok/Pinterest to Showcase your Book

Many authors will dress up a scene that has a theme, such as Christmas, and take a really good photo of their book to share on image-based social media. You can also do this with the cover of your Kindle book by using Christmassy backgrounds from a free image site such as Pexels or Freepik.

Here are some good examples: