December is the biggest book-buying month of the year, and it's an author's best shot at outselling every other month combined. It's also the month holiday chaos swallows website traffic whole, and most authors have no plan for either problem.

Want to Sell More Books This Christmas Than Ever Before?

The Christmas season is a sales juggernaut, if you know the ways to jump on that train. We give you 12 ideas that will cost you little to nothing, but could fill up your stocking in a really jolly way.

Tip #1: Remind Readers Books Make Great Gifts

Jim: Something authors can do that seems almost too obvious is remind people that books make great gifts. It's easy to overlook even though everyone knows it's true. Take a book you loved and give it to someone else. You're sharing part of yourself with that friend.

Thomas: There's a video, an ad from one of the major publishers, with famous authors explaining why books make great gifts. I saw one like it a couple years ago, and it's what got me buying everyone a book that Christmas. Books are easy to wrap for a bachelor like me who can barely fold a paper bag, and they're compact. Everything about a book makes it a great gift, and people need that reminder.

Tip #2: Give Your Blog and Social Media a Christmas Spin

Thomas: Whatever your book is about, find a way to give it a Christmas spin in December. Offer tips, recipes, or giveaways that make the season less stressful and more fun. Treat Christmas differently on your blog because everyone else is treating it differently, and if you ignore it, you'll do so at your own peril.

Jim: You can't ignore it. If your book doesn't tie into the season, that's fine, but at least acknowledge that Christmas is happening. It's a big train going down the track, and you can get on it just by acknowledging the train exists.

Tip #3: Launch a 12 Days of Your Book Countdown

Thomas: Tip three is a 12 Days of Your Book countdown, twelve blog posts related to your book that you publish one a day. Write these now rather than during the hustle of Christmas itself, because you'll be too busy later. It's a fun way to give your normal content a Christmas twist.

Tip #4: Publish a Holiday Gift Guide

Jim: Post a gift guide on your blog, the gifts you think would be great this holiday season. It doesn't have to be reading or writing related. It's a chance to reveal more of your personality through the kind of gifts you'd give people.

Thomas: It's also a great exercise for getting to know your readers. If the gift guide is hard to put together, that might mean you don't know their needs very well. Spend time learning what kind of people read your books and what they're interested in. A history writer's guide might lean on historical objects; a romance writer's probably shouldn't lean on romantic products. Think about who's actually reading your book and what they'd want.

Tip #5: Join an Author Scavenger Hunt

Jim: This might be too late for this year, but keep it in mind for next year: get involved in a scavenger hunt. I did two this year, and they were extremely effective at introducing me to new readers. Twenty-five or 30 authors each place a clue on their blog. Readers collect all the clues and get entered into a drawing. If every author chips in $15, you can offer something like a mini iPad, plus give away books. Because a scavenger hunt is about gift-giving, it's a great way to promote yourself.

Tip #6: Share a Recipe From Your Book

Thomas: Going back to Christmas recipes, if a character in your book eats a meal at any point, especially a festive one, consider sharing the recipe. It's a gift you can give readers as a thank-you for reading your book. Recipes would be boring most of the year, but people love them around Christmas, when everyone's most willing to experiment with something new, like the pumpkin pecan pie cupcake you've always wanted to try.

Tip #7: Partner With a Charity

Thomas: Tip seven, and I hope everyone does this one if nothing else: pick a charity to partner with and support financially in December.

December is the biggest month for pretty much every charity's donations. Their whole year runs on December giving, partly because of US tax benefits and partly because people are simply more generous during the season. The simplest version is telling readers, “Everyone who buys a copy of my book in December, I'll give a portion to this charity, and I'd ask you to give too.” But you can do much more. As your platform and influence grow, you can encourage readers to give directly to that charity as well. Some popular radio hosts donate an entire episode's proceeds to charity as a fundraiser and raise millions of dollars. Consider something similar on your blog.

Jim: This is a good example of anchoring, something we'll cover more in a future episode: tying yourself to a cause that reflects back on you positively. I used to handle a chain of 28 mattress stores in California, and we dedicated 15% of our TV and radio ads to supporting local women's shelters. It made us the good guys. We genuinely believed in it, and we became heroes in the community. So when people thought about buying a mattress, they thought of us. The same works for you. Tie yourself to a charity you truly believe in, and readers who can tell you're dedicated to it will see you as a hero too.

Tip #8: Create a Buy-One-Give-One or Gift Bundle

Thomas: One version of this is a buy-one-give-one program, like what Tom's Shoes does with shoes. Buy a copy of my book, and I'll give a copy to a charity, a women's shelter, or a library in a disadvantaged school or neighborhood. Match the book to the recipient. Donating intense adult fiction to an elementary school will put people off, but done thoughtfully, it's a strong motivator, and it gets your book in front of readers who couldn't otherwise afford it.

Thomas: Tip eight is to put together a special gift bundle for the season. Alongside buy-one-give-one, you could run a buy-one-get-one, where a reader buys a copy and gets a second free, or buys the paperback and gets the ebook free so they can keep one and gift the other. It's an excuse to buy more copies and a reminder that your book makes a good gift. You can also bundle with other authors. Say three writers in the same genre put together a three-book gift bundle at a discount.

Jim: That's easy to set up. Check Amazon to see who else your readers are buying, and you'll likely find authors you already know, even one other author is enough. Sell autographed copies of both books at a discount, and you introduce each other to audiences who don't know you yet.

Tip #9: Build Your List With a Christmas Story

Thomas: Tip nine is to build your email list with a Christmas gift. Christmas is a great time to grow your list, one of the most powerful marketing tools you have. The classic move is writing a short story using characters from your novel, a Christmas special, the way every TV show eventually does its holiday episode. Give it away free on your website to anyone who signs up for your list. I know novelists who've added hundreds, even thousands, of new subscribers this way, from readers who already love those characters and want more of them.

Jim: You can also give away deleted scenes. I usually cut anywhere from 500 to 6,000 words from a novel, and some of it is genuinely decent. I've offered a deleted scene as an exclusive before, and readers respond to it the same way they respond to deleted scenes on a movie.

Thomas: It makes people curious too. Knowing a scene was deleted makes me more interested in it than any scene that made the final cut. Why was it cut? An alternate ending works the same way. Readers are curious whether the story could have ended differently, and they'll trade an email address to find out. You can also share behind-the-scenes trivia. Jim, how does that work for you?

Jim: I put a lot of Easter eggs in my novels, small details that readers who know me well will catch and everyone else will miss. It's fun to reveal what those eggs are and why I made those choices, and my readers really enjoy it.

Tip #10: Offer a Digital Product for Last-Minute Shoppers

Thomas: Tip 10 is a digital product offer for last-minute shoppers. Maybe you finished your Christmas shopping back in October and can spend December baking cookies. Other people wait until 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve with no gift and no options. They can buy a digital product from you instead, so run a last-minute promotion: “Still need a gift? Grab my ebook, here's the link,” or point them to your website. Don't forget the last-minute shoppers in your promotion plan.

Tip #11: Promote During the eBook Sales Surge

Thomas: Tip 11 is to promote during the ebook sales surge. Jim, what's usually the number one day for ebook sales?

Jim: Usually December 26.

Thomas: Right, the day after Christmas, once people have unwrapped their new Kindles. A Kindle is worthless without books, so millions of people go on a buying spree for ebooks that day. One of your best sales days could be Christmas Day itself or the day after, so plan a promotion around it, though I'd hold off on the 25th and keep that day sacred. Work out a deal with your publisher if you can, since many have room to offer a one-day discount, dropping your book to $2.99 instead of its usual price. Everyone who got a gift card alongside their new Kindle will spend it on your book, which leads to tip 12.

Tip #12: Ride the Gift Card Surge

Thomas: From December 26 through 31, people are spending gift cards. iTunes and Amazon gift cards are among the most popular, and both can buy your books. If your book is in Walmart or Target, those gift cards work there too. iTunes cards can buy apps, movies, or music, but they also work in the iBookstore, so remind people to spend that money on a good story instead. A story will entertain them for days; a movie only lasts an hour or two.

Should you just take December off instead?

Those are the twelve marketing ideas for selling your novel during Christmas. But there's a second option: take the month off entirely. There's nothing wrong with that. This list can feel overwhelming, and Thomas isn't recommending you do all twelve. In fact, he's recommending you don't. Pick one or two.

Hopefully one struck a nerve, maybe partnering with a charity, or writing a short story featuring your characters. Don't try to do them all. The alternative is taking the month off and hitting January refreshed. Don't let December grind you down if you don't want it to.

This episode is brought to you by My Book Table (affiliate link), an easy way to show off your books for Christmas. My Book Table displays the books you have for sale on your website with buttons linking to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other stores, making it easy for readers to buy. You can also use it to build shopping lists and recommendations, including the Christmas gift guide covered above, and earn affiliate money on every sale.

Jim: As always, connect with us at NovelMarketing.com. Thanks for listening to the Novel Marketing Podcast, giving you novel ideas on how to sell yourself and your writing online, offline, and everywhere in between.

Marketing Email

Subject: Why December 26 Beats Black Friday for Book Sales

Every author obsesses over Black Friday. The real spike happens the day after Christmas, and most authors miss it completely.

This week on Novel Marketing, bestselling novelist James L. Rubart, author of Rooms and the Well Spring series, joins Thomas Umstattd Jr. to share 12 ways to turn the holidays into a bigger sales month.

What's the one December tactic that turns readers into your accidental fundraising partners?

Why does a scavenger hunt reach new readers better than almost any ad you could buy?

What's hiding in the deleted scenes from your own manuscript that readers would trade an email address to read?

Listen to the full episode or read the transcript on the blog so this December doesn't slip by without a plan.

Show Notes:

• Books Make Great Gifts Video (More Videos)