Welcome to our list of August observances and content ideas for your monthly author marketing plan!
If you’re committed to making this year one of your most successful yet – we can help you do that.
If you haven’t downloaded our Monthly Book Marketing Planner yet you can grab that at the bottom of this piece in our resources section. We’ve updated it for 2020 with even more prompts and tips to make life easier!
Remember, without regular connections to readers, you’re just another book on the shelf (literal or virtual) they have no vested interest in…so take the time to make yourself stand out by using our monthly observances and tips to create interesting content with your own unique twist.
This is part of building your brand!
Another great reason to bookmark this author marketing resource? Timely content that uses popular and trending search terms and hashtags, is a great way to enhance your visibility and improve SEO in a very simple way.
And what’s really key: content ideas don’t always have to stem from your genre or topic.
When it comes to author marketing and building a brand, ensuring fans and followers have ways to connect with you on a more personal level is equally as powerful as ensuring you also make time to really speak to your genre and topic.
How to Use My Content Ideas
Below are holidays and just plain wacky and fun August Observances for 2020.
I’ve also included a few content ideas and angles to help spark your creativity!
Remember, not all these are worth an entire blog post or article, but nearly all of them can be turned into a fun or thought-provoking social media post or blurb in your newsletter – so it’s like getting triple the ideas!
There are always a lot of holidays around food, drink and cooking, so get ready to share recipes or tag local fave establishments and ask followers to share theirs. Same goes for activities, this is a great chance to take selfies, share a bit about yourself outside of being a writer.
These also open up opportunities for you to make recommendations for products, no, not official ads, but again, people love to follow someone who’s a great resource, so think outside the box when it comes to figuring out ways you can help people out and make their lives easier or more exciting.
Keep in mind: ALL your posts should encourage your fans and followers to respond, chime in, share their feedback, insight, stories, etc. so don’t forget to work in that angle to let them know you want to hear from them.
I mention it as part of my recommendations occasionally, but please know that encouraging engagement is always the goal – never post “flat” content, always get creative with how you can pull others into the conversation, and easily.
And if you’re feeling a little guilty about the lack of promotion planning you’ve done so far this year, use this list as a productive kick in the rear, commit to writing some form of content every day, use it on social, for your blog, in your newsletter – get creative – but giving yourself a bar to reach is the first step in upping your game.
Do polls, giveaways, fan art contests, remember to make it about your readers – not about you – and you’re guaranteed to see better engagement.
If you need some additional support on how to translate these ideas to actual content and posts, please consider signing up for email coaching with me and we’ll get personal!
Getting Started with Content Ideas
Monthly Observances for August:
- Admit You’re Happy Month
- Family Fun Month
- Dog Days of Summer
- International Clown Week
- National Catfish Month
- National Eye Exam Month
- National Golf Month
- Peach Month
- Romance Awareness Month
- Water Quality Month
- National Picnic Month
Weekly Observances for August:
- Week 1 National Simplify your Life Week
- Week 2 National Smile Week
- Week 3 Friendship Week
- Week 4 Be Kind to Humankind Week
Daily Observances for August:
August 1
Campfire Day
International Hangover Day
National Girlfriends Day – Girlfriends are all over awesome literature, if this includes your work then I suggest planning a BOGO offer, if someone buys a copy of your book have them email you the receipt and the name and email of a friend you can gift a copy of the book to!
National Mountain Climbing Day
August 2
Friendship Day – If you have a fab friendship in one of your books use this time to provide some background info on their friendship, create cool bonus content that might help you drive newsletter sign ups too.
International Forgiveness Day
National Coloring Book Day – If you have a coloring book, this is an obvious one, but if you have children’s book consider doing a promo, or a giveaway, where you bundle your book with a popular coloring book on the market.
National Ice Cream Sandwich Day
Sisters Day
August 4
National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
U.S. Coast Guard Day
August 5
National Underwear Day
National Oyster Day
Work Like a Dog Day
August 6
National Fresh Breath Day
Wiggle Your Toes Day
August 7
International Beer Day
National Lighthouse Day
Professional Speakers Day – If you’re currently speaking, or you’re looking to get into speaking, plan a promo around this day, make a point to get your name out there, plan to pitch yourself to some new events, use this as a reason to get to work!
August 9
Book Lover’s Day
August 10
Lazy Day
National S’mores Day
August 13
Left Hander’s Day
August 15
National HoneyBee Awareness Day
Relaxation Day – What do you do to relax? This is a great get-to-know-me post!
August 16
National Tell a Joke Day
August 17
National Thriftshop Day
August 18
Bad Poetry Day
World Daffodil Day
August 19
Aviation Day
August 20
HP Lovecraft’s Birthday – Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of weird fiction and horror fiction, who is known for his creation of what became the Cthulhu Mythos.
National Radio Day
World Mosquito Day
August 21
National Spumoni Day
Senior Citizen’s Day
August 22
Be an Angel Day – This is a great opportunity to be a catalyst for good, promote this holiday on your social and ask fans to let you know what kind of angel acts they’ve taken on.
August 25
Chinese Valentine’s Day/Daughter’s Day
Kiss and Make Up Day – Romance authors, if you have a plot line that supports this holiday definitely plan for a special promotion.
National Banana Split Day
August 26
National Dog Day
Women’s Equality Day – I’d love to see my fellow ladyboss authors do something special, especially if your primary market is women!
August 27
Global Forgiveness Day
Just Because Day
August 29
International Bacon Day
More Herbs, Less Salt Day
August 30
Frankenstein Day
Mary (Wollstonecraft) Shelley Birthday – (August 30, 1797 – February 1, 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein.
Toasted Marshmallow Day
August 31
National Eat Outside Day
National Trail Mix Day
The Takeaway
Remember, being an author demands creativity, and it also demands authenticity.
Coming up with unique content ideas as part of your author marketing plan is a great way to take your success seriously, without taking yourself too seriously! And these August observances should really help.
Have plans for a fun take on any of these ideas? Share below in the comments!
Resources and Free Downloads
Monthly Book Marketing Planner
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