Hello and welcome to our list of May observances and unique author brand enhancements and content ideas for your monthly author marketing plan.
Without a regular connection to readers, you’re just another book on the shelf. 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 excelling with your author brand!
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 an author brand, ensuring that your fans and followers have ways to connect with you on a more personal level is as powerful as speaking about your genre and topic.
How to Use My Content Ideas
Below are holidays and just plain wacky and fun May Observances for 2021.
I’ve also included a few content ideas and angles to help spark your creativity and help you wrap your mind around how to work them into your author branding.
Not all of 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. The same goes for activities: this is a great chance to take selfies and/or to 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. Think outside the box to come up with ways you can help people out and make their lives easier or more exciting.
Keep in mind: ALL of your posts should encourage your fans and followers to respond, chime in, share their feedback, insight, stories, etc. Don’t forget to work that angle: let them know you want to hear from them!
Also remember: Your goal is to encourage engagement – never post flat content; be creative with how you pull others into the conversation and offer ways for them to easily engage.
If you feel a little guilty about the lack of author marketing planning you’ve done so far in 2021, use this list as a productive kick in the rear. Commit to writing some form of content every day and use it on social, for your blog, in your newsletter – get creative!
Giving yourself a bar to reach is the first step to upping your author branding game.
Kick-off a great year of book marketing and promotion by grabbing our Monthly Book Marketing Planner from the Free Resources and Downloads section at the end of this post.
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 into actual content and posts, consider signing up for email coaching with me and we’ll get personal!
Getting Started with Content Ideas
Check out these month-long observances. Several offer opportunities to support a cause close to your heart by sharing stories, raising awareness, and/or giving your followers ways to donate money, time, and love to your favorite issues.
Get Caught Reading Month – One of the great things about this industry is being able to get creative when you’re marketing your author brand. Bring in your readers to have fun and share your book by tagging you when they get caught reading. Do a promotion for a random reader that tags you when they get caught reading your book throughout the month.
Asian Month
Date Your Mate Month
Foster Care Month
Gifts From the Garden Month
Lupus Awareness Month
Mystery Month – Mystery authors this is the perfect way to help build your author brand! Take advantage to share about your book and maybe make up different games with clues.
National Barbecue Month
National Bike Month
National Hamburger Month
National Photograph Month
Multi-Day Celebrations
First Full Week of May – Nurse’s Week
2nd Week – Wildflower Week
3rd Week – National Bike Week
3rd Week – National Police Week
4th Week – Emergency Medical Services Week
May 4 – May 10 – Children’s Book Week – If this is your genre, make an author marketing plan that focuses heavily on this week. Build up to it and then have a promo for the end of the week.
Daily Observations for May
May 1
Free Comic Book Day
Hawaiian Lei Day
Mother Goose Day
National Fitness Day – Get personal and share your routine with your followers. Have them help hold you accountable and share what kind of activity they have done for the day, even if it is as simple as taking a walk outside.
May 2
Baby Day
Brothers and Sisters Day
May 3
Garden Meditation Day – With everything that has happened over the last year, more and more are turning to meditation. Have your readers share what they do or maybe even what their meditation space looks like. It doesn’t always have to fit perfectly in with your author brand when you are trying to connect with readers.
Lumpy Rug Day
World Press Freedom Day
May 4
Intergalactic Star Wars Day – May the Fourth be with you.
Bird Day
National Teacher’s Day
Renewal Day
May 5
Cinco de Mayo – Have some fun with a virtual party! Not that we need an excuse, but this would be a great time for a special reader event. You could even go live in your reader group with some chips and a margarita.
National Hoagie Day
Oyster Day
Back to School Day
Cartoonist Day
May 6
Beverage Day
National Tourist Appreciation Day
National Nurses Day – Maybe you have written a character that is a nurse. Share about them today and honor any readers who are nurses as well.
No Diet Day
May 7
International Tuba Day
National Day of Prayer
National Tourism Day – Plan a day for your readers to visit your fictional world online. You could do a scavenger hunt or just make up fun posts of stuff seen around town.
Space Day
May 8
Child Care Provider Day
Military Spouses Day – We love military heroes but today, let’s spotlight their spouses. Make sure you acknowledge your readers who fit this category but you can also highlight fictional characters as well.
National Train Day
No Socks Day
National Outdoor Intercourse Day – If your author brand involves being a romance author, you can surely have fun with this one.
World Red Cross Day
May 9
Peter Pan Day
Mother’s Day
National Babysitters Day
Lost Sock Memorial Day
May 10
Clean Up Your Room Day
May 11
Eat What You Want Day – Isn’t this every day? Get your readers involved and share anything amazing you decide to have today.
Twilight Zone Day
May 12
Limerick Day – Share a limerick that you have incorporated into your story or maybe share one that inspired you.
Fatigue Syndrome Day
National Receptionist Day
School Nurses Day
May 13
Frog Jumping Day
International Hummus Day
Leprechaun Day
May 14
Dance Like a Chicken Day – This would be a fun one to highlight on TikTok, if that is part of your author brand. Get your readers involved and have them tag you. Bonus points if they can incorporate your book.
May 15
Armed Forces Day
National Chocolate Day
National Slider Day
Police Officer’s Memorial Day
May 16
Love a Tree Day
National Sea Monkey Day
Wear Purple for Peace Day
May 17
Pack Rat Day – Pledge to get yourself organized today and have your readers share some organizational hacks.
May 18
International Museums Day
International Museum Day
No Dirty Dishes Day
Visit Your Relatives Day – Discuss the family tree of your characters. Were any inspired by your actual relatives? Ask your readers if they are similar to theirs.
May 19
Boy’s Club Day
World Plant a Vegetable Garden Day
May 20
Eliza Doolittle Day
Be a Millionaire Day – If you have a character that is a millionaire, utilize today to share what a day in his life would be like. What would you do for the day? Have readers share what they would do.
Pick Strawberries Day
May 21
National Bike to Work Day
National Endangered Species Day
National Memo Day – Maybe you have a special announcement coming up. Take advantage of today and send it out as a memo.
National Waiters and Waitresses Day
May 22
Buy a Musical Instrument Day
National Maritime Day
World Goth Day
May 23
Lucky Penny Day – Are you superstitious? Or maybe you have a character that is. Swap stories about a lucky penny or lucky charm.
World Turtle Day
May 24
International Tiara Day – Have a book with a royal theme? Share it and discuss what inspired you to write it.
National Escargot Day
May 25
Towel Day (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Day)
National Missing Children’s Day
National Brown Bag It Day
National Wine Day – Another event that seems like it is every day, right? Host a social hour within your reader group or maybe a small Zoom event for some special followers.
Tap Dance Day
May 26
Sally Ride Day
World Otter Day
May 27
Dashiell Hammett’s Birthday
Sun Screen Day
May 28
Amnesty International Day
Don’t Fry Friday
National Hamburger Day
May 29
International Jazz Day – Share some of your favorite jazz music. Maybe you have a book trailer that has some jazz music with it or even a jazz player in your book that you can spotlight.
Learn About Composting Day
May 30
Mint Julep Day
Water a Flower Day
May 31
Memorial Day
National Macaroon Day
Save Your Hearing Day
World No Tobacco Day
The Takeaway
Remember, being an author demands creativity, and it also demands authenticity when developing a marketing plan to support your author brand.
Coming up with unique content ideas for authors as part of your marketing plan is a great way to take your success seriously, without taking yourself too seriously! And these May observances should really help.
Resources and Free Downloads
Monthly Book Marketing Planner
Powering Up Your Email Book Marketing and Promotion
The Best Book Marketing Tips for Getting Discovered and Making the Sale
Okay. I have not a freaking clue on what to do here. But I assume that if I create a link to Facebook on my web site, so that fans of my book want to contact me on social media, that would at least be a start. Right???