When it comes to how to sell books on Amazon, authors often forget to include the seasonal pivot in their book marketing plan. But there’s no time like the present to make a few tweaks and help get your book in front of new readers eager to add your title to their summer reading list.

With travel still up in the air for most of us, reading preferences have changed – a lot. In non-pandemic years, summer read books typically consisted of breezy books, or genre fiction. But with a lot of folks choosing staycations, many might be using their time off to finish up crafts they started when we were all at home, to work on home repairs, or to continue that garden project.

So, while our minds go to the fiction books we can escape into on a beach somewhere, other types of books warrant consideration this summer as well.

And these tweaks I’m suggesting aren’t exclusive to summer! I’ve known some savvy authors to change or modify the points below whenever they want to tie their book marketing plan into a particular season or holiday.

Using these updates to remind readers what your book aligns with is a great way to push more reader exposure and sell more books. Ready? Let’s explore these ideas!

Switch up your subtitle for the seasons

When was the last time you updated this? It might be fun to add “summer read” to it, or beach read, or “staycation passion project” – it’s really all fair game! Updating your subtitle, periodically, is easy if you have access to your Amazon dashboard via KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).

Don’t forget to update the description

Breathe some new life into it, specifically with the opening sentence. Use this to reiterate some version of summer, summer projects, beach, or vacation! Every book marketing plan should include drafting a gripping description.

Catch new readers with new keywords

The easiest answer to how to sell books on Amazon? Keywords!

Now might be a great time to revive and replace some of your keywords, too. Book searches definitely change throughout the year based on what’s going on in the world with pop culture, genre trends, or even holidays and seasons, so keywords should never be stagnant!

Reach every target you need to through categories

While you’re in your keywords, check your categories and be sure you’ve left no stone unturned. Amazon doesn’t add new categories often, but it does happen.

Let your readers get to know you

Now is also a good time to update your Author Central info, in the “From the Author” section. Talk about your own love of a good summer read or why your book lends itself well to a staycation or pandemic project!

Show summer in your ads

If you’re running Amazon ads, now is a particularly great time to freshen those up as well. You can bet that bestselling authors who have already captured the beach read market have book launches planned.

If you’re in the same category as these books, running ads to align with their hot summer releases will serve you well.

Get creative with Amazon video shorts

Have you tried this yet? If not, now might be a fun time to create a short video that drives more attention to the summer read (or summer crafts/projects) angle of your book! You could do a short gardening video for a gardening book, or a fun video of you in sunglasses and reading leisurely by a tree.

Using seasons or holidays is a fantastic way to boost your book’s exposure and to get in front of more readers. And it’s, surprisingly, something that not a lot of authors do when thinking of how to sell books on Amazon. Now is your chance to update your book page and heat up your book marketing plan just in time for summer!

Resources and Free Downloads

Amazon Video Product

Quarterly Amazon Planner

5 Ways to Improve Your Book Marketing on Amazon

How to Market a Book While Keeping up With Amazon’s Recent Changes (Book Marketing Podcast)

Check out KM Weiland’s site for more author resources