23 of the most fun and imaginative September holidays for book promotion

Here's just a sampling of the most unexpected and imaginative September holidays for book promotion. Which of them can you have fun with?

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Like it or not, September’s arrival reminds us that fall is just around the corner.

This means the orioles competing with the bees for the jelly on my feeder outside my office window will soon be flying south. And that I’d better return to the dry cleaner to pick up that winter coat I dropped off months ago…and forgot about.

But it also introduces to our calendars so many imaginative September holidays for book promotion.

How can you use these unusual occasions?

There are so many ways to use these fun holidays! I like to look for opportunities to generate more engagement on social media, blog post ideas, or ideas I can turn into social media images or videos.

Here are a few ideas.

September 1, National Tofu Day, appeals to me because people have strong feelings about tofu. Some, like me, love it. Others have serious issues with it. Why not host a poll on Instagram Stories and ask followers if they love it or hate it?

For more engagement, how about using September 13, Fortune Cookie Day, to ask followers on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook – wherever your audience hangs out – to comment with fortune cookie messages they’d like to find in a cookie but never do? Offer a prize (your book, perhaps) to the person who writes the message you like the most.

National Pet Memorial Day on September 10 made me think of my friend Roxanne Hawn’s “Heart Dog: Surviving the Loss of Your Canine Soul Mate.” Roxanne can leverage the obvious link to her book by starting an online discussion about how humans memorialize their pet. She can also write and distribute to the media a tip sheet offering advice for honoring pet memories that can help their humans deal with grief when a pet dies.

Imaginative September holidays for book promotion

Spend some time reviewing this short list of some of the fun and imaginative occasions coming up next month. Get the full list at HolidayInsights.com.

• September 1 National Tofu Day (UK)
• September 4 Bring Your Manners to Work Day
• September 5 Be Late for Something Day
• September 6 Fight Procrastination Day
• September 8 National Ampersand Day
• September 8 Pardon Day
• September 9 Teddy Bear Day
• September 10 Grandparent’s Day
• September 10 National Pet Memorial Day
• September 10 Sewing Machine Day
• September 11 No News is Good News Day
• September 13 Defy Superstition Day
• September 13 Fortune Cookie Day
• September 13 Positive Thinking Day
• September 16 Collect Rocks Day
• September 16 National Play Doh Day
• September 17 Wife Appreciation Day
• September 19 International Talk Like a Pirate Day
• September 21 International Peace Day
• September 22 Hobbit Day
• September 25 World Dream Day
• September 27 Crush a Can Day
• September 28 National Good Neighbor Day

There are also several book-related holidays in September to consider, including Read a Book Day and National Punctuation Day. You’ll find them in the 2023 Literary Calendar on this site.

Which of these holidays is a good fit for you and your book, and why? How will you use it? Please tell us in a comment.