As an author, editor, or book influencer it can be tough to constantly brainstorm new pieces of content for your social media accounts. I get it! As an editor for indie authors I know that keeping my Instagram, @kaitlin.slowik.editing, active and up-to-date is essential for networking and establishing trust with potential clients. But it’s also exhausting to feel like the content creation never ends!
Book-related holidays can be an easy way to round out your content calendar if you just.can’t.even with creating more posts for your grid. Read on to find out why utilizing book holidays on your social media accounts is smart, as well as how often you should be posting about them.
I’ve gathered over 200 book-related holidays, separated them by month, and added in some suggestions for creative content. Bookmark this blog post to use as a resource in 2023, 2024, and beyond!
Posting about holidays on social media is a good way to increase your engagement. In fact, PLANN, the social media scheduling tool, says that utilizing a holiday’s hashtag can expose your post to new audiences and increase your reach. The algorithm can make it tough to get noticed out there, so having relevant and specific content aimed at your target audience is a great way to stand out from the crowd.
Sendible recommends adding holidays to your calendar because it helps with brand authenticity. And isn’t that the whole point of social media? To create engaging content that connects and builds authentic relationships?
Still not sure it’s worth it to add holidays to your content calendar? Unmetric reports, “M&M’s posted 369 updates on Facebook of which 19 were holiday greetings. What’s interesting is, while the brand received an average engagement score of 700 on the 369 posts, the 19 posts by themselves garnered a score of 839!”
That’s incredible! Those posts had a huge engagement increase, proving that people respond positively to holiday content.
When posting about holidays, don’t be afraid to get creative, or ask for involvement from your followers. This is a chance for you to think outside-the-box about your brand. Show your followers your personality with these posts. Be a little different, and get a little silly.
Ever wonder how often you should be posting on social media? Hootsuite did the research for you! If you’re on Bookstagram or BookTok, you should post 3 – 5 times a week, while remaining active on Instagram stories each day.
Should you only use holidays? Of course not. These holidays are meant to be a supplement to your regular content. Don’t overuse them or your followers will get tired of your account.
Keep reading for the list of over 200 book-related holidays and literary holidays for 2024!
(Want some explanation on a specific holiday? Find it on National Today!)
National Book Blitz Month: This month-long celebrating is all about reigniting the love of reading. Maybe you could make a reading resolution at the beginning of the month and check-in with your followers a few different times to give a report on your progress. You could resolve to read a classic book you’ve never been able to finish, you could resolve to email one author each week to thank them for their beautiful words, or you could resolve to donate books to different places in your community (Little Free Libraries would be perfect for this).
National Braille Literacy Month
1/1 Copyright Law Day
1/1 International Public Domain Day
1/2 National Science Fiction Day: Highlight your favorite scifi novel. You could post a quote or a piece of trivia to make this more engaging.
1/2 Isaac Asimov’s Birthday
1/3 JRR Tolkien Day
1/5 National Screenwriters Day
1/6 National Take a Poet to Lunch Day
1/8 Typing Day
1/9 National Word Nerd Day: Gush about your favorites words. Be nerdy about it—that’s the whole point of the day! Post a question box in your stories asking your followers to list their favorite words and repost the responses.
1/9 Poetry at Work Day
1/13 Poetry Break Day
1/14 Universal Letter Writing Week
1/16 Book Publishers Day
1/18 National Thesaurus Day: Use this holiday to do something light and fun on your account. Compose a sentence about your day, your profession, or your latest offer, and replace all the words with thesaurus equivalents. Ask your followers to guess what your original sentence was, and post the funniest responses. It’s sort of like a game of reverse telephone. You could ask a friend in your niche to do the same thing and try to guess each other’s sentences. This would be a good way to gain some new followers!
1/18 Winnie the Pooh Day
1/19 Artist as Outlaw Day
1/23 National Handwriting Day
1/24 Library Shelfie Day: This would be an easy one to observe! Just snap a quick selfie when you pop into the library for your book haul and post it to your account with a caption detailing the books you checked out. At the end of your caption include a CTA that asks your followers what books they have from the library. You could even use a question box in an Instagram story to further up your engagement!
1/24 Macintosh Computer Day
1/24-1/29 National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week: I admit, I had never heard of this week, but now that I know about it I want to celebrate! This is a six-day event celebrating the poetry of the rural West. It originally began in 1985 in Nevada.
1/30 National Storytelling Week
2/1 African American Read-In
African American Heritage Month
Black History Month
International Month of Black Women in the Arts: Feature your favorite female Black authors. Post a video showcasing your favorite books. Not sure how to make this fun and engaging? Watch this example and let it inspire you.
LGBT+ History Month
Library Lovers Month
National Arts Month
National Haiku Writing Month
2/3 Take Your Child to the Library Day
2/4 Derek Craven Day: The podcast Fated Mates created this holiday celebrating one of historical romance author Lisa Kleypas’s heroes, Derek Craven. He inspires devotion among those who love him, and this is a silly day to let loose and do something just a little bit unhinged (if you’re a Craven lover…which I am!).
2/5 Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
2/7 World Read Aloud Day
2/7 International Week of Black Women in the Arts
2/9 Read in the Bathtub Day
2/12 Judy Blume’s Birthday
2/14 Library Lovers’ Day: The 14th isn’t just for Valentine’s Day! The day of love also celebrates book giving, libraries, Black literacy, and reading to your children. If you aren’t a fan of Valentine’s Day, choose to post about one of these instead.
2/14 National Black Literacy Day
2/14 Read to Your Child Day
2/19 Prevent Plagiarism Day
2/20 Clean Out Your Bookcase Day
2/26 Tell a Fairy Tale Day: Fairy tale retellings have really exploded in the romance world lately. Review your favorites and ask followers if they have any recommendations for you.
2/28 National Essay Day: As a former high school English teacher … I will not be celebrating this holiday! I’m so glad I don’t have grade essays anymore!
3/1 National Ghostwriters Week
3/1 National Will Eisner Week: This is always held the first full week of March. It highlights “comics, graphic novel literacy, free speech, and the legacy of Will Eisner.” What’s the last graphic novel you read that had an impact on you? Post a video review encouraging others to read it.
3/1 National Write a Letter of Appreciation Week
Gardening, Nature, and Ecology Books Month
Humorists are Artists Month
National March in to Literacy Month
National Reading Month
National Women’s History Month
Read an E-Book Month: Do you have any favorite Kindle Unlimited authors? You could do a series throughout the month highlighting authors you think deserve more praise. Tag the authors in posts and stories—they will likely repost your content and get you greater engagement and more followers.
Small Press Month
3/2 Read Across America Day: This is the birthday of Dr. Seuss and is on every list of literary holidays. Do you have a favorite book by this famous author? Post a quick video about why you love it. If you are uncomfortable highlighting Dr. Seuss due to the racist imagery found in his books, you could explain to your followers why he has recently become a more controversial figure.
3/2 Jewish Book Week
3/3 Talk in Third Person Day: Look, you can celebrate this one, but don’t talk to me while you’re doing it. I will get annoyed with you immediately. 🙂
3/3 Return Borrowed Books Week
3/3 Words Matter Week
3/4 National Grammar Day
3/8 National Proofreading Day: Ooh baby! Editors, this holiday is for us! Highlight your offers (if they include proofreading), talk about why all writers need proofreaders, or showcase some of the funniest errors you have caught while proofreading.
3/10 National Freelancers Day: This isn’t directly related to books, but because so many authors and editors are also freelancers, I decided to include it. What do you love about the freelancer life? What freedoms do you have as a freelancer that you didn’t have when you worked a 9-5? What’s the toughest part about being a freelancer?
3/12 Alfred Hitchcock Day
3/14 National Write Your Story Day: Post words of encouragement for authors. Show authors you believe in them and in their stories.
3/17 Schools Library Media Center Week
3/19 International Read to me Day
3/20 Bibliomania Day
3/20 World Storytelling Day
3/21 World Poetry Day
3/21 Shakespeare Week: Just something to note: Shakespeare’s birthday is celebrated in April. If you are really into Shakespeare, you may want to choose which month to highlight him. I don’t recommend doing both months. It’s too much Shakespeare!
3/22 Talk Like William Shakespeare Day
3/22 Texas Cowboy Poetry Week
3/25 Tolkien Reading Day
4/1 Edible Book Day
4/1 Reading is Funny Day
4/1 Take Your Poet to School Week
National Literature Month
National Poetry Month
School Library Month
4/2 Children’s Picture Book Day: Post a picture of your collection of children’s books. Don’t forget to tag the authors (if they have accounts)!
4/2 International Children’s Book Day
4/2 International Fact Checking Day: A big part of what I do as a copyeditor is fact checking. If you’re an editor you could post a list of things you had to Google for a recent project, or create a video of all the ridiculous things you have had to fact check.
4/4 School Librarian Day
4/6 National Library Day
4/7 National Library Week
4/10 Encourage a Young Writer Day
4/10 National Bookmobile Day
4/13 International Special Librarians Day
4/13 National Scrabble Day: It wouldn’t be a bookish holidays calendar without a mention of every bibliophile’s favorite board game! Do you have any silly Scrabble rules you follow? My kids and I like to play “phonetic Scrabble” where the spelling doesn’t matter quite as much as long as you can make a case that your combination of letters SOUNDS like a word. We also play “naughty word Scrabble” where you get extra points if a word you play is inappropriate. Post a video explaining some of your Scrabble house rules. Ask followers if they have any, and then share their responses in your stories.
4/14 National Donate a Book Day
4/15 Canada Book Week
4/16 National Librarian Day: Librarians are just THE BEST. And WOW public libraries have really been bringing it on social media lately. What’s your favorite account to follow? Repost some of their content and tell your followers why you like it. They may repost you and get you some more followers.
4/17 National Haiku Day
4/18 Celebrate Teen Literature Day
4/19 Poetry and the Creative Mind Day
4/19 Undergraduate Research Week
4/21 Big Word Day: What’s your favorite $5000 word? You know what I mean … your favorite crazy-big, no-one-else-knows-it-but-you word? This is your chance to lovingly talk about it and turn it into someone’s favorite word!
4/21 Thank You for Libraries Day
4/23 Canada Book Day
4/23 International English Language Day
4/23 National Email Day
4/23 National Talk Like Shakespeare Day: April 23rd is also the day we observe Shakespeare’s birthday! Post a video where you talk to your followers in a Shakespearean way and see if they can figure out what you’re trying to tell them.
4/23 World Book and Copyright Day
4/23 World Book Day
4/23 World Book Night
4/26 National Dissertation Day
4/26 World Intellectual Property Day
4/27 Independent Bookstore Day: This calendar of book holidays to celebrate would be incomplete without a day highlighting independent bookstores. Post a video tour of your local bookstore and encourage followers to shop there.
4/27 National Tell a Story Day
4/28 Great Poetry Reading Day
4/28 Harper Lee’s Birthday
4/29 Poem in Your Pocket Day
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Get Caught Reading Month
Jewish American Heritage Month
Latino Books Month
National Share a Story Month
5/2 Children’s Book Week
5/4 Free Comic Book Day
5/7 Poem on Your Pillow Day
5/9 Alphabet Magnet Day
5/9 Make a Book Day: Make a coloring book for your child or create a short comic book for your teen. If those ideas don’t appeal to you, post about what it takes to make a book. You could explore that concept literally, by talking about how physical books are bound and created, or you could take your followers through the steps indie authors take in order to self-publish their manuscripts.
5/11 O. Henry Pun-Off Day: This holiday changes dates each year. In the U.S. it is held on the day before Mother’s Day. O. Henry was known for his use of puns and on this day “pun enthusiasts gather to compete in a battle of wits.” Share your favorite puns related to your niche, services, or offers.
5/12 National Limerick Day
5/16 National Biographer’s Day
5/16 National Notebook Day
5/20 Eliza Doolittle Day
5/21 Talk Like Yoda Day
5/22 Sherlock Holmes Day
5/28 Scripps Spelling Bee: Commemorate this book-themed day in your stories. Post trivia about the National Spelling Bee all day and then highlight the winner after this year’s bee is complete.
5/30 National Creativity Day
5/31 National Speak in Sentences Day
6/1 National Pen Pal Day
6/1 World Outlander Day
Audiobook Appreciation Month: Are you an audiobook fan? I have to admit: I can’t do audiobooks! My mind instantly wanders. Highlight some of your favorites for your followers.
Pride Month: The publishing world is only getting more inclusive. Do a round-up, either with a video or a carousel post, of your favorite books from the year (so far!) featuring LGBTQ+ characters.
6/10 National Ballpoint Pen Day
6/10 Maurice Sendak’s Birthday
6/10 National Email Week: If you’re an author, post a series of emails your characters might write to each other. Creative marketing strategies always get more engagement than things everyone else is doing—this could be great promo for an upcoming or recent release.
6/23 National Typewriter Day
International Zine Month
Read an Almanac Month
7/2 World Sports Journalists Day
7/4 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Day: This day is a great time to post a video of a Mad Hatter tea party you host, along with a few of your favorite quotes from this book. The tea party doesn’t have to be fancy. Use what you have at home, and get creative. If you don’t want to go all-out, stick a note to your mug that says “Drink me” and see if any of your followers can guess why you have it!
7/5 Comic Sans Day
7/17 Take Your Poet to Work Day
7/17 World Emoji Day: If you’re an author, describe your book (or books) in emojis to observe this day. If you’re an editor, ask your followers to comment on your post with an emoji description of their WIP. It will give you a chance to interact and build relationships.
7/21 Comic Con
7/30 Paperback Book Day
8/1 Spider-Man Day
8/5 Blogger Day: Well, I’ll be celebrating this one. 🙂 If you have a blog, use this day to promote it so your followers are sure to check it out! You could talk about the benefits of having a book blog or the reasons why you started your blog.
8/6 Sailer Moon Day
8/9 National Book Lovers Day: An ultimate calendar of great literary holidays wouldn’t be complete without this one! You could post a shelfie or a photo of your current TBR. You could take your followers on a tour of your bookshelf. You could even create a “Go to the bookstore with me” video.
8/10 Update Your Bio Day: This is a great reminder for us all! Post your new bio and encourage your followers to do the same (while tagging you so you’re sure to see it).
8/10 Vlogging Day
8/14 Love Your Bookshop Day
8/18 Bad Poetry Day
8/30 Frankenstein Day: This holiday celebrates one of our most beloved authors: Mary Shelley. Her novel Frankenstein is often touted as the first science fiction novel ever written. If you specialize in editing scifi or paranormal romance, this may be a good day of the year for you to post about on your grid! Just a note, the last Friday in October is “Frankenstein Friday” so I would recommend only highlighting one of these days.
8/31 We Love Memoirs Day
Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month: No, I didn’t make this one up! Although it DOES seem like maybe the best holiday you’ll find all year long?? It would be fun to put a spotlight on your fellow writers or editors this month. Post about them in your stories and tell your followers what makes them so great.
National Library Card Signup Month
9/1 World Letter Writing Day
9/6 National Read a Book Day
9/7 Buy a Book Day: What a great excuse to visit the bookstore and buy a book to enjoy! And you’re buying the book and sharing about it for “content” so that means it’s basically free. #bookmath
9/8 International Literacy Day
9/8 National Ampersand Day
9/8 Star Trek Day
9/8 World Literacy Day
9/11 Libraries Remember Day
9/13 National Twilighters Day: There are a few ways to celebrate this one. 1) Lay on the ground in the sun and watch your skin sparkle. 2) Have a relaxing game of baseball with your new boyfriend’s family. 3) Say, “Where the hell have you been, loca?” to everyone you see all day. **If those three items mean nothing to you … maybe sit this one out.
9/13 Roald Dahl Day
9/14 National Live Creative Day
Hispanic Heritage Month
9/18 Hug a Greeting Card Writer Day
9/18 Read an eBook Day
9/21 Stephen King’s Birthday
9/22 Dear Diary Day: Get a little silly with this one! Editors, create fake diary entries from yourself about your work. Authors, consider adding or creating diary entries written by your most beloved characters.
9/22 Hobbit Day
9/24 National Punctuation Day: The perfect opportunity for you to finally post your love letter to the em dash. — — — (It’s so beautiful.)
9/25 National Comic Book Day
9/30 International Translation Day
Last week of September: Banned Books Week: This is a full week for a reason! There’s so much you could do here. Post a list of your favorite banned books, describe a letter you wrote to your school board protesting book banning, a video of all the banned book displays you see around town (schools, libraries, and book stores will definitely have these!), or a video talking about an impact a banned book had on you when you were an adolescent.
Black Speculative Fiction Month
International School Libraries Month
National Book Month: Yes, we celebrate reading all year long, but October has a whole month dedicated to books. Create an aesthetic video about your current WIP or one of your releases. You could even tie it to a giveaway with another author! This could help introduce your book to a different audience.
10/14 Bookshop Day
10/16 Dictionary Day
10/17 Black Poetry Day
10/20 National Day on Writing
10/21 Everyone Writes Day: Share your tips for writing when you feel like doing anything but sitting down and putting words on paper.
10/27 Frankenstein Friday: Just a reminder that this always occurs on the last Friday of October, so be sure to double-check dates before you post about it!
10/31 Books for Treats Day
NaNoWriMo: This common phrase is for National Novel Writing Month, where authors try to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. If you are participating in NaNoWriMo you can post updates and check-ins about your progress, as well as publicize any struggles or setbacks you may be having. If you aren’t participating you can still use this holiday on your account! Post advice, tips, or words of encouragement for people involved.
11/1 National Author’s Day: If you’re an editor, use this holiday to share about some of the authors you have had the privilege of working with. If you’re an author, share about your next book.
Library and Information Services Month
National Life Writing Month
11/3 Cliche Day: As an editor, I see more than my fair share of cliches. You could post a video detailing cliches authors should look out for in the self-editing phase, or your best tips for replacing cliches with more original ideas.
11/7 National Book Award Week
11/12 Chicken Soup for the Soul Day
11/13 National Young Readers Week
11/15 Day of the Imprisoned Writer
11/15 I Love to Write Day
11/19 International Journalist’s Remembrance Day
11/20 Book Week Scotland
11/20 National Book Week
December is very light on bookish holidays! This is okay for you because 1) there are a TON of other holidays to post about and 2) people generally have a lighter posting schedule or more casual content in December.
12/7 National Letter Writing Day
12/8 Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day: I recently posted about this on my Instagram. I talked about my favorite time traveling books on my grid, and asked my followers to let me know their favorite time travel books in my stories. It was fun to see the responses (and add some books to my TBR).
12/10 Dewey Decimal System Day
12/21 National Crossword Puzzle Day
I know creating content for your social media accounts can feel like a chore. I hope this comprehensive collection of book-related celebrations helps you fill in the gaps each month, but I also hope it inspires your creativity! Your grid or BookTok account don’t always have to be informational or educational—they can be fun, too!
I’m Kaitlin, an editor for indie fiction authors, and I’d love to talk with you about your next project. Visit my Services page for pricing and then send me a message!
If you’re ready to send your book to your editor, here are some basic formatting standards and tips that you can do to prepare your manuscript and make your editor’s life easier (and they’ll love you for it!).
Discover seven things book editors don’t do for authors or their manuscripts in this blog post written by a professional freelance copyeditor.
If you’re an author looking to hire an editor, here are some author red flags that editors look for—check them out to see what worries book editors when talking to potential clients.