It’s that time of year again and publishers have worked out that you’re most likely to buy books to take on holiday during the month of May. This will be one of the busiest advertising periods for the big publishers and probably a lot of indies as well if they’ve done their research.

Chances are, if you’ve ever bought books online, that you’ve noticed an avalanche of sale emails since April. With Easter coming early this year, the ‘Spring Sale’ events have been coming fast and furious, culminating in the weekend of 4th May with the actual Spring break weekend.

However, that’s not the end of it. Sellers still have their eye on the school holidays in summer when many families take holidays away. What all of this means for the reader is an opportunity to pick up some of the books you’ve been wanting for discounted prices! What it means for the writer is a LOT of competition from publishers large and small.

So, how does an indie author manage to get noticed among the plethora of good deals?

One way is to get onto the mailing lists that readers follow to find free and heavily discounted books. Yes, we do this all the time, but it’s a matter of choosing your timing. For example, I put my Goblin Trilogy on Kindle sale for the 4th May weekend, which is Spring Break in the UK.

Another thing to draw attention to your book over others is to be the one going free. Many authors don’t do free, but those who do can give themselves an edge in these last weeks before school lets out.

I’ve planned a promotion for the latter half of May to give away the first book of the Goblin Trilogy, Dance of the Goblins, for free. It’s something I don’t do often. The coupon hasn’t been generated at the time of writing but I’ll add the code in the comments for anyone interested.

If you advertise on social media, this would be a good time to refine your choice of hashtags. This is easily done by going on your chosen platform and putting in hashtags you think would work for you to see what comes up. Is it hardly used? Populated only by authors trying to sell? Look for hashtags where you see links to reviews!

This is also a good time to club together with other authors who write in your genre to put on a collective sale event. Make a Facebook page for the event or agree a hashtag to promote on Twitter and/or Instagram!

The last weeks before summer is second only to Christmas for overall sales figures so now is a good time to put some extra effort into marketing. While you’re there, perhaps you’ll find some good bargains on books you would like to read for your own holiday enjoyment!

For anyone interested, the coupon code to get Dance of the Goblins FREE from Smashwords until 31st May is: Coupon Code: SJ57K