Jolabokaflod

Christmas Book Flood • Reading for Pleasure

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Jolabokaflod as a generic book promotion campaign (episode #1)

Event announcement: Jolabokaflod CIC is hosting a rescheduled live-stream podcast on Friday, 20 December. Anyone who is free is most welcome to join in…

Celebrate the magic of Jolabokaflod—the Icelandic Christmas tradition where books are exchanged on Christmas Eve—with our latest podcast episode focused on generic book promotion strategies. Whether you’re an author, publisher, or book lover, this episode offers valuable insights into how the spirit of this holiday tradition can inspire more effective book marketing.

In this episode, we dive deep into actionable book promotion techniques that go beyond the typical strategies, showcasing how to create a lasting impact in your audience’s minds. You’ll learn how to craft compelling book launches, build genuine author-reader connections, and utilise festive traditions like Jolabokaflod to ignite curiosity and generate buzz around your work.

We also explore unique ways to tap into the global love for books during the holiday season, offering tips on how to align your marketing with the seasonal spirit to increase book sales, visibility, and long-term readership.

Perfect for anyone involved in the literary world, this episode will provide fresh perspectives on how to make your book stand out in a crowded market. Don’t miss out on strategies that could change the way you approach book promotion. Tune in now and take your book promotion game to the next level!

Get into the Christmas spirit of Jolabokaflod by discovering how promoting reading for pleasure over the festive season can make the holidays more special and reignite a love for books to take into the New Year as a resolution you can keep.

On 20 December at 2.00-2.30 pm GMT (9.00-9.30 EST | 6.00-6.30 PST), join Christopher Norris in conversation with Andrew Hayward—pioneers of the celebration of #WorldBookDay in the UK (via the Booksn ginger group)—about the how to market the magic of books, especially to mark special occasions.

Share your questions with us in real time.

• YouTube link: https://youtube.com/live/w3F2d7gC7XY

See you at the Jolabokaflod fireside chat event.

A recording of the session is available immediately after the livestream at YouTube.

Note: If you’d like to watch the next Jolabokaflod session—Jolabokaflod and literary agenting—here is the YouTube link:

• YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stnyq2p8qeg


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Merry Jolabokaflod – get involved with a new grassroots, interactive generic book campaign

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas … at least according to the book trade calendar, with Super Thursday already in distant memory. But how do we pay tribute to the festive season as an industry in the UK, apart from the publication of the Booksellers Association Christmas Books Catalogue, the giving of National Book Tokens as presents, and the marketing efforts of individual companies (such as Quercus for Christmas 2014)?

We can learn to celebrate Christmas (and other ‘Festivals of Light’) the Icelandic way, and help to promote books into the bargain. With more books published and read per citizen than anywhere else in the world (BBC News Magazine), our friends in the ‘Land of Fire and Ice’ clearly know how to get people reading!*

This is where Jólabókaflóð comes in.

Every year, virtually all the new books in Iceland are published in a narrow window in the run up to Christmas. The season starts with the autumn publication of a new books’ catalogue – the bókatíðindi – and ends with the giving of presents on 24 December. Tradition has it that everyone in Iceland spends Christmas Eve reading.

How fabulous is that!

The whole festive rush, from publication dates to getting books into readers’ hands, is called Jólabókaflóð, which translates roughly in English to ‘Christmas book flood’.

There is no reason why the Jólabókaflóð phenomenon should remain a well-kept secret in Iceland. A series of digital platforms were launched on 16 November 2015 to make it happen here, too, via an article at BookMachine and via an RSA Bounce event in London

Here is the plan to start to make an Anglicised version – ‘Jolabokaflod’ – a fixture in the hearts and minds of book lovers like us in the UK and beyond. We can have fun at the same time.

In the run up to the festive season in 2015, join in pledging to get into the spirit of celebrating Jolabokaflod by doing the following:

  1. Buy books to give to your nearest and dearest as presents.
  2. Encourage your loved ones to start reading your gift books during the Christmas holiday season.
  3. Copy and paste the Jolabokaflod name and slogan – as shown below – into your email signatures between now and Christmas:
    Jolabokaflod | Buy * Give * Read | Books are not just for Christmas
  4. Mention Jolabokaflod in your emails and on social media. Use the hashtag #Jolabokaflod whenever you chat about the campaign online. Name-drop Jolabokaflod liberally at Twitter (@Jolabokaflod), Facebook (/jolabokaflod), etc., ‘Like’ the campaign wherever it exists online, and encourage your family, friends and followers to do the same.
  5. Download and print out this Jolabokaflod bookplate PDF to insert into the books you give as gifts over the Christmas period this year.

The core message of Jolabokaflod is a three-stage invitation for everyone to ‘Buy’, ‘Give’ and ‘Read’. Jolabokaflod is a generic retail and reading campaign rolled into one.

For Christmas 2016, here is how you can play an active part in taking Jolabokaflod from a trickle to a flood. Take control and be a star in your local community and networks:

  1. Run a crowdfunding campaign, join one as a volunteer and/or donate money at the Jolabokaflod CrowdPatch for an event or project to help disadvantaged people and vulnerable groups in your local neighbourhood.
  1. Champion Jolabokaflod in your place of work or study to encourage everyone to get involved. This is a campaign where everyone can join in.
  1. Tell me your Jolabokaflod news, write for the various branded websites, add comments on blogs, make contacts, and share stories on social media.

Here are the places where you can find Jolabokaflod online:

Join in the conversation, get actively involved and share your enthusiasm for Jolabokaflod both online and face-to-face.

Get in touch with Jolabokaflod via email at jolabokaflod@gmail.com to share your news, stories, photos, videos, suggestions, comments and opportunities about the campaign.

Let’s have fun with the Jolabokaflod campaign this year and next – as has already been said, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.