It’s the time of year when every company pushes out all the stops in terms of marketing to help maximise sales or to get their message across to the masses. This year, there are bookish giveaways and gift guides galore. It’s well worth having a look around on Twitter to keep up to date with everything festive, but here are a few of my favourites to get you started

Headline launched an online advent calendar on Monday 1st December, with a different giveaway going up each day. So far, there have been signed copies of novels by Martina Cole and Victoria Hislop, as well as a Downton Abbey TV tie-in book bundle.

An interactive Christmas gift guide has been designed by Hodder and Stoughton, which lets users answer questions with details about the person they’re buying for. The guide then recommends books from both Hodder’s frontlist and its backlist as gifts. I tried it for a couple of different people – one worked really well and I actually got some good recommendations, but the other one not so much! A good idea though and a bit of fun!

Elsewhere, Curtis Brown Literary Agency is running a Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway every working day until the 16th December. This kicked off on 1st December with a giveaway of ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell’ and will see different authors pick their Christmas giveaway choices throughout the promotion. To be in with a change to win, visit the @CBBookGroup Twitter page.

On a more charitable festive note, the English PEN and the Howard League for Penal Reform are hoping to raise awareness of and support for the Books for Prisoners campaign, which calls on the government to overturn the ban on sending books and other essentials into prisons. A digital advent calendar has been launched, which features authors such as Monica Ali, and supporters are asked to recommend the books they would send to prisoners using the hashtag #booksforprisoners.

If you’ve noticed any other good promotions in the run up to Christmas, let me know!