Gift Ideas for Writers

As many of you know, it was my birthday on Monday, and The
Conductor—who treats gift-giving as a dramatic art—always
looks for ways to surprise and delight.

For this gift-giving occasion, he chose the New Yorker as his theme, so
I received enough New Yorker product (calendar, book anthologies, and
cartoons) to probably keep Conde Nast in the black for a month.

The hard part is, and don't tell The Conductor, is that buying books
for someone in the book business isn't always a sure bet. Yes, I love
books of course, but sometimes the last thing I need is another book to
read. (Note to Kelly: There are always exceptions.)

In any case, I was thinking a lot about gift-giving this week, and the holidays are approaching.

Writer's Digest editor Zachary Petit asked the staff months ago for
gift recommendations in the November/December issue of the magazine. I
sent him several recommendations (though only one is included in the
issue). So in this blog post I'll mention them all.

Personalized Stationery

I've been known to spend about $500 on personalized notecards, which I
consider to be one of the classiest statements a writer can make. (And, sadly, I am out of
them at the moment, so I can't snap a photo for you.) I use FineStationery.com where it’s fun to create mock-ups. To really
splurge, choose a letterpress printing option. Unforgettable.

Poems For All

This is a cheap (free!) but thoughtful gift for writers and readers. I hope one day they make them available for bulk purchase.

iPhone

I can’t think of a better all-in-one device for a writer. Aside from
the standard phone call, you can use it for e-mail, surfing the web,
downloading music, Kindle reading, instant messaging, note taking,
voice recording, and a million other things through iPhone apps. The only way you could make it
more useful is if there were a small, external keyboard to plug into it.
(Then it could act as a mobile word processor.)

Knock Knock

Very hip and humorous productivity tools as well as eclectic gifts.

And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the parent
company of Writer's Digest, F+W Media, just launched a gift site,
SayItWithBooks.com. The cool part is that all purchases are gift-wrapped for free. (And for readers of this blog, use code PROMO25 for
25% off an order.)

P.S. Perhaps obvious, but Writer's Digest and WritersMarket.com
subscriptions are always good gifts too! Soon we'll be rolling out a
new VIP program that includes subscriptions to both, plus year-long
discounts in our Shop. Stay tuned for a formal announcement in the next week.