Reader Friday: Writer or Reader Gifts

What’s the best writerly gift you’ve ever received? Why was it so helpful?

Are you hoping for a writerly gift this year? If so, what?

Bonus Questions:

What’s the best gift you’ve received from an author? What made it so special?

Do you include reader gifts in your holiday promotions? Care to share where you create/buy your promotional gifts?

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About Sue Coletta

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs at the Kill Zone, Story Empire, and Writers Helping Writers. Sue lives with her husband in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series (books 1-3) and Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction. Now, she exclusively writes eco-thrillers, Mayhem Series (books 4-8 and continuing). Sue's appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery. Learn more about Sue and her books at https://suecoletta.com

15 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Writer or Reader Gifts

  1. Holiday promotions? You mean I’m supposed to do holiday promotions?
    My most popular giveaway is my personalize lip balm. I get them from Totally Promotional.
    Post-it Notes go over well, too. I get mine from PrintingForLess. Good quality, excellent customer service. (I have promo codes for discounts on a first order, if that’s okay to mention here.)

    Except for the grandson, we’ve cut back on gift giving. We prefer to help out when things are needed rather than mark occasions.

    • Nice! I’ll check ’em out. Some authors do holiday box sets and include swag of some sort. This year I did faux crow feathers, crime scene tape, and toe tags. Readers loved ’em.

      Oh, yes, the grandchildren. We have three and they’re mainly who we buy for. It’s all about the kids, but we get the rest of the family a little something (nothing major) to unwrap, as well.

  2. The best gift I ever get for writing is when a rare long weekend comes along so I can actually FOCUS long enough to develop story ideas. Writing I can do in snatches at any time, but plotting & researching take a focused time investment.

    Enjoy what I hope is a long weekend for everyone else too!

  3. The best writerly gift I’ve ever received, aside from constant encouragement from friends, relatives, and readers, is a fancy schmancy new desk for my office-when I retired from my day job at a cancer center. It’s made of wood, has a drawer, and an outlet and 2 USB ports on the side. My laptop and my giant 2nd monitor, plus my sound bar all fit on it very nicely. My husband gave it to me, and my elbows are on it right now as I type.

    What can I say? It’s cool.

    • Love that, Deb! My husband is (allegedly) building me one, but he keeps starting over. It may need to double as my casket by the time it’s finished. 😉

      • Ha! When my husband and I first married, before the grand day, his task was to enlarge the closet space in the master bedroom of his house to accommodate my stuff.

        Two years after we married, he finished it. Great lesson for me, though, in what I can do without.

        Hopefully, for you, it’ll be a desk and not a casket. 🙂

  4. The best writerly gift I received was my first laptop. My husband gave it to me at Christmas and helped launch my writing to a whole new level. Before that, we shared a desktop computer. Not easy when a writer tends to hog the computer time. It wasn’t too long after that, my husband ditched the desktop and got a Chromebook. He doesn’t do anything but read articles on the internet unlike me who has writing software, photo editing software, publishing software and well, on an on. I love playing with all kinds of digital programs when I’m not writing. 🙂 Along with my formal art training, it worked out great for cover art! 😀

    I haven’t figured out the marketing/promotional side yet. Still working on that. It will probably land on my New Year’s Resolutions list along with my vow to be as happy all year long as I am during the Christmas season. Why not give ourselves permission to be joyful all year?

    • Love that, Cecelia. We should all give ourselves permission to be joyful all year.

      And a big yes on the computer! My husband bought me my first writerly computer, and it was a game-changer. We NEED the proper tools of our trade.

  5. Too many to count but I do love the sweatshirt my husband gave me last Christmas (although since it was a special order from China or somewhere, it didn’t arrive until March!) – it says “Mrs. Write” across the chest. Every time I wear it out, I get asked about where I’m a writer, which gives me the perfect opportunity to “pitch” my debut novel.

  6. My husband bought me a weekend workshop with a well known author for my birthday, which was pretty special, but one of the best gifts I bought for myself – after getting the idea from James Scott Bell’s excellent book Plot & Structure – a coffee mug with ‘Writer’ written on it. Using it when I sit down to write reminds me that I am there to do exactly that – no procrastination allowed!

    • Love that, Linda. I have a few writer mugs (slight addiction to them). My favorite says, “Please do not annoy the writer or she may put you in a book and kill you.” 🙂

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