by Beth K. Vogt, @bethvogt
Usually “gifts for writers” posts start showing up in November, maybe as early as October, when we’re all making our Christmas lists and checking them twice.
But if you’re like me, you buy gifts for writer-friends, as well as editors and agents, at other times during the year.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected all of us in countless ways – and one of those ways is financially. But even if you’ve had to adjust your budget, you’d still like to celebrate colleagues and friends.
Consider me your personal shopper. I browsed online and found an assortment of 10 inexpensive items for writers, editors, and agents:
- Scrabble Letter Magnets – (Letters by Lily on Etsy) Magnets range in price from 49 cents for a blank tile to $1.99. Wouldn’t it be fun to order a friend’s name or even the title of their book?
- “Write-Breathe” Laptop Sticker – (WriteSparkDesigns on Etsy) The sticker is 3”x3” and costs $4.00. And yes, there are times when we all need to be reminded to take a deep breath and relax.
- Storyteller Print – (WrittenByJane on Etsy) You download a .jpg file of this whimsical 8”x10” digital color print of a typewriter and flowers for only $4.99. You then print it yourself at home or take it to a professional print shop.
- Library Card Notebook – (typeshyshop on Etsy) There’s no denying writers love paper and journals and notebooks, right? This classic 3”x5” library card notebook is $8.95.
- “The book was better …” coffee mug (on Zazzle) Isn’t the book always better than the movie? The 11 oz. mug is $14.95, add $2.00 for the 15 oz. mug.
- Book Band Headband – (on Storiarts) Each screen-printed headband has book quotes and is 100% cotton. They cost $14.00.
- Yellow Library Card Socks – (on OutofPrint) Fun bright yellow unisex socks that look like the old-fashioned library cards. Each purchase funds literacy programs and book donations to communities in need. Price is $12.00
- Bookshelf Pouch – (on OutofPrint) We love our bookshelves, right? Here’s a cute cotton/canvas 9”x6” zippered pouch for $12.00.
- “A word after a word after a word is power” journal – (on OutofPrint) I love this quote by author Margaret Atwood. And yes, I love journals too, so I had to mention this 8”x6” journal with 192 wide-ruled pages and a ribbon marker. Cost? $14.00.
- Composition Notebook Tote bag – (on OutofPrint) I chose the composition style bag because it looks just like the black and white marbled notebooks I used in high school English class. But there’s a fun assortment of 15”x17” cotton canvas bags you can choose from for only $20.00 (the most expensive item on my list).
How can you choose what is right for you when your decision will break the heart of someone you love? Having abandoned her childhood dream years ago, Johanna Thatcher knows what she wants from life. Discovering that her fiancé was cheating on her only convinces Johanna it’s best to maintain control and protect her heart.
Despite years of distance and friction, Johanna and her sisters, Jillian and Payton, have moved from a truce toward a fragile friendship. But then Johanna reveals she has the one thing Jillian wants most and may never have—and Johanna doesn’t want it. As Johanna wrestles with a choice that will change her life and her relationships with her sisters forever, the cracks in Jillian’s marriage and faith deepen. Through it all, the Thatcher sisters must decide once and for all what it means to be family.
Beth K. Vogt is a non-fiction author and editor who said she’d never write fiction. She’s the wife of an Air Force family physician (now in solo practice) who said she’d never marry a doctor—or anyone in the military. She’s a mom of four who said she’d never have kids. Now Beth believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” The Best We’ve Been, the final book in Beth’s Thatcher Sisters Series with Tyndale House Publishers, releases May 2020. Other books in the series include Things I Never Told You, which one the 2019 AWSA Award for Contemporary Novel of the Year, and Moments We Forget.
Beth is a 2016 Christy Award winner, a 2016 ACFW Carol Award winner, and a 2015 RITA® finalist. Her 2014 novel, Somebody Like You, was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2014. A November Bride was part of the Year of Wedding Series by Zondervan. Having authored nine contemporary romance novels or novellas, Beth believes there’s more to happily-ever-after than the fairy tales tell us.
An established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth blogs for Learn How to Write a Novel and The Write Conversation and also enjoys speaking to writers group and mentoring other writers. She lives in Colorado with her husband Rob, who has adjusted to discussing the lives of imaginary people. Connect with Beth at bethvogt.com.