Happy Holidays, everyone, and thank you for reading blog this year. Are you looking for a gift for a published or early career writer in your life? Here’s my roundup of the presents they just might have on their wish list…
An Annual Subscription to Publishers Weekly and/or Publishers Marketplace
Help a writer stay up to date with industry sales and understand what’s selling to publishers and moving up the bestseller lists with a subscription to one or both of these industry stalwarts.
A License for Scrivener
Inspire writers to “graduate” from Microsoft Word or Google Docs and embrace a software specifically designed for novel writing—Scrivener. I love how Scrivener helps me plot and plan and how I can keep my research and manuscript within the same file.
Personalized Stationery
Many published writers keep the art of letter writing alive by sending thank you notes to bookstores, fans, and fellow authors, so gift them personalized stationery! Bonus points for incorporating colors/motifs that match their latest book’s cover design and remembering to use the initials from their pen name.
Beautiful Notebooks
Speaking of stationery…what writer wouldn’t want a beautiful notebook where they could capture their new ideas? Get creative with designs that speak to their interests and genre.
A Writing Retreat
The writer’s most important tool is time, so what if you gifted a writer you love a retreat? There are many options out there, but I love the personal retreats offered by the Highlights Foundation in the Poconos.
A Writing Conference
Or if not a retreat, why not a writing conference, where writers can connect with each other, learning while finding community? If, like me, the writer you’re buying for writes historical fiction, check out the History Through Fiction Conference, which I’m speaking at in March 2026. You can use the discount code FINOLA_HTF26 at checkout for 10% off.
Books, Of Course!
Good writers are great readers, so, if all else fails, buy the writer in your life a few more books. Check out their Goodreads to understand their taste or go with a festive read. Check out my reviews of Jon Clinch’s 2019 Marley (a twist on Charles Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol) and Virginia Feito’s 2025 Victorian Psycho (where a nineteenth-century Christmas scene descends into a bloodbath) for some inspiration.
Fellow writers, what’s on your Christmas list this year? Let me know—here, on Facebook, on Instagram, or by tweeting @SVictorianist! Want monthly updates from me/my blog? Sign up to my newsletter here.
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