This season, give a gift that fuels their passion for storytelling!

As the year quickly comes to a close, it's time once again to begin holiday shopping. Whether you know a self-published author, or you are one, this insightful guide is filled with excellent gift ideas to support an author's path in writing, publishing, marketing, and selling books.

Professional Writing Software

While it's not absolutely necessary, having access to writing software can be a real game-changer for writers. It can boost productivity by taking care of formatting, organizing work into chapters, and fine-tuning language, among other helpful features.

Make an indie author's life a little easier with a subscription to one of the following:

Scrivener: A comprehensive writing tool designed for long-form writing projects.
Grammarly Premium: An advanced writing assistant for improving grammar and readability.
Pro-Writing Aid: Another robust editing tool offering in-depth writing reports.
Atticus: Offers writing and editing tools, templates for formatting, and export options for ebooks and print.
Hemingway Editor: Analyzes writing style, highlights complex sentences, passive voice, and adverb overuse.

Organization Tools

The days of jotting down notes and keeping detailed world-building elements on notecards and in composition books is largely behind us. There are numerous online tools available that enable writers to manage this information much more effectively while also enhancing their creative process.

Milanote: An easy-to-use creative writing app to organize your research, ideas, characters, and outline in one place.
Workflowy Pro: A versatile note-taking and organizational tool designed to help users manage their tasks, notes, and projects efficiently.
The Novel Factory: Keep track of plot, characters, locations and notes, with everything in one place for a streamlined and organized writing experience.
Evernote: Offers everything writers need to keep life organized—use it for note taking, project planning, and to find what's needed, when.

Book Marketing Tools

Writers might not always feel confident in marketing, even though it's a crucial part of author branding and sales success. Help them out with some of these tools to simplify the process:

Ingram iD: An advertising platform that gives publishers and authors access to targeted audiences of readers looking for their next book
Book Brush: For designing book covers and promotional graphics
Goodreads Giveaways: Giveaway campaigns for book visibility. Allows authors to set up giveaways on Goodreads, which can generate visibility among a large community of readers.
Miblart: Get assistance with creating a professional author logo, marketing materials, and swag for events and giveaways.

Book Formatting and Design Tools

These resources take some of the stress out of making sure everything looks right visually, and they're also helpful in creating images for promotional materials. Give a writer more creative control with one of these tools:

Vellum: Book formatting software (exclusive to macOS).
Adobe Creative Cloud Subscription: For those who design their own covers or promotional materials.
Canva Pro: Custom design tool for various marketing graphics. Offers templates for social media posts, covers, ads, and print materials with advanced design features in the Pro version.

Website Tools

Maintaining an author website is essential for authors as a part of their marketing strategy. It provides them with a central platform to showcase their work, connect with readers, and promote themselves. These tools would make great gifts for an author just starting out, or who wants to boost or redesign their existing website.

Wix: An easy-to-use site builder that fosters creativity. Although most of Wix’s features are available on a free plan, a dedicated ecommerce plan is necessary for writers to sell their work online.
WordPress: For greater customization and plug-in options. Offers a wide variety of themes to choose from, along with social media and SEO tools.
Mailchimp: Allows users to manage their mailing list; offers a simple method to design templated emails and distribute them to one's audience.

Backup and Storage Solutions

These solutions are ideal for independent authors to prevent data loss, manage and review versions, access files across multiple devices, facilitate collaboration and sharing, and ensure data security.

External Hard Drive: Offers significant benefits by providing storage space for large manuscript files, allows for regular backups, and protects work against data loss. There are a variety of hard drives available, depending upon what your price range is.
Dropbox or Google Drive Subscription: Essential for cloud storage and document sharing.

Author Gear

And now, just for fun…indie authors are proud and dedicated creators who like to show support for their community. These pieces of author gear would make thoughtful holiday gifts:

We Are Stronger Than Censorship Merchandise: This campaign was launched to combat book bans and censorship by empowering readers and supporting independent publishers. For every book ban or challenge, they purchase two or more books and encourage others to buy banned or challenged books.
Indie Author Merch on Etsy: We all know Etsy has something for everyone, and indie authors are no exception. You can find t-shirts, candles, stickers, ornaments, and more here, all designed with the indie author in mind. Treat yourself!

From essential writing software and marketing tools to promotional services, each of these gift ideas is designed to help self-published authors achieve their goals and enhance their craft. Supporting their journey through thoughtful, practical presents will not only make their creative process smoother but also empower them to share their stories with the world. With this holiday gift guide, you’re well-equipped to bring joy and support to the indie author in your life.