What NOT to Give a Fiction Author for the Holidays

As holiday giving season approaches, those of you who are close friends or relatives of fiction authors may be wondering what kind of gift to give those authors. I'm here to tell you what NOT to give a fiction author for the holidays. :-)

1. Don't give a fiction author a sweatshirt that says "Careful, or you'll end up in my novel." If your writer friend has been writing fiction for over a year (even unpublished), it's guaranteed that s/he already has one. Every fiction author I know has at least one of these, given to them by a well-intentioned friend or relative. Yes, many of us wear them proudly, but we don't need more than one.

2. Similarly, don't give a fiction author a blank journal, even one with a lovely leather cover. We all have multiple blank journals, again given by well-intentioned friends and relatives, but most of us don't write in them. We write on computers, because our manuscripts need to be delivered in files, not on paper.

3. Don't give a fiction author a fancy, expensive pen to use at signings. It will just disappear, in some reader's hand, accidentally or not. Authors are very distracted at a signing, having conversations with readers while trying to remember names so they can be written in books. The last thing a hassled author needs to do is try to keep track of an expensive pen. Instead, give the author a box of inexpensive Sharpie permanent markers. I find the extra fine point to be the easiest to sign with.

By now you may be wondering what the ideal gift for a fiction author is. I'll tell you. It's very easy. Buy five or ten copies of his or her latest book for the other gift recipients on your list and ask the author to sign them!

A Birthday Gift --- for YOU!

Sometime in the next few weeks, I will be celebrating my birthday. I won't tell you exactly when, because for identity theft protection purposes, I protect the date almost as well as I protect my social security number and full name. I will divulge that I am a Leo. And, don't ask how old I'm going to be either! ;-)

To celebrate, instead of collecting gifts, I am giving one away--in a contest that I'm running both here and on Inkspot, the blog for Midnight Ink authors. I will give away a personalized autographed copy of one of my books (your choice), plus a selection of books written by other mystery authors, to one lucky winner.

How do you enter the contest, you ask? I would like to encourage people to sign up as followers both here and on Inkspot. So, that's all you have to do to be entered! Sometime in the next 4 weeks, sign up as a Google/blogger follower on both blogs. If you're already a follower of both blogs, you're already entered into the contest.

At the end of 4 weeks, when I'm due to post here again, I will use a random number generator to pick the blogger profile of someone who follows both blogs. Then I'll contact you through the email associated with that profile to find out your mailing address and send you the books. That's all it takes. So, if you ever read this blog or Inkspot, now you've got a good reason to sign up as a regular follower!

To encourage comments, I'd like to know what your thoughts are on author contests. Do you enter them often? What kinds of prizes do you prefer? Do you prefer ongoing contests (such as the one that I keep running all the time for subscribers to my email newsletter) or contests that are one-time shots like this one? Do you prefer that the prize be divulged ahead of time, or would you rather have it be a mystery?