November 24, 2009 by annegentle

Shopping for a writer on Black Friday?

Boy, do I have ideas for you if your shopping list includes a technical writer, web writer, copywriter, or content strategist. Heck, I have gift ideas for anyone interested in reading, writing, and the web.

Now, you might think the first gift to buy a reader and writer is an ebook reader, but TeleRead cautions against such a purchase on Black Friday in this post, Black Friday: Caveat Emptor. Good to know!

Web Worker Daily has a great post about finding deals on web worker gear on Black Friday. The best idea in the set is to shop for office gear on Black Friday – from printers to monitors to the chair you sit on. Nice!

Portland thumbnail I think that cartography and photography hobbies are quite popular among technical writers that I know. If you’re interested in cool maps as gifts, may I suggest these neat city neighborhood posters at Ork Posters? Under $25, which is a great gift price range. There’s an entire calendar of 31 gift ideas under 31 dollars on RealSimple.com.

Then there are the Rand McNally fabric maps, waterproof and tearproof, and less than $10. Here’s a link to the Austin, TX one.

I also love the idea of coloring books with intricate designs. Take a look at Designs for Coloring: Prisms and Paisley Designs Coloring Book. Those books are less than $5 each, and paired with a set of fine markers or colored pencils, you’d be giving the gift of doodling.

Travel bug Or how about the gift of technology and hiking or exploring? Geocaching offers the perfect combination of treasure hunting with a GPS unit. You can shop at the Geocaching.com official shopping site where they’ll give you ideas for starter kits.

And finally, if you are indeed stumped for gift ideas for the writer you know, query the hive mind by browsing ask.metafilter.com for a while in the gift tag collection, such as “Help me find a t-shirt I’ve only heard described ambiguously!” or “Gift filter: I’m looking for a nifty computer-related gift for a friend’s birthday.”

I also have ideas for treating yourself, you poor, overworked, downtrodden writer who loves to read! Have you tried Amazon’s Universal Wish List yet? If not, download it now and start browsing on any website. When you see something you like, click the toolbar button to add the item to your Universal Wish List. Et voila! You select an image, enter the price, and can even put in a description to help people find you (or your non profit organization) the perfect gift. I managed to build quite the mashup wish list – from thinkgeek.com to crateandbarrel.com to iheartguts.com to uncommongoods.com.

How about you? Are you shopping or wishing this week?

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