This Writer's Holiday Wish List

Christmas is coming. Even though it falls on the same day every year, I have to admit that it snuck up on me this year. I’m not mentally prepared for the holiday, which means I don’t have an answer to the question of what I want for Christmas. While I can’t give my family a list of gifts they can either run out and buy or order online, I do have some things that would make this writer’s holiday merry and bright.

The one thing I want, no matter what time of year, is to be a best-selling author. That’s not something I can give to myself. I need all of you to help me make that dream come true. All you have to do is buy my books. All of them are under $5.00. I even have a few that are still priced at ninety-nine cents. That’s a pretty inexpensive gift that any writer would love.

Buying my books in general is a pretty awesome gift. I love it when people buy my books and not because I make money. Yes, it’s nice to make money, but you know what’s even better? Someone is paying me to do something I love, something I used to do for free! That in and of itself is a humbling gift.

If you have already bought my books and have done your part to make me a best seller, don’t despair. You can still give me an amazing gift. All you have to do is write a review of my book on Amazon. It doesn’t have to be a long review. A few kind words expressing your love of the book will be more than enough to get the job done. The more reviews a book gets on Amazon, the more it will be promoted by the retail giant, and I can use more promotion.

For those you who just can’t bring yourself to write a review, it would still mean a lot if you reached out to me to let me know how much you liked one of my books. You could accomplish that in any number of ways. Along with social media, there’s good old fashioned e-mail. Believe it or not, those contacts mean a great deal to me.

Speaking of social media, I would be ecstatic if I could get some more of you to follow me on Twitter and Instagram and like my Facebook author page. And when you do that, it would be great if you could like and share my photos and posts. Same goes for Twitter. I would love to see more favorites and retweets. I need all of you to help me spread the word.

Even better than liking and sharing what I post would be seeing you take the initiative to spread the word about me on your social media. I’m not just an author. I’m a reader. When I like a book, when a favorite author releases a new book, I take to my social media to share my feelings. Often, my fellow authors reply with their thanks. As a reader, that makes my day. If that happened to me as a writer, if someone was just so excited about my book that they shared it on social media, I would be on cloud nine.

As you can see, it doesn’t take much to make this writer’s holiday magical. That being said, whether I get these gifts or not, I owe you a debt of gratitude. Being one of my readers is a precious gift. It wasn’t that long ago, I was the only one reading my work.

Happy holidays, everyone!