Bargainist Gift Guide: Aspiring Authors

Do you know the next Stephen King or JK Rowling? Plenty of people start the new year with plans of writing the next great novel. Encourage the aspiring authors in your life with a helpful and thoughtful gift.

Stephen King On Writing Stephen King's book "On Writing" is part memoir, part instruction from one of the bestselling authors of our time. King offers up his advice and tools of the trade. The book is available at booksamillion.com for $12.64.

The Chicago Manual of Style
Most publishing houses use the Chicago Manual of Style for editing their books. The sixteenth edition is the latest version. Pick up a copy for $39.89 at Amazon.com.

Scrivener
Help writers transform those ideas into books with Scrivener, $40. It's a project managing tool meant to help writers compose long documents, screenplays or papers.

Writer's Digest Subscription
Aspiring authors want two things: to be better writers and to get published. Writer's Digest aims to help with both of those tasks. A gift subscription is $19.96.

Writer's Diary
Sometimes aspiring authors need a little help overcoming writer's block. This book-- 642 Things to Write Journal-- will help with that. It's $12.68 at Overstock.com and will take your loved one through interesting assignments like crafting their own obituary to writing an ode to an onion, exercises meant to get the creative juices flowing.

By Alison Storm

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