In bad economy, craft your way to literary success!
In these bad economic times, it is no surprise that many people are shunning expensive, high-tech gifts this holiday season, for gifts that are cheap in cost but priceless in love and creativity. Homemade crafts are seeing a dramatic rise this year, as detailed by this article from the New York Times.
The boom in crafts and related supplies contrasts with poor results for traditional retailers, like electronics retailers and department stores. The nation’s overall retail sales in November fell 7.4 percent from the year before, according to the Commerce Department.
What does this have to do with writing and literature? Well, for all you crafty writers (and by "crafty", I don’t mean being cunning or criminal) out there, creating your own chapbooks might just be the perfect solution to an economical gift that will say and mean much more than anything that is store bought.
I realize it’s probably too late for your chapbooks to make their way under the Christmas tree this year, but 2009 is approaching and you have an entire year of holidays, birthdays and other special occasions to put your collections of poems, short stories, or other writings into a homemade chapbook.
Chapbooks are basically a small booklet with any type of writing you can think of for content. Most chapbooks are only a few pages long, but the length can vary greatly. You can use everything from specialty paper to ordinary printer paper and decorate them with everything from stickers, drawings, paintings or just keep the cover blank to represent your new minimalist phase. I’m not going to go into much detail about creating chapbooks here because there is a load of websites and books that can help you get started.
So get those poems together, or short stories, and start creating your own chapbooks. They can be individualized for each recipient, or you can take an "assembly line" approach and make several that are the same. Either way, the time you spend making these unique gifts will be worth much more than anything bought at the store.
And the best thing about giving your homemade chapbooks as gifts: They can’t be returned!
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Read More: Self-Publishing, Writing
