I’m not doing it this year because it doesn’t feel right. So many have lost so much that a gift guide feels inappropriate.

I’ve replaced it with today’s article offering links to a few organizations that are helping writers and authors suffering from COVID-19’s impact.

Interested in helping?

Donating to one of these financial resources for writers can help fund a lifeline for a fellow author who’s struggling.

You might help with a donation, or share this information with a struggling author or writer who can apply for aid.

Here are the programs that are still accepting applications and funding. Each program name links to its information page; I’ve added donation links at the end of each description.

Artist Relief

Artist Relief is distributing $5,000 grants to artists facing dire financial emergencies due to COVID-19. It also serves as an ongoing informational resource and is collaborating on a survey designed to better identify and address the needs of artists.

Donate: https://www.unitedstatesartists.org/artistrelief/

Artist Relief Tree

This is a relief fund for artists affected by cancellations due to COVID-19.

Donate: https://artistrelieftree.com/#donate

ASJA Writers Emergency Assistance Fund

(NOTE: As of November 23, the site is down but I’m assured it will be back up soon.) The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) is granting emergency funds to established freelance writers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Funds are specifically for those “who cannot work because they are currently ill or caring for someone who is ill.”

ASJA established the Writers’ Emergency Assistance Fund (WEAF) in 1982 to help writers financially when they are unable to work due to illness, disability, a natural disaster, or an extraordinary professional crisis. To date, WEAF has given more than $400,000 to more than 160 writers.

Donate: http://asja.org/For-Writers/WEAF

Authors League Fund

For more than a century, the Authors League Fund has helped professional authors, journalists, poets, and dramatists in financial need because of medical or health-related problems, temporary loss of income, or other challenges. Today, these include writers struggling with income loss due to COVID-19.

The Fund helps professional writers continue their careers with dignity by providing no-strings-attached “loans” to pay for pressing expenses. Writers don’t have to repay the emergency support.

Donate: https://authorsleaguefund.org/donate/

Dramatists Guild Foundation (DFG) Emergency Grants

Saying, “It is vital to support writers in times of need so that they can get back to doing what they do best,” DGF provides emergency financial assistance to individual playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists in dire need of funds due to severe hardship or unexpected illness.

Donate: https://www.classy.org/campaign/website-covid-19-current-website/c280091

PEN America Writers’ Emergency Fund

After funding and distributing pandemic grants to more than 500 writers, the organization has secured additional funding to resume grant-making for a limited period. The fund is open again on a first-come, first-served basis for eligible applicants. It will accept applications until available funds are gone.

Donate: https://pen.org/more-ways-to-give/

In addition, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has created an extensive list of organizations providing assistance on a regional level. Explore its COVID-19 Emergency Resources list for additional opportunities to make a difference.

Have I missed any programs that are still accepting applications or funding and isn’t in the NYFA list? Please let us know in a comment and I’ll update the article as needed. 

Tip of the Month

I like to share a “Tip of the Month,” a free resource or tool for authors, on the last Wednesday of the month.

This month it’s Read Club Hub, a site that connects book lovers with local book clubs and indie bookstores.

The “Find a Club” function asks you to select club genre and goals (pro tip: the less specific you are, the more likely you are to find a club) and “Find a Bookstore” leads you to a local indie retailer. If there isn’t one, you can order books through indie bookstore online hub BookShop.org.

Whether you connect to an existing club or create your own, you’ll be supporting authors and indie bookstores through Read Club Hub.

World reading habits in 2020

By Isabel Cabrera

When the world went into lockdown this year because of COVID-19, many of us had more time on our hands.

Some people turned to watching Netflix and YouTube, and others learned new skills from online education platforms such as MasterClass.

Bibliophiles around the world, however, took the opportunity to churn through more of their favorite books.

Millennials are reading more

Editing and proofreading service Global English Editing wanted to find out exactly how coronavirus changed our reading habits.

A few of our surprising insights include:

• 35 percent of people said they read more books this year

• Millennials had the biggest uptick out of all generations, with 40 percent reading more.

• Maybe because social isolation kept single people from finding love, romantic fiction was clearly the most popular genre this year.

For more eye-opening facts about world reading habits in 2020, check out the infographic below.

What about you? Have you been reading more since the pandemic hit? Please tell us in a comment along with the types of books you’ve been reading. 

I’ve read several articles detailing how authors are dealing with COVID-19. The word “authors” in these articles nearly always refers to traditionally published writers who are suddenly left high and dry.

No book tours. No speaking honorariums. No presentations at book industry events.

Sounds like the normal indie author experience, doesn’t it?

Reports in the press

Here’s just a sampling of what’s been appearing in the press since March:

“The World of Books Braces for a Newly Ominous Future,” The New York Times

Erik Larson canceled the remainder of a planned 33-city tour for his best-selling book about the London Blitz, “The Splendid and the Vile”; his publisher is now looking at ways to livestream a conversation with him, and plans to post a series of short videos online in which he discusses his research and writing process. 

“15 Books and Authors Hurt by the Coronavirus,” Publishers Weekly

The mass cancellation of tours and events has forced Chavez to switch her focus to “connecting with readers on social media instead.” She is finding it difficult. “As a debut [author], it’s challenging.”

” ‘From Author to Bookshop’: The IPA Takes Stock of the Coronavirus’ Impact,” Publishing Perspectives

“Authors who had books ready for launch in the spring have had those launches put off or cancelled altogether. So they’re having to scramble to try to do an online launch, and [is that] as effective in terms of sales as an in-person launch?”

“Inside the Book Industry’s Battle to Stay Afloat During the COVID-19 Crisis,” Esquire

“They weren’t cancelled all at once,” writer Paul Lisicky said of the twenty-two stops on his cross country book tour. “No one gave me a phone call and said, ‘Your book tour is cancelled.’ It all went down one by one. It felt like a kick to the heart.”

The problem is universal

This has to be incredibly disappointing for authors who had high hopes for their book launches.

Accustomed to the kind of publisher marketing support that includes book tours and other gratifying live events, they’re now trying tactics that successful self-published authors have been using all along.

Like their indie peers, traditionally published authors are taking their book launches online. New-to-them, but standard operating procedures for others, include:

• Participating in virtual readings, interviews, and presentations
• Beefing up their social networks
• Learning how to use certain social platforms, including Instagram, effectively
• Getting creative about how to let readers know about their books

Sound familiar?

Coronavirus, the equalizer

Many of the traditionally published authors with upended book marketing plans get publisher support with these unfamiliar tactics. That takes some of the sting out of the situation.

Self-published authors don’t have this advantage, but many will say they don’t want or need it.

Those who are succeeding know their readers. And they know how and where to reach them. They know what resonates with them and they know what doesn’t. This has certainly been an advantage in an uncertain environment.

COVID-19, it seems, is the great equalizer, even in the publishing community.

What book marketing tactic is working for you right now, as people tend to stay home and read more? 

Should you do what you’ve always been doing?

Should you do things differently?

Or should you just put a hold on all of it?

Here’s what some are recommending

I’ve researched what colleagues are recommending and authors are doing. What follows is the first few paragraphs of their content with a link to the original piece. 

Click on each article title to read more.

“Help people stuck at home discover books”

Earlier this month, I recommended here that you encourage your audience to read more while social distancing. My blog post includes downloadable social media images you can share. It’s never too late to follow that advice. (more)

“How to Market a Self-Published Book While You’re Living the Quarantined Life”

In this article on the Author Marketing Experts site, Penny Sansevieri writes:

Now is the time to focus on how to market a self-published book while so many of us are home and looking for something to keep us busy. Entertainment needs are at an all-time high.

Also consider this: most (if not all) TV shows and movies have had to stop production – so new content will be in high demand.

If you’ve been holding off figuring out how to market a self-published book because you feel there’s too much going on, I would encourage you to reconsider that. Smart authors are out there promoting their book – even if their in-person events have been canceled, they’re opting to do other things instead. (more)

“Book Promotion in the Time of Coronavirus”

I love that book publicist Fauzia Burke and I were in sync with our article titles. She writes:

If you’re an author with a recently published or upcoming book, it’s time to regroup and assess the impact Coronavirus will have on your book promotional plans. Even if you’ve had to cancel scheduled events or planned media or promotions, there is still plenty you can do to help your book succeed.

Most book tours at this time seem ill-advised. Even if you are willing to travel, you likely will not get much of an audience. TV, radio, and print media will be focusing on the news of the day, which is changing by the hour. By all accounts, the Coronavirus spread will get worse before it gets better, so you can expect this to dominate the news cycle for weeks and weeks.

So what can you do as an author? Plenty. (more).

“Without Places to Gather, Debut Novelists Reimagine Book Promotion”

In this New York Times article, debut novelists talk about how their plans have changed. The article begins with:

For many first-time novelists, years of hard work (and often solitary time) culminate in seeing their book come into the world: going to festivals and bookstores to read sections aloud and connecting with readers face to face, inhabiting with others the worlds they built. But with social distancing guidelines discouraging gatherings of more than 10 people, publishing a debut has changed in ways that authors couldn’t have foreseen just a few weeks ago. We spoke to several debut novelists about their books, their plans to promote their work and their days during this unusual time. (more)

“Book marketing during corona virus, covid 19 (don’t do it)”

In this 10-minute YouTube video, Derek Murphy advises against using the outbreak as a clever marketing ploy to sell books. He says:

I’m nervous about this video but thought I should share a few big things:

1. Amazon is giving away 2 months KU

2. Amazon’s warehouses have stopped imports; print on demand books won’t ship as fast.

3. Don’t try to use the outbreak as a clever marketing ploy to sell books (you’d have to be REALLY clever, and you could get a LOT of free visibility if done well… I might make a list of “best YA fantasy books to read during your social distancing quarantine” or something… but this could just as easily backfire and destroy your career so… be sensitive and careful. (more)

What speaks to you?

Does any of this resonate with you? Do you have a better sense of what you might or could do in the coming weeks?

I’ll leave you with an example of what I did over the weekend to support books and authors in general.

My family is usually watching college basketball and crowing (or complaining) about our March Madness bracket status at this time of the year. I decided to use that as a jumping off point for a Medium.com round-up article on the best basketball books — as recommended by the experts.

Perhaps you can do something similar with a topic related to your book. I hope that “Coronavirus: Best basketball books to read while you’re missing March Madness because of COVID-19” gives you a few ideas.

(For more on authors and Medium.com, read, “How authors can use Medium.”)

Are you doing any book marketing right now? Why or why not? Please tell us in a comment. 

On March 7, thriller writer Mark Edwards tweeted, “I’ve heard that coronavirus is going to cause a massive shortage of books, which will be essential when we’re all stuck at home, so it’s very important for everyone to rush out and start panic-buying novels. Thank you.”

His tweet was liked 411,300 times, retweeted 67,200 times, and commented on 3,600 times. “Oh my goodness, this has gone bonkers,” he tweeted a day later. Bonkers indeed.

Forced nesting

It got me thinking, especially considering that since he tweeted that tongue-in-cheek public service announcement:

• The world shut down.
• The NBA suspended its season.
• March Madness was canceled.
• Colleges, universities, and schools closed either temporarily or for the rest of the semester.
• Conferences, concerts, and other large gatherings were banned, cancelled, or both.
• Broadway shut down.
• Restaurants and bars closed and locked their doors.
• Churches canceled services or moved them online.

The list goes on (and has changed several times since I started writing this).

We’re stuck at home, folks. We. Are. Stuck. At. Home.

But there’s good news!

On the bright side, Edwards’s tweet was wrong! There’s definitely no shortage of books. And reading a book can fill the time that people might have spent watching college basketball (that would be me . . . ) or attending events in person.

So . . . why don’t you remind people that books await them?

Face it: Books are the best escape from reality out there. They can be the antidote to fear and boredom.

No basketball? Read a book.

No concert? Read a book.

Can’t dine out? Read a book.

Authors, let’s get assertive about this. Let’s get out there and remind people of the best, most affordable entertainment option available: Reading.

Save and share these images

I’ve created the following images you can download, save, and share with your social networks.

To save an image on your computer, right click on the image and select “save image as….”

If you’re saving on a smartphone, the process varies depending on the type of phone you’re using. If you don’t know how to do it for your phone, Google will help with that.

Create your own images

You can also create and share your own images. Please do! It takes just minutes using a number of free resources. I used Canva.com and the smartphone app WordSwag for these, but there are other options to choose from, too.

Keep your audience and followers in mind as you create them. The encouraging images you create if you write children’s books won’t necessarily look the same as those designed by mystery or business book authors.

This quick and easy endeavor might give you exactly the creative break you need from this often scary and definitely unpredictable situation.

How are you doing? How are you holding up? Let us know in a comment.