How to Give Ebooks as Gifts (Even to People Who Don’t Use Computers)

Giving electronic gifts used to mean giving electronics. Now it means sending a file through cyber space to someone else’s stocking electronic device. I can’t entirely wrap my mind around this, but two things about it I really love:

1. No wrapping paper mess.
2. Books…lots and lots and lots of books requiring very little money or shelf space.

So how does one give ebooks as gifts, especially with Christmas around the corner?

Allow me to offer you my simple ideas. (If you’re looking for something complicated, Non-Techie Mama is burying her head in the sand.)

How to Give Ebooks as Gifts

Sending a PDF from your computer:

1. Write an email to the recipient.
2. Click “attach file” or whatever your email provider uses, such as a paperclip icon.
3. Locate and select the ebook you want, which should be easy since you just organized your entire ebook library!
4. Send the email.
5. Delete the ebook from your own files. Why? Because you purchased one license to that book, and by having two copies, you would be breaking copyright law and could go to jail forever. Okay, that last part’s a lie, but the authors did work very hard to write that book, and you’re robbing them by duplicating it.

Gifting E-reader Books

• If you are sending a Kindle book as a gift, check out Amazon’s thorough and simple gifting guide. Remember, recipients do not need a Kindle to be able to read a Kindle book on other electronic devices, such as a PC or smartphone. They can download the free Kindle reading app.
• If your recipient prefers Nook books (that’s so Seussian), check out Barnes and Noble’s gifting page…although I personally don’t find B&N’s Nook options as user-friendly as Amazon’s Kindle world.

How To Give Ebooks to Non-Techies

Face it, not everyone is totally in love with the technological age. That doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the affordable gift-giving potential of ebooks. Simply print the bundles front and back and package them in an attractive and useful manner. Some ebook authors post the pictures at the end of their books instead of interspersed throughout, in case you want to save ink and skip the pictures. Savvy.

Copyright alert: If you print the entire book to give away, you must still delete it from your files. Otherwise it’s like photocopying an entire book for someone else. Not legal! If you only print a recipe or a poem or a bit of encouragement here and there from different books, that’s no different than copying over a recipe from a hardcopy book. Just make sure you give credit to the author always! At least, that’s how I understand it. If my next post comes to you from the penitentiary, don’t take my advice.

Here are some printed ebook gifting options. Any appropriate ebooks would do. This is just a sampling of my ideas to trigger your creative side:

• Give Crock On: A Semi-Whole Foods Slow Cooker Cookbook and 15-Minute Freezer Recipes together in a binder as a baby shower gift, and ask all attendees in advance to bring along their favorite “no-time-to-shower-or-sleep” recipes to add to the binder. You could add a crock pot or a freezer to make it extra helpful. Okay, forget the freezer.
• Take a copy of 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life or One Bite at a Time to a local printer to have it wire- or plastic-bound and give it to any mom out there, because I can’t think of one–except maybe my super amazing sister-in-law–who doesn’t need a little extra guidance toward simplifying and being disciplined while remaining super fun and awesome!
• Combine Nourishing Cookies for a Healthy Holiday and Sweet Freedom: Desserts You’ll Love without Wheat, Eggs, Dairy or Refined Sugars in an attractive Christmasy binder to give to the hostess of your Thanksgiving dinner.
• Print a favorite recipe or three from Steeped: Simple Nourishing Teas and Treats, roll them up, tie them with a ribbon, and place them with some tea bags in a pretty tea mug like these.
• Print out your favorite recipes from The Breakfast Revolution, The Veggie Book, Much Ado About Chicken and others to create a personalized recipe binder for a friend, daughter, or sister. Use page protectors so the recipes can be wiped clean.
• Use ribbon or twine and a whole punch or a sturdy “paper-capable” sewing machine to bind a copy ofMy Buttered Life: Personal Care edition and gift it with some supplies.
  
• Bind a copy of Emergency Preparedness and present it in an emergency backpack.
• Give a copy of Cottage Mama Plans Her Homeschool Menu to a new homeschool mama, along with some school supplies for the students.
• Purchase Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands, print the ornaments, and give it to someone you love or a young mama at church. Present it around Thanksgiving, so they can enjoy the activities throughout December.