Are you at a total loss for ideas? Books make great gifts, especially for those in your family who love to read. Do you know what makes an even better gift than books? Books that only cost 99¢.

My short story, “Moon Prayer,” is about family, love, and how the love between sisters transcends everything. My sister and I are three and a half years apart, which can sometimes seem like a long time, but we are closer than ever because we not only share the bond of growing up together, but also the bond of inside jokes, being stuck in the same family, sharing clothes, and sibling ESP. If you have a sister, or know someone who has or is a sister, “Moon Prayer” is the story for them.

“But wait!” you say. “How the hell do I give someone an ebook as a gift? Isn’t that, like, impossible?”

While it’s true that all the fun of unwrapping kind of goes away with an ebook, there are many other ways you can have fun with it. You just have to be creative.

• Send it in an email with a completely off-subject title. If you purchase “Moon Prayer” through Smashwords, you have the ability to choose your giftee’s format and download it to your computer. Attach it in an email with a title like “Baby Kitties Cuddling” to throw them off.
• Download it to their device without them knowing. Steal their ereader when they’re not looking, go hide in the bathroom for five minutes, and download “Moon Prayer.” Then put it back where it was and nonchalantly ask them about their library.
• Download it to the device you’re giving to them. Giving someone a Nook or Kindle with nothing to read on it is like buying someone a video game console without a video game. Don’t leave your giftee hanging! Set up an account for them, then download “Moon Prayer” to get their library started. You can also do this if someone else is buying the ereader for them.

So you see, it doesn’t have to be all about the unwrapping. If you’re stealthy, willing to risk looking like a thief, and creative, giving ebooks as gifts can be fun. You can purchase “Moon Prayer” through Smashwords, Sony, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple iBooks, and Diesel. (If your giftee is a Kindle or other ereader user, please use Smashwords to download the .mobi or other format.)

Even better, at 99¢, you can buy ten copies of “Moon Prayer” for ten people — or for nine people and one for yourself — and will only have spent around $10 on gifts. You will look like a hero of advanced technology, and your wallet will love you.

Bonus Tip: Some ebook stores even let you send ebooks as a gift. While this makes things easier, it’s certainly nowhere near as fun. I strongly encourage you to steal someone’s device before you do something so simple as send it as a gift. You might even be able to squeeze in a few chapters of whatever is in their library.

♦

What’s the most creative way you’ve ever given a gift?