Guest Post: Brit Author Marc Nobbs talks about the Challenges of being an International Author

As you may know, the world is in the midst of a deep financial crisis. Banks are failing the world over, share prices are tumbling. And the UK currency, Sterling, is falling against the Dollar and the Euro.

It’s the manner that it’s plummeted against the Dollar that interests me because, as a Brit who is published by a US based publisher, I get my royalties paid in Dollars.

For a long, long time now, the British Pound has been at around $2 to the pound, which is great if you’re jetting off to Florida for your summer holidays, but not so good if you’re exporting your goods or services there.

For example, both Jaguar and Land Rover (although owned by Ford until very recently) set the price of their cars in Sterling, so when the Dollar is weak, the cars cost more in the US. On the bright side, when the Pound falls, the price of the cars in the US should fall too (So hopefully they’ll sell more).

So I’m one of the few Brits that is happy to see Sterling at around $1.70 instead of $2. That’s because the cost of my books, such as Charlotte’s Secret and Lost & Found are set in dollars and, as I said, my royalties are paid in Dollars.

So that cheque for $50 is now worth £5 more than it was at the start of the year. And if Sterling keeps falling, it’ll be worth even more. Think of all the extra chocolate I could buy.

Of course, I’m still at a disadvantage. That cheque my publisher sent me not only took longer to get to me than to my publisher’s US based authors, but it was drawn on a US bank. And unfortunately, my UK bank (well, technically they’re a Building Society but let’s not split hairs) is going to charge me to cash it. As it happens, the charge is about £5.

I remember once I sold three ‘Flash’ (500 words long) stories to a website at a rate of $5 each (or 1cent per word). They sent me a cheque for $15. The exchange rate at the time made it worth about £7.50. So after the £5 charge to cash it, I was left with £2 (or $4). That’s about 0.16 pence (or 0.32 cents) per word.

Does your brain hurt yet? Mine does. All I can say is, Thank God for PayPal.

I can’t even begin to count how much PayPal has saved me over the past couple of years. PayPal doesn’t charge me for changing my money from Dollars to Pounds. So that’s a saving of £5 (or 5 big bars of Dairy Milk) each time I get paid – which soon adds up I can tell you.

Such are the trials of being an international author. And I haven’t even mentioned the differences between the two languages. I tell you, don’t get me started on the need for the letter ‘u’. Or the uselessness of the letter ‘z’. I could go on for hours. Ask Cassie, she knows.

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Marc Nobbs
REC Nominated Author of Contemporary Erotic Romance
Turning Romance on its head

Nominated for Best Author of Contemporary Erotic Romance
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Romance_erotica_connection/surveys?id=12835841

Nominated for Best Female Charater in a Contemporary Erotic Romance
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Romance_erotica_connection/surveys?id=12835851

Charlotte’s Secret, A Contemporary Erotic Romance
Available Now from Phaze Books
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=Charlotte%27s+Secret/exact_match=exact

Lost & Found, A Contemporary Erotic Romance
Available Now from Phaze Books
http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=Lost+and+Found/exact_match=exact

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http://marcnobbs.blogspot.com

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