The Nook? Really? by Christine Duncan

I was listening to NPR today and heard an interview that would have been rather startling just a few short years ago. The reporter was interviewing the owner of a rather large East coast used bookstore and he asked her what her take was as to why Borders didn’t make it and Barnes and Noble is still in business.
Her thoughts? Barnes and Noble jumped on the e-bandwagon and that saved the day for them. The Nook, their e-reader is a competitor of the Kindle and the fact that Barnes and Noble came up with that, along with content for it, was, she believed, the reason they are still viable.
Mind you, this isn’t a woman who reads e-books, if the interview is to be believed. She has a used (paper) bookstore.
Who would have thought…say back in 2000 that anyone would think that e-books could save a huge bookstore’s business.
Now if only we would use them to save…say our school budgets. Think of it, no more having your kid work with out-of date geography and science books. And no more backpacks that give the kids backaches.

E is Making the World Smaller–and More Informed by Christine Duncan

I first heard about the story from my youngest. I didn’t see it on the T.V. news or hear about it on the radio. It wasn’t on the Facebook sites that I go to. But he saw it and told me about it a week or so ago. And I’m finally see it get the mainstream media’s attention.
What am I talking about? The Wall street protesters.
I didn’t see the story about California farming out the fabrication of the steel to China for the San Francisco/Oakland bridge (and having the brass to defend the action) on the T.V. either. But I saw it on the internet.
It used to be that what got published was decided on by a very few people. Reporters might know about Roosevelt’s physical problems or about the extra marital hijinks of those in office but it was never published. Thanks to the internet, we hear and read about things that never would have seen the light of day before. We in the “free” world herald that when it comes to the Twitter following of protests in the middle East. We don’t always see the application at home.
Michelle’s post this week was on how the publication of the books she likes can depend on publishers making money other ways. Publishing is still a business. And yet, change is happening. And books with smaller audiences are making their way into electronic publishing. And in an age when the TV news seems devoted to celebrity bad boys, news still is being disseminated. Thank God for the Internet.

Picking a Publisher by Christine Duncan

The unveiling of Apple’s Ipad has started yet another wave of people hailing a revolution in reading. Apple is proclaiming that it will revolutionize how folks read. Yawn
The Kindle, the Sony e-reader and a host of other gadgets have been there before Apple and the revolution is more like a slow turning of a tide. I have both of my books available in e-format and it is important to me, something I’ve tried to explain on this blog long before now. I read e-books and I listen to books on my MP3. But authors need to consider much more than format when they decide about a publishing company.
If you are an author out there looking for a publisher right now, I can not emphasize enough that one of the most important things to look for has to do with distribution. You want your books available in the most places you can get it. And you want your publisher to take returns. These two factors alone will decide if your book is available not only for your relatives to buy, but also for the casual browser at your friendly neighborhood bookstore to take a chance on.
Yes, you need to consider what rights you are selling. Try to retain as many rights as you can for yourself. Just because a publisher does e-books as well as paper books doesn’t mean you want to have your e-book come out with that publisher. It may be that while their trade paper books are widely available, they do not offer the same kind of distribution on their e-books. So find an e-pub who does. Ditto with the audio rights. Some publishers may very well do audio books in their basement–that doesn’t mean you want your audio book out with them.
No book will be available everywhere (Okay, maybe Stephen King’s but for the rest of us….) Bookstores, if they are run well, know their customers. And they will buy books according to what sells in their stores. So all stores will not stock all books. Makes sense, right?
Bookstores are businesses. Writers are business people too. We need to remember that and not just take any deal that is offered to us.

Tax Questions Answered by Christine Duncan

Okay, all you non-American folks, this will be boring to you–and to a bunch of the U.S citizens too. But a couple of questions have come up in regards to taxes and I thought I would take a minute and answer them.
First off, I got a question the other day about selling your own books in the back of the room after you’ve done a talk. If you do that, you have to (hopefully charge) and pay sales tax. It’s not hard. You can request the form from your local department of revenue, sales tax division–but you ARE supposed to be charging sales tax. They will even tell you the percentage you should charge. Bring along a calculator the day of your book sale, if you must, but really you can figure the amount out before hand per book and bring along a cheat sheet to remind you. I don’t make the rules so it’s no use griping to me.
The second question I got lately–more of a whine really–was that the author doesn’t make that much money from writing. So she told me, she didn’t have to pay income taxes, right? Wrong. You owe if you made as little as ten bucks. If you netted more than 400.00, (in other words you had $400.00 left after expenses like buying those books you sold at the back of the room) you have to file even if you didn’t make any other income.
If you did make a profit, you should think about filing a schedule C. It really isn’t all that difficult. If you can read, you can do this. Turbo tax or one of the other tax softwares will help. Frankly, my writing income doesn’t run to anything more expensive than that, but if you insist, there are plenty of places that will help you–including the IRS help line.
If you really didn’t earn much then you can put it under hobby income if you like. But how many of us really consider this a hobby?

Getting a heads up on taxes by Christine Duncan

Since I am getting ready for the tax season, I thought I’d repeat this post I used on my other blog. Believe it or not, now is a good time for you to get ready for taxes for 2010.

I work as a tax preparer for one of those places you see advertised way too much on T.V. and I’m a bookkeeper. So I see folks come in all tax season long with their own businesses who don’t have a clue what they made or spent. And believe it or not, if you write and are published, you have your own business. All you have to do is make 400.00 from writing for the IRS to want to hear about it from you.

But hey, you say, I spent a lot of money on the writing too! I hear you. But the IRS will want you to be able to prove it. And it is easy and cheap enough. How cheap? How about under ten bucks, is that cheap enough for you?

First off, get one of those free bank accounts.It doesn’t have to be a business bank account. You can get one from your credit union or some bank close to you. Run all of your income and expenses out of it. In other words, don’t just deposit the royalty check from your publisher there, but also that 60.00 bucks you made from selling books in the back of the room when you spoke at the Senior Center. And use those checks (or debit card) to pay all of your writing expenses.

If you have to loan yourself money–deposit it into that account with a note in the register to remind you at year end. Then you have a record of all your expenses.

Already opened the bank account? Then go to one of your favorite office supply stores.Buy one of those vehicle expense books. They usually run around 2.00. Put it in the car on the center console. Every time you go somewhere for your writing, record your mileage. Make sure you record this trip to the office supply store and the bank. While you’re in the store, buy yourself one of those nifty accordion folders with sections. You need a place to store your receipts, like the receipt you’re about to get. You don’t need a big filing cabinet for this. If you don’t feel like using an accordion file, just use an old 10 x 12 manila envelope. (I told you this was cheap.) But label the sections: office supplies, computers & equipment, advertising (oh yes you do–you have a website don’t you? How about the Romantic Times ad?) Make other sections as needed.

Put this folder in your car trunk in that box where you store your extra books in case the bookstore runs out when you do a signing. Then when you make a purchase and throw your stuff in the trunk, make sure the receipt goes straight into your accordion file. That’s it. You don’t need a big accounting program. You have just made sure that you have a record of income and expenses for the year.

At the year’s end, total the receipts (or have the person who does your taxes do it, but that will cost you.) and total the deposits in the bank account. Voila! You are ready to file a schedule C without much effort or expense. And then filing your 2010 taxes will be easy. Yeah, right!