Write Your Book

October 28, 2009

Overview

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At some point before you publish, you are going to need to write a book. The writing of the book is not the focus of this site, so I will defer this instruction to more capable hands.

For Fiction

Online

Here are a few of the online articles that have made the biggest difference in my fiction writing.

Randy Ingermanson -

Jim Butcher -

Larry Brooks – story structure series.

Books on Writing Fiction

Characters and Viewpoint, Orson Scott Card

Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight V. Swain

Non-Fiction

Actually, I’d still suggest a variation on  snowflake method. Other than that, I don’t really have any advice yet.

The Business Side of the Self Published Author

August 31, 2009

Overview

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I’d suggest getting just a couple of business ducks in a row before you put your work on the market.

1. Legal organization

You have several choices here. Also, I am not a tax attorney, so don’t go acting like I am.

Your Name – You just do everything as yourself. Checks get made out to you, you deposit them in your account, you include payments you receive on your personal taxes.

Your Name Here, incorporated. – You can incorporate and get an “inc” after your name. This removes risk from you personally. You do have to be wary of double taxation, meaning your corporation pays income taxes, and then you pay income taxes on the money your corporation gives you. There’s plenty of info on the web about incorporating a business.

DBA - This is just like using your personal name for tax purposes – everything goes on your personal return. Only with a DBA, you get to pick another name that folks can write checks to, like “Best Books Ever”.

LLC - This is how I structure my writing business. It’s a good way to form a company without the rigamarole of forming a corporation. If you are the only member of an LLC, the taxes are pretty easy, too, as the LLC doesn’t get taxed, all the income just passes through to you personally. You register your LLC with your state, and your state divition of business or commerce or whatever they call it in your neck of the woods probably have detailed instructions on how to do this. For example, my state does.

Having a legitimate LLC or Corporation will most likely allow you to actually deduct stuff that furthers your writing carrier. If you advertise your book on your car, you may be able to deduct it. If you have a computer that you use to do all your writing, you may be able to deduct it. Again, I’m not a tax attorney, so you should consult one or do your own research before attempting to deduct stuff.

You can find lots more information on the Small Business Administration website.

2. EIN

This is a number similar to your personal social security number. You’ll need one if you will be receiving payments sent to your LLC or corporation. This is free and easy to get. You just ask the IRS for one, and they give it to you. You will need some info that you received while setting up your LLC or corporation. I did this via phone and got my LLC’s EIN immediately.

Here’s where to obtain an EIN

3. Banking

Unless you are already an accounting wizard, you should get a separate banking account your your writing/self publishing transactions. You’ll have to get a separate account if you’ve organized a formal business (LLC or inc) You’ll need your EIN to set up a business account. Shop around and find yourself a free account for now. You don’t need bells and whistles, you just need a place to stick money.

You’ll probably want a business Paypal, account, too. You’ll need your EIN, and banking information for the business bank account you just set up.

4. Accounting

Get a software package and keep track of the royalties that will be pouring in. Quickbooks is a great way to go if you’ve had any accounting or bookkeeping experience. Quicken has a version for small businesses that is a little easier to use. There’s also plenty of free accounting software out there you can check out.

Once you’ve got that stuff set up, you’re ready to dig in and get self-publishing.

Decisions

July 9, 2009

Overview

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There are a number of questions you need to ask yourself before you start down the road of self-publishing.

Why Do You Want To Self Publish?

Are you looking for a way to start a writing career? Are you just looking to get a few copies of your memoir for friends and family? You need to nail down your purpose for self publishing. This is generally pretty easy to do, and it will help guide the rest of your decisions.

How Much Are You Willing To Do Yourself?

  • Editing. Do you want to take on all the responsibility for making sure your work has no grammatical errors, that it is coherent, and that it reads well? Can you recruit a few friends to read through your book to look for errors? Would you be better off paying a couple hundred dollars for a professional editor?
  • Cover Design. Are you artistically inclined? Are you good at learning software by following tutorials on the internet? How intricate of a cover does your work need?
  • Text Layout.  How complicated is the layout going to be for your text? Are you willing to spend $5-$10 a page to get your work laid out exactly the way you want? Can you learn to use free tools to do it yourself? For novels, the layout is usually simple, for non-fiction how to books, it can get complicated. I’ll be honest, I’m of the opinion that if you’ve got a novel and you’re wanting to self publish your book, you can lay it out very easily.
  • Marketing. How much time are you willing to spend marketing your book? Can you produce or can you learn to produce graphics or videos to promote your book?

Do You Want A Large Print Run or POD?

If you find a printing house or self publishing company that does large runs (say 1000+ copies), you can bring the cost per copy of your book way, way down. Of course, because you’ll be buying in bulk, you’ll still need to come up with a big chink of cash right from the get go. And then you’ll have to bother with warehousing, shipping, billing, and distributing. There are some services that can help you with each of those steps. For example , the Amazon Advantage program allows you to send copies to their warehouse and then they list, sell and ship your book to customers.

With POD publishing, you usually don’t have to come up with any money to publish, except maybe a pittance to print a proof copy. The cost to produce one copy of your book will always be greater, though. The good news is that production costs come out of the book sale, so you never have to come up with the money yourself (unless you’re buying copies for your friends.)

What Self-Publishing Company Should You Use?

There are pros and cons to using any Self Publishing company. Once you know what amount of work you are willing to do, though, it makes your choice a little easier. You just check out a bunch of companies, and then pick the one that works best for you.

I reviewed two of the larger POD companies a while ago on my blog. Choosing a “free” POD publisher: Lulu vs Createspace

Directory of Self Publishing Companies

Should You Get Your Own ISBN?

An ISBN is a unique number that identifies your book. If you are publishing via createspace or lulu, they can assign one to your book. However, if they assign the number, they own it. You can’t take that number with you if you move to a different publishing company. This may or may not be a big deal to you. For my first novel, I didn’t care. For my next books, I think I may buy my own ISBNs.

For more information about ISBNs, you can read this Wikipedia article: ISBN

If you want to buy ISBNs and you are in the U.S. you need to go to the US ISBN Agency.

Just a note – when you buy ISBNs, they will generally try to sell you generated barcodes for your images. There is a free online generator that you can try though. ISBN Barcode Generator