Indigo North London
86 Fanshawe Park Rd, London Ontario
January 27th
12-4 PM
Are you in the area? Come say hi!
Updates and news (and an excerpt!) can be found on my Facebook page.
Category: Publishing
It’s almost here!
Find it here.
Guess What Came in the Mail…
Crooked Little House comes out on Tuesday!
I’ll be doing a giveaway on Facebook, and you have to be a fan of my author page to enter. Swing by and show me some “like”; giveaway details to follow once I climb down from this cloud.
It’s finally here. I’m finally a novelist.
Brave New Novel
This is it.
My novel is DONE.
What you’re seeing here is my baby, all dressed up and ready to go. I’m lucky enough to have a good friend editing (and as an indie, helpful friends are EVERYTHING); this is the copy I’m giving to her tomorrow.
The formatting is arranged. The cover is designed. I feel like it’s a good, clean copy.
This is happening.
IT’S ALMOST HERE, YOU GUYS.
Ya Gotsta Get Paid: E-Book Sales in America, For Non-Americans
If you’ve found your way here, you just might be a writer. You might be thinking of joining the glamorous world of e-book publishing.
If you wanna make this easy, make sure you’re from the States. Sell stories. Get paid. File your taxes. Boom! You’re done.
If you wanna make it interesting, be from anywhere else.
Welcome to the wild world of cross-border taxes. Exciting, no?
When I first started publishing, I knew I’d have to pay the Tax Man. No problem, I’ll worry about it later, it’s no big deal. But what I didn’t know, and you may not either, is that unless you file the correct paperwork with American-based publishers (Amazon, Smashwords, and the like), they’ll be withholding taxes from your sales right off the top. How does 30% sound? That’s money going to the IRS before you’ve ever seen it. Then, when you get your cheque, guess what? You’ll be paying MORE tax, this time to your own country.
The good news? If you’re in a country that has a tax treaty with the US, you can reduce or even eliminate withholding.
Now, you might be writing “for yourself”, with nary a thought of filthy lucre tainting your artistic dreams. How lovely. But if you don’t want any of your money, why are you selling in the first place?
Let’s be real.
So, what do you need? You’ll need to send a W-8BEN form to your publishers. And before you can file that, you’ll need an ITIN (takes up to ten weeks to get your number). And before you can file that, you’re gonna need a notarized copy of your identification: a passport works well here. Expect that to take another ten days. And the kicker is that the government doesn’t really walk you through the forms. (Though I remember reading that you can call a long-distance number for help, or contact your embassy…)
Luckily, I found someone who’s written up some great instructions, but before I tell you where to find them you need to know that neither she nor I are legal-types in any way. If you’re filing these forms yourself and you need more help, I’m afraid you’re on your own. Sorry ’bout that.
Good? Good.
Go here for ITIN instructions, and here for help with the W-8BEN. Again, I can’t promise anything definitive, but I can say that I used Angela’s instructions successfully.
E-publishing can be tough; don’t make it any tougher by giving away your hard-earned dollars.
NYT: “A Book a Year is Slacking”
“For years, it was a schedule as predictable as a calendar: novelists who specialized in mysteries, thrillers and romance would write one book a year, output that was considered not only sufficient, but productive.
But the e-book age has accelerated the metabolism of book publishing. Authors are now pulling the literary equivalent of a double shift, churning out short stories, novellas or even an extra full-length book each year.”
Read the full article here.
Writers: are you concerned about productivity? How much output is “enough”?
New Story in the Works
I’m editing my newest horror story tonight. It should be ready and up by this weekend sometime. This is my favourite part of writing: when it’s almost ready for you guys to read. It’s like watching someone open something you bought them; half the fun is had by the person who knows what’s in the box.
Things I need:
-an image of a coffin that isn’t stupid
-a few more hours of editing work
-a strong cup of coffee
Keep an eye out this weekend for the new piece. It…goes in a new direction from my other stories (WINK), and I’m pretty happy with it.
In the meantime, check out my previous stories:
Double Creature, which contains the shorts ‘Screee’ and ‘Boogeyman’
New Project Progress Report
So, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on a new project. This one is going to be a collection of short horror stories. Each will be a complete story, able to be read as a stand-alone piece, but the stories themselves share a common theme. I’m planning for this one to be book-length, as opposed to the single shorts I’ve been putting out, and I’m hoping to venture into paper territory (with e-book option, of course).
Pretty exciting stuff.
I’ve had a couple people asking, so I thought I’d throw out a little update on where it’s at:
The first story is complete: drafted, fleshed-out, edited and ready.
It fed into the second story, the one I’m working now, which is almost finished its second draft.
I have plans and loose outlines (the most I ever do) for the other stories, though at this point I’m not entirely certain in which order they will appear in the final work.
I have a firm title that I’m in love with, and some cover ideas.
All in all, if it goes according to schedule, you should see this one available for purchase by end of this summer. Hopefully I’ll be able to bump it up, but as it stands now it’s competing with a commission, so I’m giving myself some extra time just in case.
It’s going to be creepy, and gory, and really, really fun. More to follow; I think you guys will like this one.
sniderwriter 