So, you want to be a published author?
Yes please.
Fine. Let’s play twenty questions.
Okay.
Simple one first. Who are you?
Huh?
Got you! Are you going to use a nom de plume or are you going to write in your real name?
Does it matter?
Yes and no. You may want to write material that you may not want to associate with your real life, or you may want to keep your alter ego secret. The other consideration is payment and tax. If you write under one name, there is nothing stopping you registering your real details for payment and tax purposes with the publisher, and using a string of aliases for different genres and types of books with that publisher.
Okay, I have a question about tax.
Wait, all in good time, I will get to tax. Have you got a book finished?
Yes.
I mean, is it really finished, or is it just written up to the words THE END?
How do you mean?
Anyone can write from 50,000 to 100,000 words, but has it been proof-read, edited and checked for continuity?
Yes, I did it myself.
Okay, here’s mistake number one. It is a mistake I have made, and continue to make. In my eagerness, this is where I have cut corners in the past, to my cost! So, don’t do as I do (or have done) but do as I say - Although you know your work better than anyone else, it is for precisely that reason you need to let someone else look at your baby and make sure it’s ready. Have you got an editor/proof-reader?
No.
Get one. Seriously, this is the single most important thing after actually writing the book. Find someone whom you trust and is experienced/proficient in professional editing. You may have to pay… it is worth it.
…………….next question………..
Have you secured a fan-base/readership group?
A what?
Have you posted work onto the Internet in any form on sites where anyone or at last those who may be interested may read and leave feedback?
(if ) No
Then start posting. Get an editor and post your work. It’s like sticking your head above the parapet, but you need to be seen and get your name known as a writer of stuff that people want.
IF Yes.
What has the response been like?
How do you mean?
Have many people read it and left feedback?
Yes.
Okay, have those who have read your work been encouraging and supportive, or have they simply told you not to quit your day job?
Basically encouraging, with a few critical and some with suggestions.
Always listen to those who are critical. If they’ve taken the trouble to respond and have found something that isn’t quite right, then look seriously at what they say. You may not agree, and you may not like being criticised, but the ability to heed criticism is an author’s finest quality. If you don’t, you won’t improve. Period!
Have you posted to more than one site?
No
You must give your work the best chance to be seen my the maximum amount of people.
Do you have a Blog and/or website on which you can post or advertise where your work may be read?
No.
Get both. Either build a website yourself, or get someone who can. There are specific sites that offer free site-builder tools and free hosting which you may change to a pay site later. I use www.yola.com.
I stress, it is free and gets your name and your material out there. Once you do start selling, then you can use it to broadcast your work. Also, if you want, start your own fan-base readers’ group on Yahoo or similar.
Okay, now we’ve reached that part when you have a product that is ready. Have you ensured copyright?
No.
Then log your work, ensuring the copyright is retained by you and place the standard copyright blurb at the beginning. There is a lot of theft out there, particularly on the Internet, so secure your work.
How about a cover, have you got one ready?
No, I thought the publisher did that.
If you self-publish, then it’s down to you, unless you want to pay for the service. Some sites let you design it on their own program (www.feedaread.com), while others expect you to provide it completed (www.kdp.amazon.com ) .
I use programs such as Adobe photoshop and MS Publisher. I can get the images right in photoshop and then put the cover together in publisher, saving it as a JPEG.
There are professionals out there who would always be willing to do it … at a cost. It is worth getting a cover that people will notice and will want to open to see what’s behind it.
This brings me to the next question, do you want to self-publish or go down the agent — publisher route?
What’s the difference?
Okay, the first route is more work, but can be better for those who write for a restricted readership. Self-publishing is rewarding as you do ALL the work and take home the lion’s share of the royalties. The hosting service take a portion, but nothing like the cut that you have to give agents and publishers.
Agents and publishers are struggling now that self-publishing is taking off. They tend to stick to authors or material that will sell in their tens of thousands. Therefore if your name is not known, it is less likely (not impossible) that you will be taken on by an established publisher. New writers are taken on if the material is deemed sellable in high quantities. They will talk about quality, but what they mean is saleability. They are profit orientated, so it’s not really to do with the quality or cultural importance of a book, but the likelihood of selling in big numbers.
The advantage of Agents/publishers is that they do the work. You write the book and they can arrange everything else, including the editing, the cover, the advertising, publicity etc. If you self-publish, guess who has to do all that? Yup, the writer… that’s you!
If you are luck enough to get a publisher to take you on… GO FOR IT, otherwise, let’s look at the self publishing route.
Do you want to publish eBooks or Paperbacks?
I’m not sure, both possibly.
Which platform/provider do you want to go with?
What options are open to me?
Loads! There is www.lulu.com , www.kdp.amazon.com , www.smashwords.com , www.createspace.com , www.feedaread.com , and many more.
Some like KDP(Kindle) and Smashwords only do ebooks, while Createspace and feedaread only do paperbacks.
KDP and Createspace are Amazon companies and are linked. I have used both.
I have also used Smashwords and Feedaread.
Of them all, I found Feedaread very easy to make paperbacks. They pay directly into your Paypal account.
Smashwords are versatile in that they can push your book out in all the current eBook formats, whereas KDP only do Kindle versions.
CreateSpace and KDP pay to your real name accounts. Either direct to your bank account (for me all GB Pounds and Euros go straight into my bank account) while US$ cheques are sent to me, so I have opened a US Dollar account for them in a UK bank.
Smashwords pay direct.
NOTE, they pay to your real name, regardless of how many aliases you have created to write under.
Now, about tax….
Oh goody!
Are you a taxpayer?
Yes. (if not, submit your status to the relevant company)
Fine, then you need to establish where you pay taxes and for those areas that you do not pay, you may need exemption certificates otherwise the US companies will withhold tax.
Huh?
The companies (US) like Amazon, withhold tax for the IRS unless you tell them that you are not a US taxpayer and belong to a nation (Like the UK) who have a tax treaty with them. It seems complicated, but it is the US Tax law. So, they will automatically withhold an extra 35% over and above their cut to pay Uncle Sam. You may only get 30% of the royalties unless you get your finger out.
IT IS SIMPLE.
You complete a downloadable form stating you are a UK (or whatever) tax payer. (Amazon has the forms on the KDP website). You send the handwritten form with your passport and other identity and tax payer confirming documents to the US IRS at the US Embassy in London (or where ever). You are requesting an ITIN number. They will (eventually) send you a form with an ITIN number on it. All you need do is complete another form requesting the release of withheld tax (available on the Amazon site) and send the details to Amazon and Bob’s your aunty.
If you use another US company, like Smashwords, all you need do is notify them of your ITIN number. You don’t have to keep applying for each company. You only need one ITIN number.
Enough for now?
If you have any questions, please drop me a line.
I will move onto any questions you may have and the actual mechanics of uploading material next time.
Tanya
Comments
hmmm
Can't wait on the part about sales and reviews.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
Publish
I like seeing this from someone on this site that has done almost all the types of publishing of their stories. Great information! Thanks Tanya
Richard
If at first you don't succeed
Basically, if you want to be paid for writing, listen to someone with experience, like Tanya.
And how many rejections did J K Rowling get before someone gave her a chance?
I write for fun, not for money BUT I still mostly use an editor AND heed advice.
S.
An even better example..
An even better example might be Mercedes Lackey - who (if memory serves) had to re-write her first Valdemar novel about 20 times, before it was to the point where they would publish it - and, over a dozen of those re-writes were AFTER she had a publisher. And, this is after years of rejections (or so she said.)
But, your point about getting an editor (or two) is worth listening to! Ignore it, and we authors only hurt ourselves (and our chances at publication). (Also - even if you do get editors, you may still find that some don't like what is written and will criticize...)
Annette (Who's never been published - so take her comments for what they are worth.)
Stephen King
In Stephen King's book On Writing he speaks to how his wife fished Carrie out of the garbage. It was the first novel he wrote that was published (his fourth).
Persistence is important, but so is realism. Of the thirty million or so wannabe novel writers in the world, less than 5,000 make a living doing it. You could be lucky . . . or you could be frustrated. The problem with being frustrated is that you easily fall prey to scams. There are dozens (hundreds) of phony editors who will take your money.
Take a look at this site for info about some of the scum.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Tanya
your blog has opened up many eyes to the world of publishing.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Great Advice Tanya
I'll have to save this.
Portia
About Author Names
Most "Literary Fiction" is published under the author's real name, although there are exceptions.
Much "Genre Fiction" is published under pseudonyms, which may or may not be disclosed. The reasons for this are many, but the primary impulse, I think, is "branding."
For commercial writers in genre fiction, the author's name (whether real or not) usually indicates a specific *type* of story, so the same writer may write "mysteries" under one name, romantic suspense under another, and so on. So Joyce Carol Oates wrote under Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly,
In some cases, the supposed "author" of a series is a "house name," with writers hired to churn out (for example) Nancy Drew books under the name of Carolyn Keene.
In other cases, a name is deliberately created to conceal the author's gender, such as the "romance" novels written by Leigh Greenwood by the very male Harold Lowry. Likewise, Alice Mary Norton wrote her SciFi novels under the name of "Andre Norton," because "women don't write science fiction."
One might make much the same case for "J.D. Robb," the thriller/mystery incarnation of Nora Roberts. Although she makes no secret of the fact, it's entirely possible that many readers don't realise that the "two" authors are one and the same person.
In other cases, a writer who writes "racy" fiction or outright "erotics," might think twice about using the same name for Young Adult fiction, which is usually rated "G" for "general audiences," and typically contain no language or descriptions that might offend the average protective parent.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Another Point
The other secret to writing books that people like to read is to read a lot of books, especially recently published books in one's preferred (or prospective) genre. Try to find books that appear on "Best Sellers" lists and read them. Read dozens of them, so that their lineaments become ingrained in one's imagination. If you want to write a romance novel, for example, you'll have to notice that the heroine's true love doesn't show up in the last five pages. The romantic hero shows up early on, although there may be no attraction (or it may be instantaneous) but *problems* prevent any obvious occasion for a more friendly relationship to develop. Romance novels are famous as well for "getting inside people's heads," so that we *see* or *feel* what the heroine is thinking, and usually the hero, and quite possibly other characters as well. If one doesn't have this facility oneself, it may be difficult to portray it realistically, so one might want to chose a different genre. "Men's Adventure" stories usually focus on external action, and may or may not get into the hero's head at all, much less the secondary characters.
Almost everything that people do they learn to do by observing others doing the same general sort of thing, from learning to speak to juggling, the first steps are always accomplished after seeing or hearing other people do it.
If you want to write science fiction that will sell in today's marketplace, one doesn't start by reading every novel by Jules Verne. Tastes change, people follow trends. It's perfectly amazing, for example, how many writers are now publishing variations on "Fifty Shades of Stamp Collecting," or "Five Shades on the Lone Star Trail." (Not that this is a particularly good idea, since many readers will view this sort of thing as somewhat (or outright) venal and/or derivative.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
There's another wrinkle...
If you're paying taxes on your writings you're an author and are required/priviledged to handle your income like any business, that is, you can write things off your income, unlike the lowly wage slave.
This means that (in the USA), where you're considered a "manufacturer" according to the tax code, you're allowed to deduct your costs of production and maintenance of "inventory" as a part of your total costs. Unfortunately, you have to allocate these by individual item held for sale, which essentially means dividing your expenses by the total number of your titles, since the inventory cost of carrying your back catalogue is an essential fiction.
You might think about deducting that portion of your Internet connectivity and web presence, if any, the amortised cost of the equipment you use (computers, network interfaces, and so on) and the towels you use to wipe your fevered brow when in the throes of creativity. Every situation is different, and every tax code is different, but you may wind up having no real net income at all.
You can find a lot of tax information for writers on the Web if you look for it, writers being the sorts of people that they are.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style