Michelle Proulx's Blog, page 19
April 9, 2014
Self-publishing and Taxes
The topic of self-publishing and taxes is something I recently learned about, as I finally filed my income tax yesterday. First off, note that I’m a Canadian, so this post may not apply if you’re American. Secondly, note that the H&R Block rep I spoke with was absolutely awesome, so much so that I ended up giving him a copy of my book, which he promised to read and tell all his friends about. Yay networking!
Anyway, I’m Canadian, and the assisted publishing company I went through to publish my book — iUniverse — is an American company. Last year, I made approximately $500 in royalties off my book (feel free to gasp in awe or shake your head in pity, depending on your own self-publishing experience). I figured such a small amount would be easy enough to do taxes for. I was wrong.
So I went to H&R Block, which is one of those accounting firms who set up booths in the mall and do basic tax returns for good prices. Fair enough — I have no idea how to do my own taxes, and my return wasn’t particularly complicated this year. Or so I thought. You see, if you’re Canadian, and you need to file foreign income, the rate for the return goes way up. We’re talking double the price. Gah!
Now, I don’t know how this changes if you do your taxes yourself, or go via a professional business accountant (the ones who charge obscene rates by the hour). But it’s something to be aware of!
So the take-away from this post is:
If you’re self-publishing through a foreign company, you’re going to have to claim foreign income on your tax return! Dum dum dummmmmm!
That’s all for today. Have a lovely Wednesday, everyone, and enjoy the unrelated media below!
Unrelated media:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/J44Onuq
April 7, 2014
Light ‘Em Up! Igniting Readers with FIRE
Fun post with a cute poem about how to inspire readers to care about your book :) And Fallout Boy!
Originally posted on Melissa Janda - A Time to Write:
Readers should burn for the characters in your book.
So light ‘em up, up, up
Light ‘em up, up, up
Light ‘em up, up, up
They’re on fire!
No, not literally. Put the match away, silly. I’m talking about an inner fire, a burning desire to read what comes next. To create an emotional connection with the reader, a writer should strive to write a story that causes the reader to:
View original 372 more words
March 22, 2014
The Writing Process Blog Hop
It’s been awhile since I participated in a Blog Hop, so I figured, no time like the present!
So let’s start off with a big thank you to Andrew Toynbee, who tagged me for this blog hop and wrote some really sweet words about me. You, sir, are a class act.
On to the blog hop!
1) What are you working on?
So I have two projects in the works right now:
Chasing Nonconformity (sequel to Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It) — I’ve finished the rewrite, and have now set the book aside for a few weeks to give it time to mature (books are like wine/cheese, right?). Once the maturing process is finished, I will go back through the manuscript and rip it apart, in the hopes that the beta readers I eventually give it to won’t be too disgusted when they read it.
The Elemental Guard — This is a fantasy novel I’ve been working on for a couple of years now, and I am in the process of figuring out how I want to rewrite it. I do technically have a first draft, but it’s suffering from an extreme case of “Not enough happens-itis”. So I’m going to rework the story from the ground up and make it awesome.
2) How does your work differ from others in the genre?
Well, Imminent Danger and Chasing Nonconformity are different from mainstream YA novels in that they’re not entirely focused on a love triangle. I know that’s generalizing a bit, but it’s also a fact that the vast majority of YA novels currently on the market are just obsessed with doom and gloom and tragic love triangles. The Imminent Danger series does not have love triangles, and I don’t think it ever will — well, it might, but the love triangle would be extremely nonviable, and more in there for comic relief than anything else. I also try to put a lot of humor in my stories, because A) I enjoy laughing and making people laugh, and B) whenever I write dark, dramatic things, I get kind of depressed.
3) Why do you write what you write?
I’ve loved fantasy and sci-fi since I was a kid. My parents indoctrinated me young — technically from the moment I was born, actually, as my middle name is Lothlorien (the Elvish woodlands from Lord of the Rings). So I tend to write a lot of fantasy and sci-fi because those are just the kind of stories I enjoy. I’m currently dabbling in a darker, slightly anarchic story, but even that still has some sci-fi/fantasy elements to keep it interesting. For me, I get enough of reality from living in it day to day — when I pick up a book, or sit down to write, I want to go somewhere new!
4) How does your writing process work?
Oh, it’s a complete mess. Sometimes I get an idea and immediately sit down and start banging out words. Sometimes I’ll get an idea, write it down, and then forget about it for years. Sometimes I’ll do elaborate planning for a story, with character backgrounds and histories and so on, and then get bored and never look at it again. My writing process is really just about what’s working for me at the time. Right now, I’m in a “do some high-level planning first, write the first draft from start to finish, and then re-write until you go completely batty and have to take up tai chi as a calming exercise” type phase.
——–
Nailed it! Okay, moving on to part 2 of the blog hop — tagging four authors to follow in my glorious footsteps. I’m not going to give them advanced warning on this because, quite frankly, I don’t have the patience to send out emails and wait for responses. So they’ll just have to deal with the free advertising, and decide for themselves if they want to participate in the blog hop.
Audrey Driscoll – This wonderful lady is the author of one of the best self-published books I’ve ever read, The Friendship of Mortals. It’s haunting, and beautiful, and thought-provoking, and has a dash of Lovecraftian horror that will absolutely blow you away. Also, the book has a fancy new purple cover!
Danielle E. Shipley – Aside from being a sweetheart, Danielle blogs all about writing and fairytales, and occasionally even about writing fairytales (gasp!). She has a great little series of novellas out called The Wilderhark Tales.
Kate Sparks – First of all, Kate reads all my posts and leaves awesome comments, so that alone makes her one of my favorite bloggers! Her blog is also quite excellent — all about writing, publishing, etc. She’s also recently posted a few pictures of Loki and his adventures with a pink pony, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Celeste DeWolfe – You know her as the talented artist behind all the Imminent Danger fan art I keep posting, but Celeste has many other talents! Her blog is really fun, with a huge variety of topics — ranging from web comics to music to books. And she’s currently posting her first novel, Life of Gaia, on Jukepop Serials (i.e., she posts it chapter by chapter, and you can read for free and leave comments).
Thanks for reading, everyone! Have a fabulous Friday!
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Unrelated media of the day:
Two sentence horror stories! It’s a thing! Check out more here: http://imgur.com/gallery/aHrf8
March 17, 2014
My re-write is finally finished!
Well, more or less. The initial re-write of Chasing Nonconformity (sequel to Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It) is done … now I have to set it aside for a few weeks, come back, re-read it, and change everything. But you know what they say — you can’t edit a blank page! And my page is definitely no longer blank.
I’ve discovered something very interesting about my writing process. When I’m at the start of a project, I get really into it. We’re talking 5,000 words/day writing sprees, nearly suffering from dehydration due to not wanting to leave the computer to get more water, etc. It’s invigorating (and possibly detrimental to my health).
Then, around the 30% mark, I slow down. It hits me how much I still need to write, how far the journey still is to get to the end … and my motivation evaporates. I have to force myself to sit down even for one measly hour to bang out a few more pages, and even then when I get up after the writing session, I feel both exhausted and like I haven’t accomplished very much.
This continues on until about the 60% mark, where I’ve passed the halfway point and the end is finally in sight (albeit off in the distance). And when I hit the final 10% … back to the writing sprees and dehydration! Booya!
Possibly this is a horribly inconsistent way to write, but … well, apparently it works for me! I guess I’m just the kind of person who likes to start things, and likes to finish things … but doesn’t like all that mucking around in the middle. Anyone know a short cut for getting straight from start to finish?
Thanks for listening to me ramble! I’ll leave you with some unrelated media to brighten your day … and also tease you with some news: I will be re-releasing Imminent Danger at some point in the next few months, with new cover art and slightly edited text! If you’ve already bought the ebook, don’t worry, it’ll be on the Kindle free days thing, so you can pick up a new copy no problem. Stay tuned!
Unrelated media of the day:
First up, a cute owl for your viewing delight:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/0ne5Ysy
And then a helpful little article about how to decide what tense, POV, etc. to write your book in:
http://writetodone.com/make-right-decisions-book/
March 16, 2014
Legends of Windemere: Family of the Tri-Rune! On Sale Now!
Fellow blogger Charles Yallowitz has a new book out
Check it!
Originally posted on Legends of Windemere:
Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
Legends of Windemere: Family of the Tri-Rune has Arrived!!!
Buy it Here for $2.99!
Book Blurb:
The magical adventure continues after Luke Callindor and his friends recover from their battles in Haven.
Nyx still has nightmares about casting the genocide spell in Hero’s Gate. Every night her heart is gripped by the sensation of hundreds of goblins dying by her magic. By the request of Lord Highrider and Duke Solomon, she is returning to fix the damage she caused. With Luke Callindor and Sari by her side, Nyx is ready to face the vengeful goblins and opportunistic thieves that plague Hero’s Gate. Yet, there is a darker threat that was born from her violated magic: The Krypters.
It is another action-packed, character driven story that will reveal one of our heroes has been lied to for their entire life.
Wondering what you’re in for?…
View original 406 more words
March 1, 2014
So I got my first 1 star review …
That’s right – Imminent Danger has officially acquired its first 1 star review. I won’t post the link here, but if you hop over to the Imminent Danger Goodreads page, you can check out the review for yourself.
As you can probably imagine, it makes me sad that someone out there paid money for my book and didn’t enjoy it. It also sucks because no one likes to hear their work merits a mere 1 star rating — essentially, that if the book were graded as a test, it would get a measly 20% and flunk the course. And I’m not going to lie — it kind of crushed my emotions when I first saw the review. But then I remembered that I’ve weathered much worse than this — namely, receiving a bad review in person to my face – so I think I’ve calmed down. More or less. Mostly.
Now, it’s not very classy to go line by line through a bad review and dissect it, potentially shaming the reviewer in the process, so I’m not going to do that. The only thing I’m going to bring up is this — that I really don’t understand why people feel the need to leave nasty reviews when they haven’t even read the entire book. The reviewer admits they stopped at chapter 10 … which is like reviewing a song when you’ve only heard the first 45 seconds. I just don’t get it.
I mean, yes, if the book is truly so horrendous that you literally can’t bring yourself to read any further, and feel it’s your civic duty to warn off other readers before they spend their hard-earned free time and money on a disgusting and despicable piece of literature … sure, go ahead and leave a review without reading the whole book. But I’m pretty sure (like 90% sure … maybe 85% …) that Imminent Danger isn’t a hate-filled, vitriolic piece of filth.
Okay, fine, I’m a little upset. But I guess that’s what happens when you get a bad review. I’ll get over it! I had some gravy-smothered mashed potatoes and watched an episode of Chuck, so I’m well on my way to recovery. Just needed to vent a little bit. I’m better now. I just need to remember that different people are different, and that there’s no such thing as a book everyone likes.
Sigh.
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/ycOx1
February 28, 2014
Almost done the re-write!
For anyone who’s been wondering what the heck happened to me recently, the answer is pretty simple: I’ve been writing. As you may know, I’ve been working on the sequel to my first novel, Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It, for a couple of months now, and sometime around last week I just got struck with this incredible fervor to write. And so I did. And now the end is in sight!
According to my hilariously poor attempt at a “chapter outline”, Chasing Nonconformity is going to be 47 chapters long, plus an epilogue. Presumably this will change once I cut it down a bit, as it’s sitting at 125k words and that is most definitely too long for a YA novel! Anyhoo, I’m currently on chapter 42, which makes me almost done! Huzzah!
That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’m completely re-writing the last part of the book, so this is all going to be writing from scratch–i.e., I can’t take what I had before and shift it around a bit to have it fit in with the book’s new direction. But that’s okay. Writing is fun!
Oh, and then I obviously still have to go back and take care of a whole bunch of nitpicky things. For one, the main character Eris switches outfits constantly despite only having access to one outfit. So that’s going to take some figuring. For another, this is a sci-fi book, and although I thoroughly explain a lot of important world-building concepts in the first book, I haven’t actually inserted those explanations in the second book, so I’ll have to go back and figure out a way to work those in. The life of an author never grows dull, my friends!
That’s all for now. Just checking in to let everyone know how it’s going. Wish me luck on the final chapters, and I’ll report back when the re-write is complete!!!
Unrelated media of the day:
This may sound silly, but I’ve recently started listening to “zen” music while I write, and it’s absolutely fabulous for getting stuff done. Something about it just puts you in an awesome frame of mind for creating. At least, that’s what I’ve found! So light some candles, brew some tea, put on this Youtube video as background, and see if it helps your writing process! And if it puts you to sleep, well … even writers have to sleep sometime.
A Construct of Angels – the relaunch
Book relaunch party for Andrew Toynbee’s A Construct of Angels. Check it out
Originally posted on Andrew Toynbee's very own Blog:
Todays the day! Everything is in place for the party. Along with my co-host Sonya Loveday we hope to tickle, challenge and entertain – all in one night!
February 25, 2014
The Life of Gaia Seven-Day Event Starts Now!
Fellow author Celeste DeWolfe is using Jukepop Serials to release her first novel one chapter at a time. This week she’s holding a seven day event, releasing one chapter a day. If you like fantasy, or are interested in the whole “serial novel” process, check it out
Originally posted on The Official Site of Celeste DeWolfe:
The day is here, my friends!
Welcome to day 1 of a FULL WEEK of The Life of Gaia! That’s right! If you didn’t catch my earlier posts, that’s okay, because this is the important one. Starting today and going through Saturday, I’ll be posting one new chapter of LOG a day. That’s SEVEN new chapters in a week, essentially DOUBLING the amount of chapters that are out now!
Start from the beginning here: https://www.jukepop.com/home/read/1309
February 12, 2014
New book released
One of our fellow WordPress authors has published a new ebook — check it out
Originally posted on troy.h.gardner:
Hi, everyone. My ebook
Guardian of Suffrage Celebration (Evermore Island, Book Two)
was just released from MuseItUp Publishing. That sounds like they freed a wild beast or something.
Blurb: When a saboteur strikes against Susan B. Anthony Day, it’s up to a woodland elf to discover the culprit.
