Business of Writing 101
Apparently this is coming up again because of an article by someone who made some horrendously ill-informed decisions.
1) Selling a novel to a publisher does not make you their employee. You are what the IRS calls self-employed. The publisher does not pay you a salary, or pay for your insurance or other benefits. Because you are not their employee.
2) The publisher who bought the right to publish your novel does not take taxes out of your advance or royalties. You, being self-employed, need to pay the taxes on your advance and royalties via the IRS's self-employment tax form. You really need to do that.
3) You need an agent, unless you yourself are already an agent. Inexperienced writers have done catastrophic things to their careers because they signed contracts without agents. A random lawyer someone in your family knows is not the same thing as a literary agent, which is an extremely specialized job. An agent will also help protect your rights and find more ways to make you money from your work and will also be a person who can answer all your questions about publishing.
4) Your publisher, being a business, will expect you to know these things, and to be an actual grown-up adult. Your publisher is your business partner, not your mom. Your publisher will not find a mentor for you. (Because you are not their employee, you are self-employed.) You need to research publishing and find out how it works yourself. All this information and much more about being a writer is available online, and you can ask other writers on, say, Twitter, where there are even now a ton of people who like answering these kinds of questions and explaining all about how publishing works.
5) If you're desperate you can ask me! I'm right here!
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1) Selling a novel to a publisher does not make you their employee. You are what the IRS calls self-employed. The publisher does not pay you a salary, or pay for your insurance or other benefits. Because you are not their employee.
2) The publisher who bought the right to publish your novel does not take taxes out of your advance or royalties. You, being self-employed, need to pay the taxes on your advance and royalties via the IRS's self-employment tax form. You really need to do that.
3) You need an agent, unless you yourself are already an agent. Inexperienced writers have done catastrophic things to their careers because they signed contracts without agents. A random lawyer someone in your family knows is not the same thing as a literary agent, which is an extremely specialized job. An agent will also help protect your rights and find more ways to make you money from your work and will also be a person who can answer all your questions about publishing.
4) Your publisher, being a business, will expect you to know these things, and to be an actual grown-up adult. Your publisher is your business partner, not your mom. Your publisher will not find a mentor for you. (Because you are not their employee, you are self-employed.) You need to research publishing and find out how it works yourself. All this information and much more about being a writer is available online, and you can ask other writers on, say, Twitter, where there are even now a ton of people who like answering these kinds of questions and explaining all about how publishing works.
5) If you're desperate you can ask me! I'm right here!
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