Dale’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2017)

Dale’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Anita wrote: "U.S. Supreme Court Holds That Copyrights Must Be Registered before Plaintiffs Can File Infringement Suits

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

The U.S. Supreme Court held today that bringing a suit for copyri..."

Hmm . . . I always thought that was the case. Maybe this just clarifies that the application has to be processed before a lawsuit can be filed?

It's always been the case that you can sue for an infringement that occurred before a copyright was filed, so long as you obtain the copyright before suing. Does this change that? (I expect not.)

D.J. wrote: "Meanwhile, I won an award "

Congratulations!

I probably should do more with IAM. They published one of my articles, but after that I got busy with other things.

This is an aside, but might offer some insight to others writing on Medium. I was invited to submit one of my stargazing stories to the publication "Dialogue & Discourse." Once I replied that I would be happy to do so, they added me as a writer and accepted that article. I also sent them my latest one, which I had just published, and they accepted that.

This is the second time I've been invited to submit to a publication (the other being Publishous). Some publication editors are looking for writers to add to their pool, so put your best foot forward when you write. If you write well and hit topics those editors are looking for, they may invite you.

Most publications also have mechanisms for submitting unsolicited work to them, so if you're interested in appearing in a particular publication, check out its writers guidelines for information.

And if you're wondering why you would bother, publications can give you access to a wider audience than you'd otherwise have. Appearing in a publication doesn't guarantee lots of engagement, but it can help.

Alex wrote: "Hi all, I'm hoping you can help me with this problem."

I used 99Designs.com to find an artist for my mystery series. It worked extremely well. I set up the project and requested quotes from five candidates I had identified based on the system's suggestions. The one I selected did great work in a very short time frame and was very responsive to my requests. The cost was $350 USD per cover, which I think is reasonable. You can set your budget and get quotes based on that. I suspect if you set it lower you might get responses from less experienced artists, but that doesn't necessarily mean the results wouldn't be good.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "I actually have a business license for Samantha Beach Publishing registered with the state...."

Do you have a federal EIN for your business (employer ID number)? If so, then I'd suggest using Schedule C. If not, you can get one very easily from the IRS (it's free and can be requested online).

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Thank you very much, Dale for this additional information. Would like to clarify one thing... In your 2nd paragraph, you state "Both C and E do basically the same thing." Just want to confirm I pic..."

Yes, just use one or the other. C is probably more appropriate if you consider your writing "career" to be a business, even if you haven't formally created a business. E may be more appropriate if not.

By the way, if anyone else with experience in this wants to chime in, it wouldn't hurt . . .

My next stargazing story: Hero Descending

Soooo . . . in looking over my tax forms, I'm actually treating my writing business as a sole proprietorship and using schedule C to report income. I have 1099-MISCs from both my own publishing business (which pays me royalties on my books) and Medium. I sum those are report them on Schedule C as income, then use the rest of the form to deduct any expenses I paid (as opposed to what my business paid).

So I haven't actually used Schedule E before, but I think it would work. Both C and E do basically the same thing: report your earnings, back out expenses, and give you the income or loss that gets transferred to your 1040.

Just bear in mind that I'm not a tax professional. I do my own taxes (including business taxes) every year and have only gotten a nastygram from the IRS a couple of times when I forgot to report something they knew about. So I'm fairly confident I know what I'm talking about. However, this is just friendly advice, not professional advice.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Dale, Thank you so much for taking the time to prepare these explicit instructions. I had no idea writing income earned royalties... I thought it was just other income. Thank you again. Hugs"

You're quite welcome!

It looks complicated, but for someone in your situation, it's actually fairly simple. Schedule E is designed to capture income and expenses from a variety of sources. Assuming you only have writing income and not real estate income, partnership or corporation income, etc., it will just be your writing income and and any related expenses you can claim. You only need to fill in the parts that pertain to your situation. The rest you can leave blank.

This evening I'll try to remember to review my form so I can verify what I'm about to say, but assuming I'm remembering everything correctly, here's what you need to do:

Part I:

Line 4, column A: Enter your income from the 1099-MISC and any other writing income you might need to report.

Lines 5 through 22, column A: Enter any expenses related to your writing income. I report my Medium membership as an expense. I think I put that in line 19 ("Other") and probably report it as "Memberships". I'll check on that. If you have other expenses related to creating, promoting and selling your writing, you can enter it in the appropriate lines. They're pretty easy to figure out. Advertising and marketing expense, for example, goes on line 5. Put all entries in column A, under the reported income.

Totals:
- Line 20 will be the total of all entered expenses.
- Line 21 is royalties minus expenses. This will be positive if you made money, negative if you lost money.
Line 23b - Enter the amount from line 4 (total royalties)
Line 24 - If line 21 is positive, enter it here (income)
Line 25 - If line 21 is negative, enter it here (losses)
Line 26 - Enter line 24 minus line 25 (basically, copy whichever of those lines isn't blank).

Skip parts II, III, and IV. They don't pertain to you.

Part V:

Line 41: Copy the total from Part I line 26 here. This is the amount that will go over to your 1040 as taxable income.

Again, I'll verify this against my own tax forms to make sure I'm telling you everything correctly, so don't submit the form before you hear back from me. And if you don't hear back from me, do prompt me, because sometimes I forget to do things in the mad rush of my life. ;-)

This one is me trying to tell Medium (and Medium writers) something: Medium's Compensation Black Hole

Thanks, folks! I have to update the interior with a few corrections and technical changes. I hope to have the new edition released mid-March. Then I'll be caught up on my existing works and can start planning for the release of Space Operatic (SF/humor) and The Realm of Tiny Giants (short story collection).

Here's the new front cover for Ice on the Bay:

My latest from The Writing Cooperative: Turn Your Story Upside Down

Erica wrote: "I started a new Facebook page with my pen name and would love some follows! Thanks in advance! facebook.com/authorehgraham"

Followed.

A new short story in Curiosity Never Killed the Writer: Stage Fright

Barbara wrote: "Try ReadersFavorite.com or askDavid.com They accept both Kindle and Print books. Go to the authors section for information."

Thanks, I'll have a look at those.

My latest short story at Publishous: Entanglement

What would you recommend for promoting the print editions of my Howard County Mysteries, which are available at https://www.serpentcliff.com/authors/...? I'm selling off my remaining stock of the original Serpent Cliff editions for $5.95 each (originally $12.95) but I'm not sure how to reach people. Most promo sites seem to be geared toward Kindle books.

I have just posted a message at AuthorsDb and set up promos for the books, but their newsletter promos only deal with Kindle, it seems.

My latest short story from Lit Up: The End of Everything