It’s January and the time of year when you need to prepare your taxes or gather the information together to take it to a tax professional. Before January 31 you are required to file 1099-MISC forms for income you paid to independent contractors during the last year. If you paid more than $600 to an individual or a contractor for professional services related to the business of being an author, you need to prepare and mail this form along with Form 1096 which lists the 1099-MISC forms you filed. In order to complete these forms you need to have this individual’s W-9 form completed and on file. It includes a social security number (SS#) or an employer identification number (EIN#) for tax reporting purposes. This information is confidential and you need to keep it in a secure location like a safety deposit box. Even if you do not itemize your deductions as a professional writer, it is important to keep tax records. Even more important if you do file your income tax with more than $600 annual income from your professional writing efforts. If someone has paid you more than $600 in the past year for your work as a professional writer, than you should expect to receive a 1099-MISC early in February. If you worked as an employee and social security and income tax has already been taken out of your payments, then expect to receive a W-4 which declares your income and taxes paid to the IRS. If…
So you’ve just finished the latest offering by James Patterson, Robert Ludlum, or Pitticus Lore, and you’re wondering if it was traditionally authored, co-written, ghosted, or something else entirely. Good question. In the case of Patterson, who has put out 140 novels thus far – 15 in 2014 alone – he pays others to write the books for him. These writers don’t receive royalties, but… [Read More]
Filed Under: Full Fathom Five, ghostwriting, I Am Number Four, James Frey, James Patterson, Pitticus Lore, Robert Ludlum, royalties, work-for-hire
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Two novels. Both are set during the Second World War and yet neither is a war story. Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See, won the Pulitizer Prize for fiction this year. Read it to gain an appreciation for what editors mean when they say “character-driven plot.” This is much more than a story about WWII. Marie-Louise is a blind 14-year-old girl… [Read More]
“There’s a long history, of women especially, saying ‘Well, I just got lucky.’ I didn’t just get lucky. I worked my f***ing a** off. And then I got lucky. And if I hadn’t worked my a** off, I wouldn’t have gotten lucky. You have to do the work. You always have to do the work.” –Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things Simply… [Read More]
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that,” Stephen King wrote in his memoir, On Writing. When I hear from aspiring authors they don’t have time to read, I think about Stephen King’s observation. The likelihood of publication plummets when a writer doesn’t read. It IS that simple. As a developmental editor… [Read More]
If there were some easy ways to be more productive as a writer, would you want to know about them? If so, read on. “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” —W. Somerset Maugham In the above quote, Maugham is getting at one of the critical distinctions between professional working writers and, well, everyone else (which here… [Read More]