Accounting & Book Sales…

You are excited, you sold a book, you sold many books, you’re making money. Now what? Well, if you have read my profile you know I’m an Accountant by day and by night during tax season. (Grinning broadly). I want to give some advice and I want to make it clear I’m not telling you how to run your publishing business, but this is advice to help you have a good experience.

I was talking with a friend the other day and she was giddy with delight because she’d sold several of her newly published book. She was adding it in her mind and grinning broadly. I was excited for her because I’ve felt the same feeling and it is a good one. But then as her Accountant I had to bring up the inevitable which is royalty tax. Well, she looked at me and said, “Oh my gosh, I hadn’t thought of that. What do I need to do?”

Well, the fact is, those wonderful sales are actually taxable income. I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I do want to help you get ahead of the game. Make sure that you save some of those royalty dollars to cover the taxes at the end of the year. But, don’t forget to save all those expenses that you have incurred along the way. Some of those expenses are: publishing software, advertising, fees paid for pictures used for covers or trailers, fees paid to reviewers or editors, and the list goes on.

I want to help my new cyber friends (and I do consider you friends). So here is some free advice. Don’t forget that you will have to pay taxes on those royalties, but don’t forget the expenses that go along with them. If you keep yourself on level ground, then when tax time comes around, you won’t get a horrible surprise. I see it happen every year.

Basking in the glow…

Well as I bask in the glow of the first weekend of “A Love Never Lost” my newest novel, I contemplate what next? I know in my previous blog I talked about finishing one of the many that have been started. Well, boy was I wrong. As I sat with my trusty laptop on my lap watching television, my mind kept drifting to the 2nd part to my “Flames of Love” series.

All that has been started on that one is the name, which usually doesn’t come to me until midway or after I type The End. This one came to me before I ever finished the first book in that series, “Tender Flames”. It has done really well on the free offering on Smashwords.com as it has garnered over 1000 Downloads.

Today I will follow my heart which is what any romance author should do. That following will lead me into “Rekindled Flames” and carry on the “Flames of Love” series. I know my assistant is probably going to strangle me, but I have to follow my gut feeling and it says go for it, step out there and jump.

So as we go into this dreary southern Monday (it is raining in Georgia, finally), have a good day and remember it is only 5 days until the weekend.

It’s published!

Well, “A Love Never Lost” is up on Smashwords.com and will be on Amazon this evening. Barnes & Noble will have it in about a week or so. I’m so excited and relieved. Yes, I’m over my sadness and replace that feeling with excitement and pure joy. So, if you have a chance check it out. This is my favorite out of all my books published so far and the longest. Only through God was this book possible. Have a great Friday and good writing!

Loss of Technology leads to MELTDOWN!

Well the things that nightmares are made of happened to me on Thursday afternoon. It started with a simple request from my phone provider which also handles my internet service and fax line. They wanted to help lower my bill so they convinced me to combine my lines assuring me that I would only be down for a couple of hours. Well…

Being an accountant and writer I depend on my internet to keep up to date in my business. I am currently having to take online courses to keep up to date with the IRS. Also to keep up with my cyber friends. So my internet is a necessity.

Well you can imagine when the deadline for my services to be restored came and went I started to panic slightly. Three hours later my panic was rising to stressful levels. I asked my husband five hours into the “Black Out” as I labeled it, when had I let technology start ruling my life. He laughed and said it had been a while. He told me to take a warm bath and work on my book. I could not even face my laptop.

Upon waking yesterday, or I might as well say just getting up from no sleep, I crossed my fingers and turned on my laptop. Well, the little icon was still red and my DSL light was blinking a demon eye red. It watched me and winked at me for five hours. I started to sweat and have withdrawals. I could not eat, I could not sleep. It was terrible. I was slipping into a frenzied insanity.

After four different associates and four terrible hours on hold off and on, I got results. The lady said the words that made my heart sing “Hallelujah”, they were “your service will be back to full status by end of business day”. My stomach growled and said “now you can eat”. I took my son out to lunch and came back to a solid green light. The demon was gone from my desk and I took a cleansing breath.

It was like a awakening as I opened my browser and was able to connect. My fax line went crazy from client fax back up and business was back to “normal” or as normal as it can get. So that was my 24 hour meltdown without technology. I don’t want to go through that again. I was back to writing last night. Sad how technology takes over your life. You don’t know how bad a case of technological obsession you have until you have to go 24 hours without it. Have a great day fellow bloggers!