I was having an imaginary conversation with an aspiring self publisher who owns a pet store while I was out running this morning. She was bouncing ideas off me for both fiction and nonfiction books she was thinking about writing - I'm rubber. The conversation went something like this:
Adrian: "I really love dogs, I've been working with them for over 20 years, I go to all the shows and conventions. If I know one thing in this world, it's dogs. So I was thinking of writing a novel about an alcoholic vice cop whose daughter turns tricks to support her drug habit."
Morris: "Uh, does the cop have a dog? Does the daughter have a dog? Is there a crime in a pet shop? Do you have any experience with police work, or, uh, you know..."
Adrian: "Well, I read a lot of books and watch a lot of TV and there don't seem to be that many dogs in prominent roles. I want to give myself the best chance of success."
Morris: "If you really feel you have to start off with an action novel, I'd at least try to work some dogs and a pet shop into the plot, maybe even the title. It helps quite a bit with believability if you can write from experience."
Adrian: "Oh, if you mean I should write some how-to book about animals, I have been thinking of a book on raising possums for pets."
Morris: "Uh, is there a lot of demand for pet possums?"
Adrian: "Well, I did some research, and there aren't any competing books, so I should be really successful."
Morris: "That's not always a great sign in publishing, it could mean that there isn't much demand. Have you considered writing a book about, you know, dogs?"
Adrian: "Oh, there are thousands of books about dogs, I sell them in my store. How can I compete when it's all been done before? Every show I go to there are dog books for sale, dog breeding, dog feeding, dog psychology, dog humor, and most of them aren't any good! People are always asking me to suggest a book about choosing a puppy, but it's hard because I don't agree with the authors of the published books."
Morris: "That's usually a good sign in publishing, that there's a lot of demand. If you write a good book, even if there's direct competition in your niche, say, "Purchasing A Pet Shop Puppy", at least you know that there''s a market. If you write the better book and do a better job marketing, you'll do well."
Adrian: "But I could practically write that book in my sleep! What would that prove?"
Morris: "That you're a pretty smart self publisher."
What's A Publisher Need To Be Legal?
Life is complicated, business is simple.
OK, that's the short answer to a question I've heard three times in the past week, one by phone and two by e-mail, which I think means the British are marching on Concord.
The question is in the title of this post: What's a publisher need to be legal? Sometimes, the question is phrased a little more specifically, as in, "Do I need to incorporate to start a publishing company?"
Incorporation is complicated, unless you've done it before, and it costs money. It doesn't have anything to do with the legitimacy of a publishing business, it won't help you sell books or get reviews. Incorporation can be an important step for some businesses, but its implications are financial and legal. Corporations follow a different tax regime than individuals, have different reporting requirements, pay annual fees, and are taxed at a different rate. Businesses tend to incorporate to make it easier to raise money from multiple investors and to protect those investors from illegal or harmful actions the corporation might take.
If you're a self publisher or a new small press, you probably aren't trying to raise money through selling shares, and you probably don't have a lot of spare cash to spend on setting up a corporation. I do know a few self publishers who are incorporated, but most of them were incorporated before they added publishing as an activity. Incorporation can protect shareholders from legal actions, limiting their liability to the amounts invested, but incorporation doesn't give individuals protection from their own actions. In other words, if you're a self publisher, incorporating doesn't protect you from charges of libel (and legal awards) if you commit libel. Incorporation may protect investors in your self publishing company if you did everything right, but as the author of the libel, you're responsible as an individual.
I've never lived anywhere where a publisher was required to obtain any sort of special publishing license, but self employed people who use a made-up name for their business often have a local business licensing requirement. Around my neck of the woods, it costs $30 or so to file a DBA (Doing Business As) at the local town hall. I believe the purpose of the DBA is to prevent you from hiding from legitimate complaints. If you want to use your last name in the name of your publishing company , it's usually not necessary to inform anybody you've started a publishing business until...
TAX TIME
The people who really, really care about how you're doing are the IRS and your state tax authority. If you make a profit, they want their money, or our money, depending how you look at it. In your first year, you aren't required to pay estimated taxes, but come tax time, you have to file a Schedule C for the business, and give them the name of your publishing company. The name of the company has no impact on the taxes you owe, it's just a label.
OK, that's the short answer to a question I've heard three times in the past week, one by phone and two by e-mail, which I think means the British are marching on Concord.
The question is in the title of this post: What's a publisher need to be legal? Sometimes, the question is phrased a little more specifically, as in, "Do I need to incorporate to start a publishing company?"
Incorporation is complicated, unless you've done it before, and it costs money. It doesn't have anything to do with the legitimacy of a publishing business, it won't help you sell books or get reviews. Incorporation can be an important step for some businesses, but its implications are financial and legal. Corporations follow a different tax regime than individuals, have different reporting requirements, pay annual fees, and are taxed at a different rate. Businesses tend to incorporate to make it easier to raise money from multiple investors and to protect those investors from illegal or harmful actions the corporation might take.
If you're a self publisher or a new small press, you probably aren't trying to raise money through selling shares, and you probably don't have a lot of spare cash to spend on setting up a corporation. I do know a few self publishers who are incorporated, but most of them were incorporated before they added publishing as an activity. Incorporation can protect shareholders from legal actions, limiting their liability to the amounts invested, but incorporation doesn't give individuals protection from their own actions. In other words, if you're a self publisher, incorporating doesn't protect you from charges of libel (and legal awards) if you commit libel. Incorporation may protect investors in your self publishing company if you did everything right, but as the author of the libel, you're responsible as an individual.
I've never lived anywhere where a publisher was required to obtain any sort of special publishing license, but self employed people who use a made-up name for their business often have a local business licensing requirement. Around my neck of the woods, it costs $30 or so to file a DBA (Doing Business As) at the local town hall. I believe the purpose of the DBA is to prevent you from hiding from legitimate complaints. If you want to use your last name in the name of your publishing company , it's usually not necessary to inform anybody you've started a publishing business until...
TAX TIME
The people who really, really care about how you're doing are the IRS and your state tax authority. If you make a profit, they want their money, or our money, depending how you look at it. In your first year, you aren't required to pay estimated taxes, but come tax time, you have to file a Schedule C for the business, and give them the name of your publishing company. The name of the company has no impact on the taxes you owe, it's just a label.
Writer's Retreat Or Shining
Just a couple weeks ago I wrote abut running away, I mean, making a tour of the small publishing industry in the US. A couple things have come up since then which have left me more indecisive than ever, and I'm considering going on a writer's retreat instead. Not an official one, though I suppose I should look into that as well. But I've made the accidental discovery that people who own vacation homes in the mountains and on the beaches have increasingly upgraded them to be year round dwellings, but still only spend the summer there. Many of these now get rented out for September 1st through May 1st. I wouldn't be shocked if some end up with house sitters, just so they don't sit there empty.
Of course, there's always the Shining risk, going insane and typing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over all winter, getting locked in a walk-in freezer, seeing ghosts and all that sort of thing. But there's something to be said for trying a new place when you've fallen into a rut, and I've always been much more productive when I get off by myself. I'm also reluctant to commit myself to any deal that would prevent me from getting to Jerusalem this winter, and maybe beating my nine-years-in-the making Serial Tourist's Guide To Jerusalem into some sort of publishable shape.
New Hampshire seems the most likely state for off-season vacation rentals, primarily on lakes or the sea shore. Some include heat in the price, which implies the owners never shut down cold (what I'd do if I left a home in New England for the winter), and based on the number of listings in mid-July, I'm betting the availability is will be pretty high by August when the procrastinators get off the stick. I spent a winter living in a beach-front rental in New Jersey twenty odd years ago, and while I didn't get any writing done, I certainly drank like a literary lion. It's also interesting to note that sabbatical sublets are often advertised as writing retreats, homes near universities with decent book collections. Maybe that's just what I need, a sabbatical year, take a break and wash my brain from all this whatever it is I do.
Or is this all a huge overreaction to the personalized recommendation from Amazon that I purchase "Self Publishing for Dummies?"
Of course, there's always the Shining risk, going insane and typing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over all winter, getting locked in a walk-in freezer, seeing ghosts and all that sort of thing. But there's something to be said for trying a new place when you've fallen into a rut, and I've always been much more productive when I get off by myself. I'm also reluctant to commit myself to any deal that would prevent me from getting to Jerusalem this winter, and maybe beating my nine-years-in-the making Serial Tourist's Guide To Jerusalem into some sort of publishable shape.
New Hampshire seems the most likely state for off-season vacation rentals, primarily on lakes or the sea shore. Some include heat in the price, which implies the owners never shut down cold (what I'd do if I left a home in New England for the winter), and based on the number of listings in mid-July, I'm betting the availability is will be pretty high by August when the procrastinators get off the stick. I spent a winter living in a beach-front rental in New Jersey twenty odd years ago, and while I didn't get any writing done, I certainly drank like a literary lion. It's also interesting to note that sabbatical sublets are often advertised as writing retreats, homes near universities with decent book collections. Maybe that's just what I need, a sabbatical year, take a break and wash my brain from all this whatever it is I do.
Or is this all a huge overreaction to the personalized recommendation from Amazon that I purchase "Self Publishing for Dummies?"