Select a page
      Choose Category
      RSS Feed Subscribe to email

      Category : Uncategorized

      • January 15, 2014

        Taxes for Writers

        by

        BY GUEST DANICA FAVORITE

        mainDanica Favorite works as an online moderator for a major publisher where she connects readers and writers with new fiction releases. Having spent time in the corporate world teaching tax law and preparing taxes, she much prefers fiction to numbers. Her first book with Love Inspired Historical will be available in late 2014.

         

         

        As some of you know, I spent about five years preparing taxes and I
        teach on the topic of taxes for writers. I took a class with the
        Colorado Department of Revenue about a year ago on the very topic of
        sales tax. I had heard a number of things about sales tax and was
        concerned that at some point, I would need to know this information for
        my business, plus, I was working on something I wanted to do that might
        have tax implications.

        Here are a few VITAL things to know:

        1. Sales tax is an extremely complex topic. Not only does it vary by
        state, but it varies by locality. You must make absolutely sure that you
        are following both the laws of your state as well as any laws of the
        states in which you are selling to- this includes when you sell a book
        online!! Everything I am telling you is based on COLORADO law. If you
        are not in Colorado, please be sure to check your state’s guidelines.
        That said, it may not be enough to look it up on your state’s website.
        Colorado law is so complex that I, as someone tax-trained, could not
        figure out what I needed to know based on the website, so I took a
        day-long class. Yup – an entire day. And it barely scratched the surface.
        Please, please, please get advice on sales tax from someone who is
        very familiar with sales tax law in the area in which you are selling
        your books!

        2. Here is

        Continue Reading "Taxes for Writers"

      • December 19, 2013

        Thursdays with Amanda: 30 Random Publishing Facts

        by

        Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

        I turn 30 on Sunday (which is bittersweet…bitter because, well, I’m getting older…sweet because whenever people say “but aren’t you too young to be an agent?” I can reply “I’M THIRTY!”), and to commemorate this event, I decided to offer 30 completely and utterly random facts about publishing.

        1. Publishing comes to a screeching halt in the month of December. This year, I’ve noticed a bit more going on than normal, but typically December is a vortex in which manuscripts are either lost or put on hold.

        2. Agents who charge for their services are SCAMMING YOU.

        3. Whenever editors (or agents, for that matter) mention a very specific type of book that they want…chances are, they won’t acquire it even if you show it to them. Situations like that are the result of meetings they’ve been in where they have either brainstormed or been told to look for something. But the mind can so easily change over time, and the desire for a historical  serial killer novel will most likely either fade or they’ll take a look at what that actually looks like and decide they’re going to pass.

        4. Speaking of me being thirty, in NYC, there are a number of twenty-something publishing professionals. Even ones who are building their own lists. So while you may be shocked to see someone “so young” in the business, it’s actually quite common.

        5. HOWEVER, in the CBA (the religious side of publishing) there are far, far fewer twenty-somethings. It’s sad.

        6. Yes, BEA is as crazy as

        Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: 30 Random Publishing Facts"

      • December 18, 2013

        A CHRISTMAS DONATION

        by

        In lieu of client gifts this season, MacGregor Literary has elected to sponsor a student through a full year of high school in Uganda, Africa, and encourage him or her toward their goal of continuing their education.

        Agent Sandra Bishop, who spearheaded this donation, says, ” I hope you’re all finding opportunities to be blessed, and to bless others this Christmas.”

        The Team at MacGregor Literary wish all of you a Merry Christmas and bountiful New Year!

         

        If you are interested in learning more about this organization, please visit  www.kuzaprogram.org.

        Continue Reading "A CHRISTMAS DONATION"

      • December 5, 2013

        by

        Big news: Mindy Starns Clark will be the featured guest on the talk show Lifestyle Magazine this Thursday, Dec. 5th, 2013 (tomorrow!). The episode will feature a lively and humorous discussion between Mindy and hosts Mike and Gayle Tucker about her bestselling book The House That Cleans Itself. The show will air at 10:30am Pacific Time (11:30 am MT, 12:30 pm CT, and 1:30 pm ET) on TBN.  You may also be able to view it on alternate stations and times, depending on your location, as well as via webcast, satellite, radio, or your mobile device. Visit Mindy’s blog, www.thehousethatcleansitself.com, for links and more info about all of the various ways you can tune in.

        Continue Reading ""

      • November 1, 2013

        Writing as Marketing (a guest blog)

        by

        When I put my mind to marketing, something I have noticed is that things feed in to each other.  As I am not outgoing by nature, ‘putting myself out there’ has not worked well for me, but a strategy that has succeeded and suits the person I am, is to keep writing.  After a while it seems one becomes somehow established just by having enough writing published.  I write (paid or unpaid) in every magazine or journal that gives me an opportunity, and I keep plugging away at writing my own books.  People who have read one thing I’ve written seek out another, so the writing itself becomes a marketing tool.  Only this last week a friend on the other side of the world wrote to say she has suspended a simple-living pledge, to pre-order a copy of a Lent book I have coming out with Monarch.  She knew about the book because she came to my blog and saw it.  She came to the blog because she, like other semi-regular readers, was attracted by the post on The Breath of Peace, my new book in The Hawk & the Dove series, and discovered on Facebook where I posted the link.

        Meanwhile the editor of a magazine, where I write a regular column, has allowed me to make my new book the focus of this month’s column, and to supply three copies of The Breath of Peace and three of the initial trilogy of the series, as give-aways.  Sure, it cost me quite a bit to supply the free copies – but I’m thinking of it as sowing seeds.

        My blog and Facebook are my main sales stalls.  The blog is a way of offering freebie writing to people, because I blog on what I think and believe, not promotional material.  If I do have a new book out, I write an article about it that has something

        Continue Reading "Writing as Marketing (a guest blog)"

      • October 29, 2013

        Spread the Word — We’ve Moved

        by

        Earlier this year, our agency moved to the Oregon coast. We love the new digs! We’re less excited about how much mail is still being sent to our old office address.

        For all regular US mail please use this address:

        PO Box 1316, Manzanita, OR 97130

        If sending something via UPS or FEDEX, our office address is: 158 Laneda Avenue, Manzanita, OR 97130. Please don’t send mail to our street address as Manzanita only delivers to PO Boxes.
        And though it’s not always sunny in Manzanita, days like when this pic was snapped make up for it.

        Continue Reading "Spread the Word — We’ve Moved"

      • September 24, 2013

        Yes, You Need an Agent

        by

        BY CHIP MACGREGOR

        We’re living in a new publishing economy.  Over the past five to ten years, nearly everything about the publishing industry has changed significantly. The way information is gathered, tracked, and shared has changed. We now live with digital royalty reports and catalogs. There are fewer bookstores, fewer editors working for publishers, yet more books being published than ever before. There’s less editing, smaller advances, and a bunch of new, more nimble start-up companies that are gaining a toehold in the market. The move from brick-and-mortar stores to an online experience is completely different – there are more titles than ever, and I can get anything delivered quickly, but the online shopping experience isn’t nearly as fulfilling as wandering through the aisles of a bookstore, exploring unknown authors and discovering hidden treasures.

        Publishers no longer worry about ink/paper/binding costs, or transportation & warehousing expenditures, so their margins have grown. At the same time, while authors are being offered greater royalties for digital books, their per-book earnings are down. And while the growth of the web has offered those authors more opportunity to market their titles to readers, with the opportunity has come responsibility – to the extent that many writers feel they are full-time sales people and only part-time writers.

        But the biggest change of all, of course, is that Amazon and Smashwords allows for ANYONE to claim to be an author. Just write some words, post it on Amazon, and – voila! You’re an author. It’s led to what I call “Publishing as Amway.” Those of you who lived through the 80’s will remember the Amway revolution… You were told all you had to do was sign up, buy some soap products, and start signing up your friends to do the same. They’d sign up their friends, who would in turn sign up their friends, until, through the miracle of multiplication, you’d have this awesome downline –

        Continue Reading "Yes, You Need an Agent"

      • September 16, 2013

        Confessions of a Conference Junkie

        by

        BY GUEST WRITER  ANE MULLIGAN

        President of the award-winning literary site, Novel Rocket, Ane Mulligan writes Southern-fried fiction served with a tall, sweet iced tea. While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, she’s worn many different ones: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that’s a fancy name for a lobbyist), business manager, drama director and writer. Her lifetime experience provides a plethora of fodder for her Southern-fried fiction (try saying that three times fast). A three-time Genesis finalist, Ane is a published playwright and columnist. She resides in Suwanee, GA, with her artist husband and two very large dogs, and has just returned from the ACFW conference.

        Confessions of a Conference Junkie

        I’m Ane Mulligan, and I’m a conference junkie. I’ve attended thirteen writing conferences since 2004 and can’t wait to get to number fourteen.

        Non-writers look aghast when they hear my conference tally and ask, “Didn’t the first one take?”

        They don’t understand. No one but another conferenceholic would. After all, who gets a writer better than another writer? Who else hears voices in their head and has imaginary friends? Okay, yeah, the inmates of some hospitals and little kids — but so do fiction writers. And we fiction writers need each other.

        Besides the camaraderie, I always come away from every conference with a golden nugget —something that takes my writing to the next level.

        So what are golden nuggets? I’m glad you asked. Assuming you’ve applied what you learned from previous conferences, you may find you’re getting some repeat information when you attend conferences. That’s good confirmation that you’re growing as a writer.

        Then right in the middle of a workshop, you get a zinger. One piece of information, one inside secret to great writing that will make your manuscript stand out from the slush pile. That, my friends, is a golden nugget. It can be a small or large writing tip or insight, but it is

        Continue Reading "Confessions of a Conference Junkie"

      • September 11, 2013

        Maegan Beaumont on her novel, Carved in Darkness

        by

        GUEST WRITER MAEGAN BEAUMONT is the author of CARVED IN DARKNESS, the first book in the Sabrina Vaughn series (Available through Midnight Ink, spring 2013). A native Phoenician, Maegan’s stories are meant to make you wonder what the guy standing in front of you in the Starbucks line has locked in his basement, and feel a strong desire to sleep with the light on. When she isn’t busy fulfilling her duties as Domestic Goddess for her high school sweetheart turned husband, Joe, and their four children, she is locked in her office with her computer, her coffee pot and her Rhodesian Ridgeback, and one true love, Jade.

         

        My writing career did not start out well. When I was 7, I entered a young authors’ contest through my 2nd grade class. I lost. When I was 12, I turned in a short story as a class room assignment. Instead of the A I was hoping for, I earned weekly sessions with the school psychologist. True story. When I was 15 I entered a short story contest held by Seventeen Magazine. I lost that one too… bat at least no one tried to stick me in therapy.

        These three events taught me a few things:

        1. 1) I can’t write.
        2. 2) What I write scares people.
        3. 3) The way I see the world isn’t normal.
        4. 4) Failure sucks.

        As I got older, I learned there was nothing in this world I hated and feared more than failure. It became a living, breathing thing that I actively avoided, like that mean kid in school who pushed you in the mud on picture day and “borrowed” your milk money.

        Failure.

        I never took a creative writing class in high school. I never allowed my friends and family to read what I wrote (for fear of failure… and also a 72-hour bed hold at the county annex).  I never developed what I can now

        Continue Reading "Maegan Beaumont on her novel, Carved in Darkness"