Home

Five Freelance Writing Tax Deductions

May 2, 2013

PopularSoda Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

     It’s now the month of May, which means you should push April’s tax troubles out of your mind for another 11 months, right? Not if you want to be a financially savvy freelancer. Start keeping track of your deductions now for a fiscally fruitful year. 

     Here are the top five categories of tax deductions related to freelance writing in the US. If you have insight on another country’s laws, email admin[at] popularsoda [dot]com. Check with your tax professional to make sure you’re claiming all appropriate deductions (and avoiding problematic ones).

1. Office Supplies

     What writer doesn’t keep a pen and notebook handy at all times? These expenses are generally tax-deductible. 

Collection of Notebooks

To keep everything kosher, consider buying “work” notebooks separate from “fun” notebooks, then use work notebooks only for writing directly related to work. Outlining plots, planning blog posts, and writing short stories are tasks related to the business of writing. Making grocery lists and keeping track of doctor appointments are not.


2. Tools of the Trade

     Remember when Duotrope went paid and everyone freaked out? Well, it turns out that a Duotrope subscription is actually tax-deductible. Do you use Scrivener to outline your books? That’s deductible, too. You may also be able to deduct your subscriptions to writing and publishing magazines like Writer’s Digest: magazines, journals, and newspapers used solely for business purposes are tax-deductible.

 

3. Professional Memberships

     Memberships to professionals organizations (like the Editorial Freelancers Association or American Copy Editors Society) can be expensive for independent freelancers. However, the cost of these memberships is tax-deductible.
     
     Pick one to three organizations to join. Fewer organizations means you can be more active in your chosen groups, leading to a stronger professional presence and a better return on your (tax-deductible!) investment.

 

4. Classes, Conferences, and Conventions

     These are actually two separate categories, but they often overlap. Expenses related to education that “maintains or improves skills needed in your present work” are deductible. If you’re a traditionally published author looking to take a class on digital publishing, that’s deductible. Similarly, if you’re a writer who wants to take a class on editing, that class should be tax-deductible because it improves your writing work even though editing might technically be a different field.

Conference photo

Breakout session at ACES 2013.

If you join a professional organization and want to go to a writing-related conference, you can deduct some of your expenses. Conference registration fees are almost certainly deductible. Check with your tax professional about travel expenses like hotels and plane tickets. Meal expenses are generally deductible if you are going out with a business associate; meals for yourself are usually not. One quick tip: take pictures of receipts with your phone so you don’t have to worry about holding onto those tiny bits of paper.

5. Self-Publishing Expenses

     If you’re like most self-publishing authors, you pay for your own editing and book covers. If you’re smarter than most self-pubbers, you deduct these expenses from your taxes. Fees associated with maintaining your professional website may also be tax-deductible. Tax deductions shouldn’t be used to justify expensive services out of your price range, but deductions might ease your mind about the cost of (completely necessary) editing and design fees.

.

.
     Keep in mind that the IRS stipulates that these expenses must go toward a legitimate business venture that has a realistic chance of making money. That is, if you pay for the noteboks and conferences and covers but you never actually publish a book, you can’t deduct writing-related business expenses. Just one more reason to stop dreaming and start publishing.

.

Do you have insight on another country’s freelancer tax structures? Got another question about freelancer finances? Send us a tweet @popular_soda.

.
Like this post? Use the buttons below to share!

8 Tips to Get the Absolute Best From Your Cover Designer (Guest Post)

March 31, 2013

PopularSoda Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

     (Hello again, ebook lovers! Due to personal and family issues in March, Lila has been on hiatus. Luckily, Westin Lee stepped up to the plate with this wonderful guest post on working with a cover designer. Look for the link to his site at the end of the post.)

    Graphic design is a medium that might be totally alien to you. However, it is a necessary part of creating a polished ebook. Don’t panic! There are tons of graphic designers and cover artists willing to work with self-publishing ebook authors. With the right approach, it can be a positive, exciting experience. And more importantly, the resulting cover will look great.

 1. Finish your book.

     If you’ve ever undertaken a massive project before, you know that siren call that comes to you way ahead of the finish line. The voice says, “Let’s get the cover made!” even though there’s not a finished work to put inside that cover. It seems innocent enough, right?

     Don’t do it! That’s putting the cart before the horse. And besides what you may think about carts and horses and their relative position to each other, there’s another really good reason you should wait:

  •  You may not REALLY know what the book is about, and that might be the idea you want on the cover.

     I have a manuscript undergoing revision right now for a book, and I have done a bad job listening to my own advice – I have a couple dozen sketches of cover designs already. But sure enough, last week I had a revelation about a theme in the book that I had never thought about. And it’s so prevalent, I think it has to be on the cover somehow.

 Back to square one! 

2. Make sure your designer has the right information.

      A good designer will always sit down with you (electronically or otherwise) and ask you questions about your book. We will ask about important scenes or characters in your book, what the story is, and what the themes are. We might ask if you have a cover in mind, and if there are any covers that inspire you.

     Regardless if we ask, make sure we have the answer to the following question:

  •  What story do you want the cover to tell to a potential reader?

     The answer to the above is your mission statement. Whatever you know (or don’t know) about cover design won’t matter if you know what message your cover needs to convey. It’s easy to get lost in the details of a cover (no, that’s all wrong, her hair is shoulder length!!), but with this question answered at the very beginning of the process, you and your designer will be on the same page. Try answering these next two questions to flesh out your ideas:

  •  What do you want the reader to feel when they look at your cover?
  •  What questions do you want the reader to have when they look at your cover?

 

3. Be responsive!

     The normal process of working with a designer goes something like this:

  • Designer gets information.
  • Designer sends a proof design over to you.
  • You tell the designer what you think.
  • Repeat as needed. 

     The faster we hear back from you when we send a proof, the more quickly we can work for you. Cover work can drag on sometimes, especially as we’re refining the design, and we know you’re going to be busy. If at all possible, try to respond in one business day to any proofs or questions. If I can’t send an updated proof in that timeframe, then I get in touch and let you know when you’ll see the changes or revised proofs. 

4. Be specific!

    When you provide feedback, do your best to not only say whether you like or dislike something, but also why you like or dislike it.

     We know the visual language and the written language are different beasts. We’d never expect a client to start naming fonts or mentioning that they want an analogic color scheme. But it helps to know what you like and don’t like!

     On a recent design, my first round of feedback was ‘The back is fine, but I don’t like the cover.’ Um…Can…can you clarify that? Even saying, ‘I don’t like it but I’m not sure why,’ is helpful. A good designer will be able to listen and ask questions and figure out what’s not working.

     And a final note – it seems less necessary to point out why you like something in a design, but if you know why, please tell us! That information could help down the line. Maybe we know you’re not happy with a design overall, but we know that you liked the pattern and one specific element of it. That might be all we need to make your perfect cover!

 5. Collaborate.

     Let’s be honest – I’m a person that knows what I want most of the time. If I go into a project where I’m working with a freelancer, I can get very specific about what I want. Perhaps you do the same thing? ‘Okay, I want this.’ ‘Do this.’ ‘Move this here.’ That’s great! See tip #4.

    Regardless of your approach, think of the relationship as collaborative. That’s going to get you the most for your money and time. The best, most surprising results have been from work where a client has encouraged suggestions and improvisation.

     Whenever possible, ask your designer what they think, and more importantly, ask them to try things. I can build a specific cover if that’s what you want, but if I have the right information and the space to think, I might come up with something awesome that you’d never have thought of.

      And if you don’t like it, cool! We’ll try something else.

 6. Be a jerk.

      Okay,please don’t be an actual jerk. What I mean is, this is your money and your project, and even though I just said to think about it as collaboration, the designer is ultimately working for you.

     Speak your mind. Say if you don’t like something. Say if you do like something, even if it’s not feasible for your cover. If you’re feeling any doubts, say so!

     Maybe this is easy for you. Maybe you are a loud writer who hits tables a lot to make a point and told your friend just now that their hat is stupid. If so, this tip is not for you. My tip for you is, ‘Please do not yell at us.’

     This is a tip for those of you who might let something go by that you don’t actually like, because the conversation might be uncomfortable:

     We want you to tell the truth. We want happy clients. What we don’t want is to spend hours and days hammering out a design, and you secretly never really liked that butterfly image in the first place.

     Don’t let that happen! Be a jerk! We demand it! 

 7. Ask for fewer options.

     If a designer offers ‘unlimited’ revisions as part of his services, take advantage of that by limiting the number of proofs you get at one time.

     The idea of getting twelve proof covers at once may sound appealing, but there are two things to keep in mind. The first is that too many choices make your job harder. Looking at two or three designs at a time is going to let you really give your attention to each one.

      Here’s the other important part of this tip: By asking for just a few proofs at a time, you are asking us to cull the herd and take responsibility for the work we send. If we know we can only send one design, we’ll be extra focused on making it as good as we possibly can.

 8. Have faith!

     A good design takes time. And that’s if a book is about something relatively simple, like a man going on space adventures. Or a woman who is working for a terrible boss. 

   I’ve seen book descriptions that blew my mind. I read what the book was about and instead of that initial flood of colors and images and ideas, it’s like my mind opened its wallet and a fly buzzed out. Some book ideas are very, very hard to get across well in a cover design.

     But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. We have the tools; we just need to work through the process. If you see something that you don’t like, make sure you use tips #3 and #4. If you have fears that this is all going south, politely be a jerk and use tip #6. Talk to your designer and keep working at it. Like a problem passage in a book, eventually you’ll get it right.

 

Westin Lee is a cover designer and author. Have any questions about cover design or design services? Head to westinbookcovers.com.

Three Important Lessons Learned from Freelance Writing

February 22, 2013

PopularSoda Ebook Advice, Ebook Basics, Editorials, Opinion, Publishing Professionals , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

      When I tell people that I’m a freelance writer, they immediately have a bunch of questions for me. Where do I work? What do I write? What kind of money do I make? Can I get them a job? Everyone (from cab drivers to business owners to drunk tourists) wants to know.

      I see the light in their eyes as they imagine putting words to paper, seeing their books in stores, and receiving praise while the money rolls in. Every time, that bright light turns into careful consideration when I explain the reality of a freelance writing career.

1. It’s not you, it’s them. But it’s on you.

      This is something I didn’t figure out until I began my freelance writing career: your ideas are only half of writing. Whenever you are writing with the intent to publish, you are writing for other people. These mysterious and faceless people determine the success of your work. They must be able to understand your writing.

      Reader comprehension trumps personal expression. Do I hate it when my carefully constructed sentences are deleted or shortened or ripped apart? Of course I do. But I just shrug and move onto the next assignment. It’s nothing personal. 

 

2. Being your own boss means kicking your own ass.

      My income comes entirely from freelance writing and copy editing. I literally cannot afford to take it easy. Sure, there are mornings when I want to lie in bed and watch TV, and days when I want to ditch work and go to the zoo. That’s the worker side of me. The boss side doesn’t allow it.

My boss is like a separate character in my head who tells me what to do. If there are a ton of deadlines coming up, she tells me I need to stay in and work late. An article I really don’t want to write? The Writer can whine and cry and sulk at the keyboard, but the Boss stands over her shoulder with a grim smile and says, “Write.” She’s not mean, though. I do get vacation time and days off, but I have to earn them. Just like time off from any other job.

3. Panning for gold means throwing out a lot of dirt.

      It doesn’t matter what I write: I throw out material every time I create something. If I’m lucky, I’ll just ditch an introduction and a few sentences, then write new material. If I’m having an off day, I end up throwing out more words than I use.

      Right now, I’m writing in WordPad. I put the good material at the top. If I don’t think a paragraph fits here, but it might work somewhere else, I put it at the bottom of the document in a sort of writing graveyard. This article has 378 words in the graveyard, not counting the few paragraphs I scribbled by hand and the sentences deleted forever.

      When I’m writing for myself, I don’t mind a big graveyard: I can work the material into another post. If I’m writing for someone else, it’s time-consuming and counterproductive to have a graveyard bigger than the finished document. However, I have no hesitation about killing off paragraphs. The more you write, the less attached you are to individual sentences.

Ready to be professional about your writing? Grab a free copy of The Weekend Book Marketing Makeover by our friends at Duolit by tweeting about it or signing up for email updates. Toni has graciously allowed PopularSoda to provide an exclusive preview of the book’s contents. Take a look!

Preview from The Weekend Book Marketing Makeover by Duolit

Superheroes and Landmines: How (Not) to Respond to Critiques

January 24, 2013

PopularSoda #writerwarning, Ebook Advice, Ebook Basics, Everyone Needs an Editor , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 10 Comments

     There are dozens of articles on finding a critique partner and loads of suggestions on how to critique, but there isn’t much information about responding to critiques of your writing. In this post, we’ll outline the most common bad behaviors and personality types of critique receivers and show you how to gracefully handle both compliments and criticism.

The Playground Superhero

     Did you ever pretend to be a superhero when you were little? There always seemed to be one kid who didn’t understand how to play the game. If he picked super strength and you hit him with lightning, he decided he was also invisible. If you tried to freeze him, then he could teleport even when frozen.
     The writing equivalent is an author who apparently already knows his own mistakes, but doesn’t bother to fix them. If you point out an inconsistency in character names, he says it’s just a typo. If you comment on a major plot hole, he says he was going to rewrite that part anyway. If you wonder when the main character got a talking dog, he says he already plans to put something about that in the beginning.
     The playground superhero usually ended up playing by himself. If you copy his bad behaviors with your critique partners, you might end up alone, too.

Avoid Being A Playground Superhero:

  • Fix all mistakes and problem areas before submitting your work for critiquing.
  • Let critiquers know about any major problems before they review (“I know I need to introduce the talking dog in the beginning. Right now, I’m looking for suggestions on making the dog a likable character.”).
  • Say “Thank you!” if someone points out an obvious typo.

The Invisible Author

     This writer is most commonly seen on forums, message boards, and anywhere online where posts can be deleted. The author doesn’t start as invisible. She posts a large text sample for critique and asks for helpful hints. All feedback is welcome! She is really looking forward to improving her writing.
     However, when she actually gets useful suggestions and reasoned criticism, she deletes her post and often vanishes from the forum. She might resurface later, claiming she was driven away by grammar nazis, elitist editors, or trolls. The real reason? She didn’t want concrete criticism, just soft-focus praise.
      Let’s be clear here: there is a difference between abusive messages (“Your writing makes me want to stab my eyes out”) and helpful– yet non-praising– messages (“The imagery in the first paragraph is contradictory and jarring”). Harassment should be reported, and legitimate help should be rewarded.

Avoid Being an Invisible Author:

  • Identify what you really want. It is absolutely okay to simply want praise, but critique circles are not the place for it.
  • Postpone posting your work in a public forum if you don’t feel comfortable opening yourself up to specific, potentially painful feedback.
  • Do not delete your post! Bookmark it and come back in a few months (or few years) to see if maybe those trolls were right.

More

2012 Recap and 2013 Writing Resolutions

January 6, 2013

PopularSoda Site News & Updates , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

      We’re a few days late with our year-end blog post (mostly because Lila has been sick since last year), but now we’re ready to share some stats, thank our supporters, and make some writing resolutions for 2013.

Where We’ve Been

      The first post on PopularSoda was March 26th, 2012. Since then, we’ve had 28 posts, 77 real comments, and 1,547 spam comments. Our most active commenter was erotica author Antoinette M. Anne R. Allen, Simon Crump, and Roxanne Crouse were also active on the site. Pete Ingham was an amazing help in launching PopularSoda and we are so grateful for his help. Thank you, and all our commenters and friends, for your feedback, experiences, and opinions.

In 2012, PopularSoda had visitors from 76 countries.

In 2012, PopularSoda had visitors from 76 countries.

      Our most popular post of 2012 was What the Guardian (and Ewan Morrison) Got Wrong About Ebooks. Fun fact: Lila wrote this post in the wee hours of morning after staying out all night at a friend’s birthday party.

      We’re most proud of the international makeup of our audience: we had visitors from 76 countries.

Where We’re Going

      We plan to be even bigger and better in 2013. Here are our writing goals and resolutions:

  • Post more frequently and on a regular schedule
  • Host guest posters (if you’d like to write a guest post for us, contact admin@popularsoda.com)
  • Continue to work with our ebook friends while getting to know new players in the ebook game
  • Foster a sense of community by highlighting independent, self-publishing ebook authors who are doing it right
  • Create free, useful, and crowd-sourced resources for independent authors
  • Improve and update our Facebook page
  • Stop editing all of our images in Paint to avoid giving heart attacks to our graphic-designer friends
  • Finally explain the deal with all those soda bottles!

      We’re grateful to all those who connected with us in 2012, and we can’t wait to see what 2013 will bring! 

Why You Should Pay for Duotrope (and How You Can Win a Subscription!)

December 26, 2012

PopularSoda Ebook Advice, Ebook Basics, Industry News, Tech & Tools , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

      If you haven’t heard the news, Duotrope, a popular site for tracking literary submissions, is moving to a paid model in January. Under the new pay structure, you can buy a year-long membership for $50, or purchase individual months at $5 each.

      Naturally, people were not pleased with the news. Who wants to pay for something if you’ve gotten it for free for years? Unfortunately, the numbers don’t lie and Duotrope can no longer survive on donations alone. Duotrope must start charging for membership, or it will disappear entirely.

      It’s not all bad news, though. There are good reasons to pay for Duotrope, and the new model might actually benefit you.

The Price

      First, let’s take a look at the price. Once the sticker shock fades away, you’re left with the hard numbers. You can pay $5 a month, or $50 a year, which works out to $4.17 per month.

      That’s less than the price of a large frappucino, and unlike the frappucino, you can enjoy a Duotrope membership for more than fifteen minutes. Put another way: if you saved a quarter during each weekday in 2013, you would be able to pay for a year’s membership and 1/3 of next year’s membership.

      Fifty dollars a year breaks down to fourteen cents a day. Though there are people who cannot afford that, it is well within the reach of many aspiring authors. The new price model also allows for gift subscriptions, which means friends and family can help support your writing (without writing those suspicious-sounding reviews). 

The Statistics

      Some writers are concerned that Duotrope’s statistics will become less useful when the data pool shrinks. Duotrope itself addressed these concerns, and they expect their statistics to become more accurate. It turns out that the people who submit frequent, valid reports are also likely to be donators to and active users of the site.
      Though the number of total Duotrope users will drop, Duotrope will retain the most helpful contributors. This isn’t an unfounded assumption: by tracking membership pre-orders, Duotrope has already accounted for 51,000 submission reports and seen a decrease of 92% in unreliable data.

      Unlike scientific studies where a bigger sample size is almost always better, reliable data is the heart of Duotrope. To an extent, there are right and wrong answers. Claiming a one-day wait before reporting a submission as “never responded” is not helpful for anyone. The new subscription model discourages erroneous reporting from single-submission users.

Your Writing Career

      We’ve said before: if you want to make money from your writing, you have to treat it like a business. Duotrope now joins the ranks of Scrivener, writing magazine subscriptions, nice pens, and notebooks as useful writer tools. You certainly don’t need any fancy extras to be a writer, but these tools increase your productivity and open your eyes to new markets.

      The new membership structure could gel well with your personal style. Month-to-month memberships can light a fire under procrastinators. If you know you only have a week left to use the site, you might enjoy scrambling to submit before the deadline. If you’re hesitant to pay for the service, that might work in your favor, too. You might end up submitting more stories to justify the price and feel like you got your money’s worth.

      Whether submitting under deadline or submitting due to buyer’s remorse, increased queries in targeted markets can only help your writing career.

      You might examine all the angles and still decide that Duotrope isn’t right for you. That’s fine, too. We’re not demanding that every writer must get a subscription. We’re just asking you to consider things besides cost.

Do you want to win a six-month subscription to Duotrope?

Share this post, then comment below explaining how you would use your subscription, why you would like the subscription, or how Duotrope has helped you in the past. Be sure to use the same name for both the share and the comment. The contest will run until January 10th, 2013. A random winner will be selected from all valid entries and the winner will be notified by January 15th, 2013. This is a PopularSoda contest and not affiliated with Duotrope.

Older Entries