Writing 101: What You Should Know About Taxes

It's March...do you know where your income is coming from? Before you break the federal law, figure out what you should know about taxes as a self-published author. 

Two Sides to Every Coin

Once you sell a certain amount of books through any venue, from Amazon to Smashwords, you will receive a check in the mail or an automated payment of some sort; it all depends on the payment information you've submitted. When this happens, it's an amazing day. You earned money as an author, and you are a success.

And you are liable for it as a taxpaper. Because here's what you may not know about self-publishing: you're doing it as an independent contractor. What does that mean?

It's pretty simple. You have sold something, a product, on Amazon (or B&N, or whatever). Amazon has taken their cut of the profits and now they are giving you what you have earned as the author. But they have not taken taxes out. Amazon is not your employer. You didn't fill out tax paperwork with them, they are not filing for you with your state or federal agencies. You are an independent contractor.

And you're responsible for claiming your taxes yourself. As a citizen of the United States or any other country (and I am assuming you are), you must pay income taxes. Everyone who lives and works in any country must pay taxes to the central government. The government uses this money to build roads, pay teachers in schools and put cops on the streets -- your basic public service stuff. Amazon isn't claiming your income for you because you do not work or Amazon. You have to claim your income yourself.

When you earn money as an independent contractor, you are technically self-employed. And you're in luck, because so am I.

In the United States, this is how it works: when you earn income as an independent contractor, self-employed professional, freelancer or a self-published author, you must claim this income in order to pay income taxes. Your income taxes are based upon a percentage of what you earn; it's roughly 25% unless you earn more than $200,000 a year but if you earn more than $200,000 a year you probably already know what you need to know about taxes. Here's the fun part: you must also pay self-employment taxes. This is about 15% of your total self-employment earnings. The SE tax pays for Social Security, Medicare and other programs that are usually covered by payroll taxes. As a self-employed professional, you do not pay payroll taxes, so that's why.

Confused yet? The good news is, you are only liable to claim your income and pay self-employment taxes if you earn more than $400 as an independent contractor. More good news: the money you spend on your books is tax-deductible. That cover you bought from that artist? The editor your hired to help clean up your words? That tester Facebook campaign you launched? Yes, even the cost of the official copyright -- it's all tax-deductible, because it's a direct business expense. Claim all your expenses, and this is deducted from the independent income you've earned. That means your tax payment is lessened.

Due to new tax laws taking effect in this year, as a self-employed professional you can no longer claim your taxes and pay them only once a year. In the past, many independent contractors have managed their taxes this way. This is no longer allowed. If I'm reading all the information correctly, which is admittedly questionable, self-employed professionals are now obligated to make quarterly tax payments -- the means every three months. This April 15, you must claim all the self-employed income you earned in 2012, and pay all associated taxes. You must also claim all the self-employed income you have earned in 2013 up to April 1. You must claim your taxes, and pay them, again every three months for the remainder of 2013...and for the foreseeable future, until the tax laws change.

It's pretty frightening, I know. Tax forms are pretty much impossible to understand. If you're confused about it, don't be afraid. Call the IRS and get help. They're always there and they will absolutely help you, even if the problem is that you can't pay the taxes you owe. They'll work out a payment plan with you and they're very flexible, so don't be afraid. I've called them several times, and their customer service is far better than what most private corporations are willing to offer.

Writing 101: Self-Published Authors and Paying Taxes

Most countries tax their citizens. Lots of people complain about that, but the world would stop functioning if goverments could not charge taxes. They're used to create roads and repair bridges, among many other important tasks, so we all pay them more or less willingly. And if you've been earning money as a self-published author, you may be required to pay them as well. 

Taxing Your Income

By law, you are required to give the government a certain percentage of your earnings. When you work and receive a paycheck, these taxes are automatically deducted from that paycheck. At the end of the year you may even receive a tax return from paying too many taxes throughout the year.

But when you earn income through self-publishing, taxes are not taken out because you do not receive a paycheck. You are not someone's employee; you are receiving royalties. Because this money is not taxed, legally it is labeled as self-employment income. And when you receive a self-employment income, your tax burden increases because now you have to claim that income and pay the necessary taxes.

Writing 101: Is It 'Worth It?'

Is it really worth it to be a writer? The romantic answer is a resounding yes. And if you're the type of person who likes insecurity, criticism, instability and exhaustion, then it's definitely something you ought to pursue. But if you enjoy getting holidays off and want to have some sort of extra time on the weekends, you've got some hard thinking to do.

Being a writer means paying a ton of money in taxes -- much more than you would if you had a "real job" -- and it means working much longer hours than the 9-to-5 guys who get the luxury of being on the clock just 40 hours a week. It also means being disregarded by everyone you know, because they'll assume it's easy for you to be flexible when it comes to your work. After all, to some of them what you do isn't even going to be real work. So before you pursue the goal of working as a full-time writer, make sure it's really worth it to you...because I promise, you're going to have to give up a lot to make it work.

Writing 101: Backing Up and Rescuing Your Manuscript

Spend time on a computer regularly, and it's bound to happen to you: data loss. Power outages, viruses, various meltdowns, there are all sorts of reasons your computer might malfunction and cause you to lose something you'd rather keep. But when it happens to your manuscript, it's the deepest cut of all. Don't lose your work! There are ways to avoid the problem, and ways to fix it when you haven't been avoiding it arduously enough. 

 Saving Your Book

I'm a little on the obsessive side when it comes to saving my work, because I've agonized through more than one crash in the past. But I've learned others aren't quite so psychotic about hitting the "save" button repeatedly. In fact, the computer makes it pretty easy to get lazy. Any word processing program worth its hard drive space will have an auto-save feature that automatically saves your progress, pretty much every time you pause. Even online programs, like blogger and gmail, have this auto-save feature. It's all too easy to watch drafts of your book automatically save themselves.

It's all too easy to grow complacent. But the first time you lose an entire manuscript, an important chapter or even a pivotal scene, you'll start to step over to this side of save-craziness. Don't learn the lesson the hard way. Before you ever worry about backing up your book, make sure you're saving it in the first place. When you pause to think or stop to go get a drink, hit the "save" button. If moving the mouse is too much trouble, you can simply hit Crtl-S on the keyboard (PC users) and save the work that way.

It never hurts to save the book in two different files on the hard drive. After you're done working for the day and everything is nicely saved, go up to the File menu and hit "save as" to store a second copy in an entirely new folder. You're doing this for an important reason: viruses and other corruption. A file you're working on constantly is more likely to fall prey to an unsavory program or problem, and your extra file may be spared from whatever is compromising your system.

Backing Up Your Book

No matter how up-to-date or fancy your computer, it's always susceptible to problems.  All it takes to wipe out a hard drive is a single flash of lightning, and I know because I've been there (here's a free tip: turn your wired machines off during electrical storms). That's why you should back up your book, and all related files you want to keep, every single time you work on it. 

Get into the habit of slapping a flash drive or backup drive into place at the end of every day, when you're ready to shut down the computer. Just copy the files from your hard drive onto your backup drive. It will only take a few moments to complete the entire process. USB flash drives are very inexpensive, and as a matter of fact you can write the cost off on your taxes (because they are a self-employed expense, are they not?). Save the receipt in order to write off the cost. 

Recovering Your Book

Of course, it's not always easy to remember to back up work -- and it's not always easy to make time to do so. When you fail to back up your book, that is the moment when you will lose it, invariably. So if for some reason you find that you can no longer locate your book on your hard drive, and your backup files don't have the new progress you've made, you're going to have to try to recover your work. 

Sarah Marcus wrote a very detailed posted explaining the data recovery process for writers. You may have to access your word processing program's file folders in order to look for temp saved files if your computer is still functioning. Microsoft users can also use the program's Application Recovery tool to look for recently-opened files on the system. You should also check the program's temp files to see if one of them is your book, recently auto-saved to the system. 

But that's pretty much a best-case scenario in data recovery. If you believe your book might be lost due to a huge computer failure, it's most likely because of a serious problem that prevents the computer from functioning normally. 

First, get a new hard drive and install it in the computer with necessary operating system software. Next, re-connect the damaged drive and set it as a slave to the new, non-corrupt hard drive. This will allow you to access any remaining data on the damaged drive that you want to restore. It should go without saying that if you have no idea what I'm talking about here, solicit some sort of help from someone in-the-know when it comes to computer technical issues. If help is out of reach, you can always look for software programs such as GetItBack to aid you in the data recovery process. 

If all else fails, look for professional help before you give up on your book for ever. Paying for data recovery can be costly, but the time you've already put into your book is also valuable. Try to save yourself all of these headaches by backing up your work every single day, and none of it will become an issue.

Books on Film: Robin Hood

At some point, everyone gets exposed to the heroic tale of Robin Hood. Everyone's heard at least one version of it, or seen one of the many movie adaptations. The story of the bandit who robs from the rich and gives to the poor is so old, and it's been re-told so much, no one really know just where it comes from...or whether or not it's true. But a great many brave souls have written books, and turned them into films, in order to depict this hero.

Only a few have done it well. 

The Story

The oldest recorded mention of Robin Hood can be found in a 15th century poem. It references "Robyn hode in scherewode stod," which becomes Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest. A 16th century reference places Robin in Loxley near South Yorkshire, an area that's been associated with Robin dating as far back as 1422. Records do indicate that a man named Robin Hood lived around Wakefield, Yorkshire, in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Piers Plowman created the first "rhymes of Robin Hood" known to exist, from the late 14th century, but these have not survived. Others referenced them in the 15th and 16th centuries, long enough for history to be blurry. In the earliest versions of the story Robin is known for being an excellent archer and a sworn enemy to the Sheriff of Nottingham. Little John, the Miller's son and Will Scarlet all appear in early versions of the legend.

Over the centuries, Robin Hood's legend grew. Even Shakespeare referenced Robin Hood in his works. The first printed version of the tale is A Gest of Robyn Hode, circa 1475. It's more a collection of short stories than a full-length novel, each one playing out like an episode.  

The earliest plays about Robin were written in the late 1500s. The first novel about the hero was created in 1883, when Howard Pyle wrote The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. It's this version that solidifies Robin's reputation as a philanthropist who takes from the wealthy to give to the less fortunate. This novel also made him a contemporary of King Richard (the Lionheart).

It's an image he still has today.

In The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, the reader follows Robin's path to becoming a famous outlaw. He gets into a conflict in the forest and begins recruiting merry men while evading the authorities. Robin and Little John battle with staffs, he meets Friar Tuck and he continuously battles the Sheriff of Nottingham. At the end of the novel, Robin and his men receive a royal pardon from the returning King Richard (who's been away at the Crusade).

It was Pyle's first novel, and a deviation from the original ballads. In the earliest versions of the story, Robin isn't the good guy -- he's just a thief and a bad-tempered one at that. The book was a huge hit, and it cemented Robin's more heroic image for all the succeeding generations.

The story is so well-known, the legend so entertaining, it very naturally lends itself to adaptation. By the time the novel appeared, Robin Hood had already appeared in poetry and plays...so why not in film, too?

The Film(s)

The very first film adaptation of the story happened way, way back in 1908. A silent English short film, Robin Hood and his Merry Men features Robin as a former earl and a pretty Maid Marian who loves him anyway. America made their own version, titled simply Robin Hood, in 1912. This 30-minute version includes characters like Friar Tuck and the villainous sheriff, in addition to Robin and Marian. Not to be outdone, the Brits made another silent film in 1912, this time called Robin Hood Outlawed. 

Lots more movies followed. Three more were made in 1913. One was Ivanhoe, one of the more popular versions of the story. But Robin Hood wouldn't gain real movie fame until 1922, when he was Douglas Fairbanks. Fairbanks was one of the biggest silent film stars of all time, and this version is still considered to be a classic. It had the biggest sets Hollywood had ever built, up to that point, and incredible action scenes involving swordfighting, Castle-climbing and all sorts of other thrilling moments.

But talkies were invented, and the story had to be adapted again...and again and again and again. More feature-length Robin Hood films followed in 1946, 1948, 1950 and 1951. Three Robin Hood movies were made in 1952 alone, one a live-action joint by Disney, who would go on to make a much more definitive version of the story later. It was turned into film again in 1954, 1959, 1960, 1962 and a 1964 version moves Robin to 1930s Chicago and stars Frank Sinatra as "Robbo" (I'm not kidding).

     

 Someone has made a Robin Hood film pretty much every single year since. Some are unwatchable, some are good...only a handful are worth mentioning.

 

The 1973 version of Robin Hood, made by Disney, is undoubtedly one of the best ever. It was actually a low-budget production for the megastudio. The 21st animated feature the studio produced, this version of the story turned Robin and all his pals into animals who act a great deal like us. Alan-a-Dale appears as a rooster who narrates the tale, and Robin's heroic reputation is fully intact. In the end, Robin gets his royal pardon and goes off to marry the lovely Maid Marian.

But it wasn't until 1991 that someone created the film version of the story. A box office monster and star-studded action fest, Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves starred Kevin Costner as the title character and I personally hate it. I'll never forgive Costner for not at least attempting an English accent of any kind. And Christian Slater? It's an insult to moviegoers. Still, this is considered one of the best versions of the story and it's one of the few to feature Will Scarlet (the aforementioned Slater), though he's been Robin's companion since the 1400s.

This time, Robin isn't just a nobleman but a Crusader. He joined King Richard, who was famously separated from his men and captured before he could get home. This time, Robin is given a Saracen buddy that he's brought with him from Crusade and he has to deal with a witch instead of just a crooked sheriff. In this version, Will Scarlet is Robin's half-brother (oddly). But the ending does remain intact: King Richard shows up to pardon Robin just as he's marrying his lady love, Maid Marian.

An ambitious version of the story was created with Russell Crowe in the lead in 2010. This time, Robin Longstride (Crowe) is an archer in King Richard's army and a veteran of the Third Crusade. He returns home with friends Little John, Allan A'Dayle and Will Scarlett, but runs into all sorts of problems. When he makes a promise to Robert Loxley to return a sword, things start to get all mixed up.

Robin assumes Loxley's identity and returns to a homeland in turmoil, as King John has now assumed the throne. This film doesn't end with a pardon for Robin. In a deviation from the original novel, King John labels him as an outlaw for life instead.

Which One's the Best?

And they're all good films, I'm sure, but if you want to see the very best adaptation of Robin Hood that ever was made, you'll get the one from 1938. It's the only one with Errol Flynn, and that makes it the only one worth watching. 

The Adventures of Robin Hood is the clear winner when it comes to film adaptations (sorry, Disney). This swashbuckling epic was filmed in stunning Technicolor. Errol's real-life love interest Olivia de Havilland (perhaps better-known to moviegoers as Melanie Hamilton from Gone With the Wind) played Marian and the incomparable Claude Rains rounds out the cast. 

Richard the Lionheart has been taken captive by the Austrians (historically accurate) and Prince John has assumed power. Taxes have been raised, and the people are discontent. All of this reflects the real history. Only Robin, Earl of Locksley, opposes him. The archer even boldly goes right to the castle to insult John to his face, then eludes all of his men in an impressive bit of heroics. It's enough to impress the watching Maid Marian, anyway.

Robin flees to Sherwood Forest with friend Will Scarlet. Together they meet Little John, who spars with Robin. Soon enough Robin meets Friar Tuck and the band of Merry Men is complete.

It's a heck of a good movie, and Flynn is the definitive Robin Hood. He became indelibly associated with the role, and he and his Maid Marian would go on to star in 4 more movies together. The flick won three Oscars, and was nominated for Best Picture. It pays decent enough homage to the 19th-century novel and captures much of the flavor of the original Robin Hood legend, and it's one version you absolutely shouldn't miss.