LLCs to Protect Yourself - from what?

Things are moving slow regarding the house fire.  No real news to report.

So I'm going back to blogging about the publishing schemers.  Should you form a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) as an author? 

Before I jump into the scheme, I will say that anyone can sue anyone in the United States for any reason.  So if based on that, I guess it wouldn't hurt except that LLCs aren't free.  I'm not overly concerned that someone will sue based on my fiction writing since I'm definitely sure I wrote it, have backup files, posted info about it during National Novel Writing months, went to writing groups, and from there it'll be a tough case to prove otherwise.  And what would they hope to gain, my royalties?  Plus their court costs?   Not a good get-rich-quick scheme.   Damages?  How does a fictional novel damage someone?  I even googled Vanna's name to make sure there weren't a bunch of Vanna Ames around.  There wasn't even a historic figure named Neferseshotep.

However, the real scheme (according to the schemers) is to use other work that you wouldn't legally be able to use and hide behind the LLC when it's found out.   That doesn't sound pleasant, but they were using as an example Broken Piano for President by Patrick Wensink.  I've actually blogged about Wensink's blog on Salon so when this scheme was floated at a dubious writing group, I knew exactly the book and author.   I don't think Wensink or his publisher started out with the intention of receiving an extremely polite cease-and-desist letter from Jack Daniels that they publicized because it was one of the nicest cease-and-desists ever.  Wensink admitted he made $12,000 in that six month royalty period because his book then became a bestseller so in Sharon terms this is also not a good get-rich-quick scheme.  I have imagination and like to think in terms of Powerball jackpot figures, rather than being able to cover a tuition bill.

But to the scheme -
(1) Set up a LLC. 
(2) Obtain a novel, search and replace names and insert products from chosen title.  The idea floated was similar to Marlboros and Budweisers. 
(3) The LLC publishes the novel.
(4) The LLC collects the royalties.
(5) The LLC pays every cent it receives to the schemer.
(6) Repeat steps 2-5.
(7) The LLC has no money when it is sued by the authors or trademark holders.

First off, I don't think this is very good for someone who claims to be an author.  Ideas should be popping up in your brain all the time so you don't have to manipulate someone else's text and slap your name on it.

Secondly and probably more importantly in legal terms, a LLC cannot be used to avoid personal liability.  Since I'm not a lawyer, I'll point you to Maxwell S. Kennerly, Esquire's post.

Basically, you can't set up a LLC to avoid taking responsibility for your wrongdoing.  Let's say I have my LLC and a teenager.  I register her car to the LLC.  When she drives through a red light, and a camera takes a picture, the ticket will be issued to the owner of the car - LLC.   Do you think I can say LLC has no money, and write ROTFLMAO across the summons? 

Use ISBN - International Standard Book Number

Please excuse this longish post.  

And a preceding caveat that we can ignore for this discussion - Kindle format books only need an Amazon number or ASIN.

So much gets said about ISBN – international standard book number or that barcode on the back of the book they scan at the bookstore.  I believe the worst piece of self-publishing, business advice I heard is don’t get an ISBN for any of your published work. 

There’s various scenarios where you might choose one route over another to become published and possibly obtain an ISBN, but this individual was going full ‘tin foil hat’ so that’s why I found her series of comments so disturbing.

I think this applies to United States only – you can take that to mean only here will you hear this and will there be people listening, if you like.

From the trolling well of misinformation -

If your book is ever branded with an ISBN, the government will know every book sold and at what price and come after you for taxes because Bowker (the sole source of US ISBNs) is a government agency that’s part of the IRS.

I think she should have added the word ‘secretly’ because most Bowker employees have no idea they work for the IRS (that’s me being sarcastic – Bowker is not part of the IRS), or somehow collate book sales along with information regarding what is the net income to each author for tax purposes.  Authors are taxed on their income, not the cover price of their books.

Besides the illogic of this scenario, I’m concerned about the author who may take this as true (if not paying taxes on income is their primary concern when they self-publish their book).  Without an ISBN, where will this book be sold - out of the trunk of your car?   I expect the ‘off the grid’ style will radically decrease sales, if there were ever going to be any.  Is it worth not paying income tax to do this?  If the answer’s ‘Hell, yes!’ read on …

More how-to advice from the same troll when an author questioned what to do if a printer insists they want to put a ISBN on the back cover of the book –

Check with local printers.  Do not use large book printers such as CreateSpace.   Ask the printer for a barcode free cover.  If they are insistent, supply a false one.  Local printers may not verify for accuracy.

Should I be worried that my ISBN will be supplied to mask some hot-selling, off-the-grid novel, and the Bowker division of the IRS will be after my ass?

I have not priced out how much the difference is between using a Print On Demand (POD) company such as CreateSpace (owned by Amazon) is compared to a local printer.  However, I do know other authors who are under contract to smaller publishing houses and their books are printed by CreateSpace.  To me, that means that CreateSpace offers competitive printing rates.

Tying this back to the original premise, what if the author decides the local printer is too much money per copy, and s/he uses CreateSpace?  There will be an ISBN assigned to that book.  CreateSpace offers them at no charge for using their service.

This could put the tin-foil hat crowd back into a tailspin because that seems deceptive – nothing worth having is ever free.  Within Bowker’s web site, there is pricing for ISBNs.  Bulk pricing lists 1,000 ISBNs for $1,000, contact for ISBNs in greater quantity.  So let’s say CreateSpace paid at most $1 for each ISBN they give away for free – doesn’t that mean Amazon will go out of business? 

It is true that currently you never have to buy a copy of your own book through CreateSpace which equals no revenue for CS/Amazon.  Authors can also not choose any distribution options (it’s not even for sale on Amazon).  How many people are doing that?  I think CS/Amazon has thought it out and finds $1 an acceptable risk for gaining the possible business.  As long as some authors buy copies of their books, sell their title through Amazon, or purchase other services through CreateSpace, they’ll make those dollars back.

For those interested in eBook publishing, SmashWords has a similar offer.   A free ISBN to cover the eBook distribution you choose (Smashwords distributes to multiple eBook platforms).  Don’t mix up the ISBNs.  You need one for each format – hardcover, trade paperback, eBook, audio, etc.

There’s more advice on ISBNs that I might not call as ‘tin foil hat’, but more about keeping it a secret that you’re a self-published or indie author, or the current term ‘artisan author’. 

Remember Big Brother over at Bowker?  He only talks to whoever bought the ISBN.  That’s Bowker’s customer and the ISBN owner of record. Anyone researching that ISBN or your title will find out who Bowker’s customer/your publisher is.  If they see ‘Create Space’ or ‘Amazon Digital’ instead of ‘Random House’, your secret is out of the bag.

So the bigger thinking entrepreneurs will set up a company name, or better yet a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) to be their publisher, even if they will be the only author for the publisher they own.  When they go to a service like CreateSpace, Lightning Source, or Smashwords, they will supply the ISBN they bought directly from Bowker. 

Confusing?  Let’s say I started a business with my blog name and called it Crazy Cat Publishing. I then go to Bowker and pay for a block of ISBNs (remember one for each format, and I plan to have multiple titles so I might as well buy them now for the best group price).  I decide to use CreateSpace for POD (print on demand) and supply them with an ISBN that Crazy Cat Publishing (me) purchased from Bowker.  When my book is listed in Books in Print or anywhere else, it will say it was published by Crazy Cat Publishing.  CreateSpace was hired by Crazy Cat Publishing as a printer.  

Is that deceiving the consumer?  I am aware of factors because I am an author, but as a reader, I might not care who the publisher is unless I find a quality factor – either good or bad.  I do get a bit short with my book reviews if I know the book is traditionally published and is edited poorly in terms of development, plot, and basic copy editing.  However, even if it’s self-published, I do have some expectation with regards to professional quality.

Since I started with the worry of taxes, I can give a brief amount of info on how it works for self-publishing.  Amazon (as CreateSpace or Kindle Direct) and others will ask for your SSN, or if you set up a company like Crazy Cat Publishing, its tax number.  You get emails about your royalties, probably choose to get them direct deposited, and then sometime in January each seller/distributor will mail you or your company a 1099MISC.  That’s income.

If you decide to be an off the grid author as originally suggested as the best way to do things by the troll poster, you would not have author income so I think that eliminates deducting author expenses.

So my conclusion would be get and use an ISBN, even if you feel more comfortable setting up an alias company for yourself and buying it directly from Bowker rather than accepting a free one.  An ISBN allows that particular format of your book to be sold through bookstores and carried by distributors.  Those sellers will pay royalties and that is your income.  

Poor Man's Copyright

With starting the new day job, I’ve got a new schedule.  I’m old and resistant to change so author  blogging hasn’t topped my ‘to do’ list, but obviously I need to get back to this.  

In the past month, I’ve been revisiting some of my previous sources of publishing information because the landscape changes quickly these days.  The comments left as helpful advice may not always reflect the best intentions (back to my disgust with trolling – someone’s at this site for advice, so a troll purposely gives false or misleading information).

So perhaps I can write a blog series debunking some of the more extreme or most hindering advice?

Today’s post will be about ‘Poor Man’s Copyright’ and I’m only referring to the United States with suggestions though probably other countries have their own laws and method to register copyrights. 

This myth has been around a long time (pre-email days), and it’s never been easier to copyright so why someone would still find this alternate method believable and also legitimate is baffling.  However, this idea certainly has legs. 

According to the Poor Man’s Copyright, all an author needs to do is print out their manuscript, stick it in an envelope, and mail it to themselves.  If they never open this postmarked envelope until it is time to defend their creative rights in court, it is proof that the author wrote it and here’s a copy time-stamped by the post office.

Sounds simple, but here’s the flaws –

·         Court cases are not won this way because you could have mailed yourself empty envelopes and filled any one with paper later, or backdated your computer to burn a disc with a date two days before your postmarked envelope.

·         The US Copyright Office does not recognize this as a substitution for registration.

If that’s not how it’s done, how do you copyright your work?

·         Thanks to The Copyright Act of 1976 , your work is under copyright the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form which could be printed on paper or on a hard drive and read  with the aid of a device such as a computer.

·         If you want to voluntarily register your copyright because registered works may be used for litigation, in case you have some difficulty later and want to go after statutory damages and attorney’s fees.   Register electronically at http://www.copyright.gov/eco/ and the current fee is $35. 

I work in IT and am not an attorney, but Snopes even says Poor Man's Copyright is not helpful in the United States, but does mention it 'may be useful' in the U.K. 

Don't TROLL me, bro

After my last outburst or blog post, you’d think I’d back my shit down, but I’m still finding a lot of dubious advice regarding self-publishing being touted with CAPS and insults.

It seems that if someone allows their work to be edited, formatted, proofread then it is no longer their story, and they never had faith in themselves as authors.  GIVE UP NOW!  You can’t compete with the accomplished authors (like the authoritative poster) who knows what they’re doing, and you noobs will save yourself a lot of money and heartache.

What do I know?   Any response to that hooey, and I’m rec’g  different versions of ‘@SHARON I’M CAPPLOKKING MY REPLY SO YOU READ MY RIGHTEOUS RAGE OVER YOUR TERRIBLE ADVICE – YOU CAN’T SWIM WITH SHARKS’ Oh, are those ‘pro tips’?  Given that they’re someone I should pay attention to, I wonder what genre they write in.  Ah, it appears they are using a pseudonym somewhere, or they are principled individuals boycotting Amazon.   I better not cross these guys, or I’m doomed.   Oh wait, that’s really DOOMED, eh?  Hey, my caps lock key works. Should I use it more to sound like I’m an authoritative person accomplished at writing, rather than a noob?  I really thought people trolled on political sites, fan fiction and gaming boards – not LinkedIn, ‘the world’s largest professional network’. 

Although I have been told parasites in cat pooh make me bat shit crazy, I keep my game face on while I’m posting on LinkedIn.  My author blog – well, I have to show some of my personality.  I am not writing IT or PM manuals; I write fiction.  Maybe somewhat strange fiction, but the parasites help me think (or so they tell me).

What I really know - Anyone can self-publish.  Write, upload, choose some options, and ‘Bam!’, you’re an author.  Congratulations? 

Am I trying to be facetious to keep everyone from becoming rich and famous as authors?  Writing is not a get rich quick scheme.  Many authors keep their day jobs, and possibly their second jobs.  I have.  That’s why I can’t afford to go putting a CAP in someone’s ass all over LinkedIn.

Someone referred to an article that claimed the average author makes only $500 per year.  I think that’s possible, based on the amount of new authors, the number of authors that are not paid handsomely by traditional publishers, and the authors that may not be trying to sell something that readers would buy.

I offered advice geared towards the self-published author – both new and even those that may have titles out but wonder what’s wrong after months of bad sales and reviews.  I think it costs a candle nothing to light another candle, and I don’t drop a bunch of low star reviews on Amazon when I see poor ‘Look Inside’ reveals.

Plot aside, what does that book look like?  Is it formatted for easy reading – check out Joel Friedlander’s blog - http://www.thebookdesigner.com/  Study it.   Learn.  If I was to post hints here, they’d come right from Joel’s blog.  A self-published book should not be uglier than a traditionally published book.  You don’t want the reader to click on ‘look inside’ and cringe – that’s if they got past your cover and decided to click. 

So formatting is somewhere that I think authors can spend a little more time, and by that I mean hardly any time at all to do it right.  I don’t know why justifying text is self-pub kryptonite, but it seemingly is true.  Pick up a regular, traditionally published book – look inside it. Is your printed book going to look something like that?  What’s different?  Fix that.

I used CreateSpace and was happy with the result of uploading using their Word template and their cover maker using images licensed from Shutterstock.  Like anything else, there are people out there who make a living formatting text and making cover art.  Sometimes you can find help on Fiverr – results vary widely on Fiverr, but it’s only $5 a gig.  

Next – Plot [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_(narrative)].  Is there one?  Is it suitable for what you wish to communicate?  Can the reader understand it?  This is a problem of mine.  I write long sentences, don’t always put in the little words, and I know exactly what I mean no matter how circular the route to get to the point – why don’t you?  You won’t know that answer unless someone else reads it and says something.  That’s part of what an editor does.  There’s different ways to get your work read and commented upon – critique groups, exchanging with another author (you read theirs), or a family member that reads voraciously and can be conned into reading your crap.  With all those, the benefit is it may be *free*, but the caveat is that the input is only as good as the person reading it.

I like critique groups because I can also learn from what’s being said about others’ work.  The drawback is that one bad apple can mess things up, and leave me feeling it’s a waste of time.  Since I do like getting things accomplished in my ‘free time’, I have little tolerance for divas throwing other people’s stories onto the table and declaring it’s no good because there is a semi-colon.  Nothing about content, because the semicolon is that offensive to them.  If only I brought my laptop – I'd so CAP her so hard, she'd think I'd become a professional writer/editor/social commentator/trollwad.

There are also free-lance editors.  I would advise someone to either get recommendations from an author who you admire or writes something similar, or ask the editor if it’s possible to get a multi-page or one chapter sample edit.  It is your money – so you want to get your money’s worth, and probably not waste time because an editor won’t have that manuscript back to you tomorrow. 

Maybe it’s because I’m an intolerant crazy cat lady that I get so picky, and don’t just want the cheapest editor around to add strikethroughs everywhere.  I also do not want to receive back something that makes me work to find the edits.  If I send a MS Word document (or Open Office), I want changes tracked and comments added to the document.  Do not send me back a corrected pdf and expect that I will accept all changes.  Chances are I’ll accept many of the changes, but I want the option to reject some.  In the end, it’s my name on this so if I want to ignore perfectly good advice, that’s my problem.

Editors may also suggest plot changes.  Some can be pretty big.  For The End of the World Sucks, I rec’d two big ones, besides the cries of sacrilege because I was breaking genre commandments (vampire and zombies are never together, and all zombie books must start at the outbreak).  The first was to add romance - I mocked it for a couple days, but then my teen said she expected some romance too since there was a vampire in the novel.  So I changed ages, added about 10,000 words, and now have to outline a sequel (possibly for 2012 NaNoWriMo).  I think the second one is on par with ‘add romance’, but just didn’t fit with my concept for this plot.  Change the main character, kill someone dear to him/her, have him/her train all through the novel, then at the end the main character saves everyone by killing the zombies in a winner takes all grand battle.  To me, that reads like the plot of any ‘killed my teacher’ vengeance, kung fu film with a lot more enemies at the end.

After editing, possibly rewriting, the manuscript is almost ready to go.  What about proofreading?  Someone needs to go through the reworked document looking for the little errors, and scrawling something like ‘so many commas’ on the page for you, besides showing you which ones need to be removed or added.  It’s checking spelling, grammar and language usage.  A couple will not bother most readers, but if it’s riddled with errors, that’s too distracting, and if someone ends up feeling they wasted money buying your book, it’s likely they’ll leave a bad review.  Bad Reviews are bad. 

Consider proofreading. It’s not as easy to find a proofreader as an editor because it’s hard work, but they’re out there. Though you can give them some direction – one rewrote some dialogue for me.  I don’t talk that properly so I did not accept those changes.

If your grammar, spelling and all is good, you might be able to work out an exchange with someone to keep your costs low.  Don’t try to inflict really bad prose on someone, unless they’re equally in need of help (though how can you help each other?).

In a way this comes back to self-published versus traditionally published.  If an author wants no part of design, format, editing and proofreading, a traditional publisher handles all that.  Win-win. 

If an author wants no part of it and self-publishes, it’s not likely to sell well. Not impossible, but it’s almost as if the author is sabotaging themselves by not putting their best effort into it.

The self-published author also has to consider cost.  Remember that figure from the beginning that authors average $500 per year?  It could be the figure is misleading, and if you spend $2,000 on a full-package deal (cover, edit, proofread, format and upload), you sell $2,500 of books, netting $500.  To me, that sounds risky.  I could just as easily lose $500 or more, rather than make $500.

What I’m seeing among the obviously self-published authors is a category that weakens the whole label of self- published and equates it with trash.  Kindle is allowing novella publishing – I have no problem with that concept, there’s some great shorter fiction.  So I’ll see a lot of 89 page, 99 cent offerings while I’m mucking around on Amazon.  Everything’s fine until I click on ‘Look Inside’.  Being a shorter work, there’s less pages available for sampling, but even in that short taste of the book, I have enough to form a bad opinion, if the 2-star review average didn’t give me a clue.

A couple clicks in Word before uploading would have made it better formatted, also those red, squiggly lines mean something – look those words up, don’t just upload it willy-nilly because your fans need your latest book tonight.

If that fails, here are the community guidelines from FanFiction.net   Authors share fan fiction freely, since they cannot try to sell another’s ideas, characters …   So should free fan fiction have a higher standard than self-published fiction? 

Here is a list of conducts that should always be observed:

1. Spell check all story and poetry. There is no excuse for not performing this duty. If you do not have a word processor that has the spell checking feature, use a search engine such as Google.com to find one.
2. Proofread all entries for grammar and other aspects of writing before submission. 'Hot off the press' content is often riddled with errors. No one is perfect but it is the duty of the writer to perform to the best of his/her ability.
3. Respect the reviewers. Not all reviews will strictly praise the work. If someone rightfully criticizes a portion of the writing, take it as a compliment that the reviewer has opted to spend his/her valuable time to help improve your writing.
4. Everyone here is an aspiring writer. Respect your fellow members and lend a helping a hand when they need it. Like many things, the path to becoming a better writer is often a two way street.

5.    Use proper textual formatting. For example: using only capital letters in the story title, summary, or content is not only incorrect but also a disregard for the language itself.

In conclusion, Rule #5 says watch those caps lock rants. Fan Fiction is not the pro-tip source, but it does seem more polite, even if there’s tons of troll reviews :^)