The No News is No News Purgatory Thread, Volume 8

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GJB

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Rick - Be careful claiming part of your house as a home office for tax purposes. I've been told that it can complicate things if/when you ever want to sell the house. *nodnod*

+1

Home office gets depreciated over its "useful" life. Then, when you sell, the cost "basis" of the house must be reduced from the purchase price and any upgrades/additions by the total amount of depreciation taken over the years. Home office furniture gets depreciated over its useful life--different than the bricks and mortar. Computers get depreciated over their useful life--shorter still. Paper, ink, gas to signings etc. get deducted. Mortgage, I don't think so. That's a loan repayment, and you get to deduct the interest on the mortage elsewhere. Rent, only the portion for your writer office. One more reason I write historicals: get to deduct cool trips to off-the-beaten paths. But...check with your accountant before you file. I'm not a tax lawyer, just pretend to be. g.
 

Dragonfly45

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*waves hand* I'm on my second agent, too, and I will say it isn't because of anything I did. *cough cough* I think it's just a sore spot I have, but I always worry that authors not sharing stories like this can lead to folks make decisions about who to go with without having all the info. I'm not condoning blantant bashing sessions by any means, but I don't think it's wrong to tell folks if there's something shady going on that might prevent heartbreak in another, if that makes sense.

Quick q for you folks: I'm about the be at a point to reveal the cover for The Tr@de, and I'm trying to decide a few things about its reveal. I'm interested to get your thoughts and input, particularly since a few of you have gone the route of doing hyped cover reveals, and others have just sort of let 'em rip as they came out. So, my questions are:

1. Do big, hyped cover reveals matter/do much? Is there a way to milk a big reveal to make the reveal effective in selling books, particularly with a sequel to a book already on sale? (Tr@de is Ch@in's sequel)
2. Is having hype surrounding a cover reveal useful because it can drive traffic to your website, for instance, if you make it a more "exclusive" reveal at first, or is it better to just put it out anywhere and everywhere the second you have it?
3. I'm wondering if you guys have any ideas of a cool way to reveal the cover? I'm currently running around on a blog tour, so that's one thing, I also have a members only page on my website, so that's another possibility.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!
 

OL

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I need to call upon the Purgie brain trust, and I feel like I should apologize in advance....

Speaking of blurbs. I'm trying to come up with a wish list, just to get some ideas, and I am drawing blanks. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. They don't need to be ones I could realistically get, I'm just having a hard time thinking of any kind of comps that make sense
 

K. Taylor

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Furniture and computers can be deducted either in segments for depreciation, or once with the full purchase price. I do the latter. It's just easier to put down the whole thing and calculate from that.

I had $678 in expenses for 2011 and still paid 10% of my income to the fed for taxes owed. It's good to be prepared to pay 25-30% of 1099 income, and prepare to pay quarterly to more easily manage payments once royalties are equivalent to full-time income.
 

Parametric

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Rick - Be careful claiming part of your house as a home office for tax purposes. I've been told that it can complicate things if/when you ever want to sell the house. *nodnod*

When I was running my business from my parents' house I casually mentioned to my dad that I could deduct the household expenses against my tax liability. Which (unknown to me) would have made my parents liable for capital gains tax on a property worth a hundred times more than my business. He went decidedly pale and told me to never speak those words again. :tongue
 

kellion92

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I think writers have to talk about the legit agents that do their clients wrong, not just out-and-out scammers. Just because an agent has made sales for client A doesn't mean he hasn't committed malpractice on B, C, D, and E.

OL, I don't have suggestions, but I'd aim super high! You should be able to get anybody -- you're a NYT reviewed, NYT best seller, right?

Colby, I emailed you elsewhere, but here are my thoughts on cover reveals. I think a big hyped cover reveal only works if there's ALREADY a lot of built-in demand. Otherwise it seems artificial and people don't pay attention because the cover is everywhere. They tune it out if it's on 10 sites.

BUT you have a new book out, as well as a cover, so if you can get hype, it's a two-fer -- promote the new release and the upcoming one. So I guess my advice is to find a a well-trafficked site in your genre and ask them to do an exclusive cover reveal for you, then promote the single location.

I put mine on my group blog, which is a well-trafficked site, and the reveal was very successful -- it was one of our top posts ever, much forwarded, thanks to the support of Purgatory and others who spread the word. But other group blogs authors have done cover reveals there with much less splash, and when we have hosted third-party cover reveals for others who were blanketed cyberspace, the traffic is low.
 

Tasmin21

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Lily - Technically, no we are not snowed in. If I wanted, I could go to work. I don't wanna. So, working from home again today. Hubby, however, will be going to work, slowly.

Kinda sore from all the shoveling yesterday. Also, why doesn't shoveling have two Ls? It seems like it should, but spellcheck gets mad at me.

It's possible I'm not awake yet.
 

Maryn

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Shoveling doesn't have two Ls because one got canceled. (kan-SEALED?)

I'm so glad I'm a native English speaker, otherwise I'd never master it.

Maryn, who still relies on spell check
 

sammyig

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Morning all.

I get to go to dinner with some friends tonight.

The agent thing: I do think a site or something that can warn writers about agents that have marks against them would be a good thing. But- I fear there would be a problem similar to the professor rating sites. My favorite professor when I was in college was amazing. He really knew art and was always engaging us in conversations about it. Well, he got slammed on a professor rating site because his classes were "hard". Yes, the great majority of your grade was based on your final paper- but I learned more from that man than any of my other art history professors. So, with the agent rating site- I wonder how many agents would get slammed just because they simply rejected an author?

Still, though, I wish there was an honest list. I never would have queried a few agents had I known things I know now.
 

Parametric

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Shovelling does have two l's in British English, along with revelling, travelling, and so many other -llings. :D
 

Tasmin21

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Para - So...basically, you're saying I'm a closet Brit?
 

Rick

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Morning Purgies!


LynDee - glad the book event went well!

Smiley - Vamp dust for the Full!


Thanks for all the writer expense ideas and the info on pre-sales. As I get closer and the promotion side of the house kicks in, I'll share what I learn.

One of the bunnies got out last night and chewed through my laptop charger cord, so I'm running on battery power. Currently at 85% and falling. I'll see if I can splice the two ends together.

Rick, who should turn down the brightness of his laptop display
 

JennW

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Morning purgies!

OL - I don't know your genre enough to make suggestions, but I agree with Kelly - AIM HIGH!

Interesting talk on the taxes. I was aware of most but hadn't considered cell phone useage/part of bill. Bookmarking that for next year.

Speaking of taxes, our refund landed in our bank account this week. Whoo hoo. We got a nice refund. To bad it's all going back out to bills. Oh well!

Ouch on oddly spelled words. I am the worst speller ever. Thank God for spell check!
 

Rick

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Oh, I meant to chime in on the agent discussion. I agree there should be a site where writers can get the skinny on literary agents. Isn't there one that already does that - Predators and Editors? The site has comments next to each agency, with bad comments in red - "Not recommended", or "Charges fee", etc. Or are you talking something more agent specific?
 

kellion92

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I don't think a rate-your-agent site is a great idea, but more available stats would show a lot without any namecalling at all. Right now, the only stats are on request rates and sales, but I'd love to know basics, such as are available for colleges. The metrics I'd find most useful are:

Number of clients
% of clients with books they've sold
% of client with books sold within two years of signing
% of debut clients
% of clients who are retained as clients for three years

I don't think you'd need a lot of qualitative rating information if you knew how many clients were sold within two years and retained for three. That would show you how effective the agent really was, how loyal they were to unsold clients, and how they were able to satisfy writers through effective and respectful client service. The retention metric would be the one I'd most like.

Dream on, right?

ETA: Rick, P&E shows whether agents charge fees or are scammers. It doesn't show whether they have 20 clients for every one they've sold, whether they are a spaghetti agent who subs books then drops clients quickly if they don't sell immediately, or if they delay and offer excuses and dither and never actually sub their client's book. Some legit agents do that, and some agents with very high sales accomplish that while churning through unsold clients and treating writers really badly. But that's information that's only available underground. A few metrics would give a lot of clues.
 
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dystophil

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Good morning, lovelies!

Para - So...basically, you're saying I'm a closet Brit?

Tas, I'm with you. I always spell these things with two l's.

Glad no one is snowed in (yet). I literall slid through a big intersection on my way to school this morning. If my car could make scaredy noises other than the orange "track off" light, poor Marshmallow would have squealed in fear.

Anyway, I'm with the TGIF crowd. Had a really rough day yesterday and it's been messing with my poor brain. Still feeling all kinds of low and depressed today. You know there's a problem when even chocolate doesn't help. And it wasn't even that bad. At the same time I feel totally crushed because of a few off-hand non-comments from someone who obsrved my class for twenty minutes. Ridiculous, isn't it?

Meh. Hug?
 

Trinza

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Kellion -- That would be fantastic to be able to see metrics like that at a glance! We can dream, I guess. Metrics are so hard to manage as you're so limited by WHO responds and who updates their information, it's hard to figure out how accurate those things are most of the time.

At this point, I think education is a writer's best defense. Knowing what questions to ask and that you CAN ask in depth questions, even. I think a lot of writers are overwhelmed when they get an offer or they learn the hard way what questions they should have asked before signing.

There's a lot of information out there now, but it all seems scattered and I doubt many people find it. It would be nice to have a central location to guide people through the process with articles about what you want to make sure you ask/do if you get an offer and how to best make sure you're getting into that agent/author relationship with the right person.
 

Amarie

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(((Dys))) Really, really don't let non-comments bother you. You can't be the perfect teacher every day to all students. I don't know if as a high school teacher you'll ever have to face student evaluations, but if you do, it's best to steel yourself to knowing a percentage will always be negative.

Kellion is very smart. That is all.
 

Rick

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(((Dys))) Chocolate doesn't help? I'm thinking you need to head to the Emergency Room!

The metrics I'd find most useful are:

Number of clients
% of clients with books they've sold
% of client with books sold within two years of signing
% of debut clients
% of clients who are retained as clients for three years
Yes, this would be valuable info. When I decided to go with Small Agent vice wait on Big Agent, I had no idea if I was making the right choice. In the end, I did what Lynne said - "Go with small agent because he's passionate about the book." That was pretty much all I went on. But I figured any agent can bullshit his way through a phone call and in reality be a really good agent or a really crappy one, and how is a writer to know? Our agent selection process seems more trial and error than a well-researched decision.
 

firedrake

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((((Dys))))

Slowly recovering after yesterday's online drama. Woke up at 3.30 and decided that I'd pretty much had enough of writing that I was never going to make that list of 'must-have' authors and wondered if it was worth even trying. Luckily a good friend talked me off the ledge but, by God, talk about jealousy.
I has it.
Because I've finally got it through my thick skull that being a good writer doesn't necessarily mean being a popular one.
That sucks.
 

Rick

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Because I've finally got it through my thick skull that being a good writer doesn't necessarily mean being a popular one.
That sucks.
Exactly! My take is:

Popular Writer = writing doesn't completely suck + large dose of Marketing and/or Luck

Hey, I'm a hard science guy, so I'm good with formulas.
 
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