Archive for the ‘Tips for Beginners’ Category

Ask the Tax Czarina: Hobby or Business?

In previous posts, SFWA’s own “Tax Czarina” discussed some basic tax issues writers face, bartering, and the 1099 Misc. form. This week’s post focuses on how the IRS differentiates hobbies from businesses.

Story Cake

by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

The popular advice for writers is to write your first draft for just one person and then to revise for the world. Your voice, they say, should be personal and true and deep but the story itself must have mass-market appeal. This is a rainbow I chased for a long time. Lately, though, I’m starting to question the simple assumption that success is measured by the number of readers.

Ask the Tax Czarina: 1099-MISC

So far, SFWA’s own “Tax Czarina” has discussed basic tax issues writers face and questions about bartering.  This week, she focuses on questions regarding Form 1099 MISC. Q: Did I miss the deadline for Form 1099-MISC? What should I do? A: The deadline for delivering Form 1099-MISC was February 1. So you may have missed that deadline. The deadline for filing […]

We Are All Allies

by Dan Koboldt

In some ways, publishing is a zero-sum game. There are only so many slots in the schedule of traditional publishers. Only ten books can occupy the top ten list, and only one can win the Hugo. Yet the most dangerous and pervasive threat to the aspiring author is not another author, nor is it a big bad publisher. Nor is it a certain online store. No, the biggest threat is the ever-shrinking reading time the average person has in our modern world.

When to Trunk a Story or Novel?

by Tobias S. Buckell

Today, while waiting for my new office chair to be delivered, I asked followers at Twitter to send me some questions. In response, someone tweeted: “When to trunk and when to keep rewriting?”