A Taxing Lesson on Writing

“The Eiffel Tower is the Empire State Building after taxes.” – Anonymous


I mentioned to my sister that I attended a Florida Department of Revenue tax seminar this week. Her shocked response was, “What were you doing going to a tax seminar, did you get lost on the way to a writers group?”

In a vague way, the answer is, “Yes.”

When I decided to try my hand at a writing career, I believed I would be writing. Period. I pictured myself spending blissful hours composing articles, short stories, novels, possibly a children’s book or two and maybe a even few memoirs.

It came as quite a shock when I learned that a successful writer must also be prepared to tackle a sales and marketing career as well. I’ve slowly been adjusting to this fact over the past year. I’ve come to terms with the idea that I am going to have to look people in the eye and say, “Buy my book, pleeeease.”

With that in mind, I thought it might be a nice touch to sell personalized, signed copies of The Ride from my own web site. I obtained a resale certificate in order to purchase my books for that purpose. Along with the certificate came a tax return book with forms that used terms like surtax and discretionary sales tax. Just thinking about filling in all those little boxes almost caused me to break our in hives.

“It can’t be that bad,” I said trying to convince myself. “I’ll just attend this seminar and the foreign language on the form will become perfectly clear.” If only life was that simple. Two and a half hours later, I left the building with my head swimming.

My marketing and sales career is already eating away at the time I spend writing. Trying to become an accountant on top of that would erode my writing time even further. So for the time being, I decided to leave internet sales of The Ride up to ArcheBooks, Amazon, and other vendors.

I’d love to know if there are writers who manage to wear all three of these hats without the weight breaking their neck. If you are one or are acquainted with one of these multi-talented people, let me know. I’d love to learn the secret behind successful multi-tasking.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week.

Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride
http://janesutton.com/

Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, Amazon, marketing , taxes, accountant, Eiffel tower, Empire State Building,Florida Department of Revenue