One of the things that can affect your tax returns is the income that you report from writing in the form of royalties, advances, etc. Many of you will have literary agents and those agents will report to you what you’ve earned at the end of a year on a 1099. While the IRS says that agencies are supposed to report to their clients the gross income amount that was received, most agencies report on the net basis, and the IRS doesn’t seem to be aware of, or care about that. But as an author, you really need to know on what basis your agent is reporting income because it could potentially affect your tax return.
10 Tips to facilitate textbook successor author transitions
Finding a successor for your textbook(s) can be a daunting, arduous task. At TAA’s June 2013 conference veteran authors Robert Christopherson, Michael Sullivan, and Karen Morris presented a session sharing strategies for finding a successor and successfully transitioning the future editions of your texts.
The following is an overview of that presentation, highlighting ten tips to facilitate successor author transitions —“passing the torch.”
How to negotiate royalties for a textbook test bank
Q: “I am in the process of negotiating my second contract to write a test bank. The first contract was for a flat fee. I wrote a total of 490 multiple choice, true/false and fill in questions for a 14 chapter criminal justice book. The book was going into its 3rd edition and I think it is a big seller.
Advantages & disadvantages of working with multiple publishers
Jason Wrench, Associate Professor in Communication and Media at the State University of New York at New Paltz, share some advantages…
How to negotiate textbook contracts strategically
Many textbook authors, especially new authors, are intimidated by the idea of negotiating their contracts, but strategic and artful contract negotiation is essential to ensure that you get the best offer possible.
“It is very important to negotiate your contract, because the first offer will not be the best deal, so you’ll just be leaving money on the table if you don’t negotiate,” said Stephen Gillen, intellectual property attorney at Wood, Herron & Evans.
Lawyer: Rank your textbook contract negotiation goals
Successful contract negotiation requires knowing “what you’re willing to give up and what you’re not,” said authoring attorney Michael Lennie, with Lennie Literary & Author’s Attorney.
Authors should negotiate better terms on several contract provisions, he said. They include: