I love this quote from my Author/Blogger friend B Banu. I still haven’t read her book yet!! I have a more than a few pending but must get around to it. Snow has her vet check-up tomorrow.
Lots of exciting stuff have been going on, I was interviewed for a Expert Business Podcast this week, and it will be on ITunes in about a month’s time.
I got to talk about Embrace Your Quirky, my two books and the third one I am working on, and about business/entrepreneurship. I will link to the interview when it is out. It is good and really sums up what I am about and my mission and life purpose!
Last month I went to the Success 2014 Seminar in London. Whilst I was in London, I went to the Barbican to see the Digital Revolution Exhibition. It blew my mind and you are going to be blown away too.
I have something special for you; in the next posts that follow, you will get to take a look behind the scenes, at the breathtaking special effects of today’s technology and sample some old classics. I have been watching some of the video footage and it feels like I am back there, immersed in the wonder and pleasure of fantasy meets reality. If you love magic and fairytales, and dreams coming true, you won’t want to miss these videos.
Take a sneaky peak now, with these two incredibly short introduction videos:
For those of you who prefer photos; here are some for you.
The Digital Revolution Exhibition is on until the 14th of September 2014.
My apologies to anyone I may have offended by posting the video. At the time of interviewing and posting, I did not know about any of his indecent behaviour, and I do not condone it.
As you are aware from my previous posts, I began the journey of self-publishing in the earlier part of last year. I announced that I would be completing my Break through the barriers of redundancy book in the beginning part of this year, to sell on Amazon and in the future through my own e-Book store, quirkybooks.net, that is still in the early stages of construction. You are probably wondering why on earth I haven’t just got on with it and published it by now. The truth is, I have been getting on with it, most weeks, over a number of days, for many hours. I guess I naively thought when I started out, that I would write a book, get a good cover design, upload it and hey presto, job done. I was wrong. In the most simplistic of terms, yep, that’s what you do and it’s good to think about it in those simplistic terms, otherwise it can be a real mind boggler, particularly when trying to publish through CreateSpace, that is for print, as well as KDP, for Kindle. After hours of writing and time spent on styling the book; page layout, formatting, indexing, pagination, I could go on, I finally created my CreateSpace account. When I next logged into CreateSpace, I had this message alert from them:
Welcome to CreateSpace!
Some things you should know about your account and how we report your earned royalties to the Internal Revenue Service: We are required to report your earned royalties to the Internal Revenue Service. If you currently reside in the United States, you must provide us with a Tax ID number, payee address and business type before your title can go live and be available for purchase. If you are currently living outside of the United States, you must provide us with your payee address and business type before your title can go live and be available for purchase.
On Monday the 2nd of June 2014, I spent hours trawling the internet to find out what I needed to type into the Tax and Business Information section of my Royalty Payment Profile. I needed to type in a Tax Reporting Name and Business Type, plus a Tax Identification number, that I hadn’t got a clue about. I had previously bought a book on self-publishing and even that confused me.
Tax & Business Information
US Tax Information
Tax Reporting Name
Sandra Bellamy
Tax Identification Number
**-*******
Business Type
Individual
After hours of tearing my hair out (not literally, I am not bald) and painstaking arrrrgh! Moments; to cut a very long story short, I managed to find out what I needed to type in, as you can see from the above screen shot. To do this I discovered; if you sell books on Amazon through CreateSpace or KDP, all UK and EU sales, have no tax withholding on your royalties. However, the USA withholds 30% tax on your book royalties, unless you obtain either an ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number) otherwise known as TIN or EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) from the USA. Then fill in a W-8BEN and post it to CreateSpace at the address given in your CreateSpace account. Because the UK have a treaty agreement with the USA, residents of the UK can pay 0%. From my research, it was clear that getting an EIN is a lot easier than obtaining an ITIN, which can take several months. As soon as I discovered that if you are self-employed, you can apply for an EIN, and it’s as easy and simple as downloading a form and making a phone call to the IRS in the USA, I did it.
The procedure I followed is below:
I got the phone number of the IRS in the USA – From the UK it’s 00 1267 941 1099.
I contacted my phone company to find out how much it would cost to phone the number, so I didn’t have any nasty surprises. I had read that the phone call would be between 20 – 30 minutes in duration.
I downloaded form SS-4 (Application for Employer Identification Number) from the IRS website to have to hand when I made my phone call.
I filled in the form SS-4. I wrote my name and address details. Type of entity I wrote; Other – sole trader. (I was told during the conversation with the IRS that is was Sole Proprietor because I am a sole trader not Other.) Reason for applying was Compliance with IRS withholding regulations. A date that I started my business, (registered with HMRC). Principal merchandise sold, specific construction work done, products produced or services provided, was book royalties. Has the applicant entity on line 1, ever applied for an EIN – No.
I downloaded the form W-8BEN-E to send to CreateSpace. (I was subsequently advised that you actually need form W-8BEN 2006 version, until July 2014, because the new W-8BEN-E that is 43 parts long, has been released too early and there are no instructions for it yet!)
I then phoned the IRS in the USA, that I was informed is open 12 hours a day.
The lady at the IRS gave me her badge number at the start of the conversation, I had to say that I was applying for an EIN, that I own my own business and I am a sole trader. After 20 minutes of talking to the lady at the IRS and answering the questions that I had filled out on the SS-4 form, I was given my EIN number on the phone that was a 9 digit number starting with 98-. I asked to be put through to another department to have help filling in my W-8BEN-E, that ended up being the W-8BEN (see previous mention). I needed to post this form to CreateSpace Asap, because it states they only process these forms on the 10th of each month.
Filling in W-8BEN
Part 1: Identification of Beneficial Owner. The beneficial owner was my name and the type was Individual, as I am a sole trader.
Part 1 – (8): Is the EIN number that I just received, with a tick in the EIN box.
Part II Claim of Tax Treaty Benefits was A – Resident of the United Kingdom (no abbreviation) and B.
Part II 10 Special rates and conditions Article (12) of the treaty identified on line 9a above to claim a (0%) rate of withholding on specify type income): (Royalties.) Explain the reasons behind the beneficial owner meets the terms of the treaty article: (I was told to write the following)…...I am a resident of the United Kingdom and all of the products are made in the United Kingdom with no fixed base of operation within the United States.
Part IV Must be signed, with an original signature, dated and title added (Owner).
I posted my W-8BEN form off by airmail to CreateSpace the next day. It takes 4 days to get there, so it should get there in time for processing on the 10th of June 2014. Something else I need to bear in mind, is that US sales are only paid in $, so I may want to open a USA bank account because of conversion fees. More stuff to boggle the mind. I hope this step-by-step guide will help a ton of people, including yourself, and ensure you don’t go bald in your journey into print.
One article I found particularly helpful about an ITIN and EIN was:
I don’t have the instructions for the ITIN because I decided to not go down that route and if you Google ITIN or TIN, there is a ton of information about what to do.
My long anticipated Author interview with Ian Kane is finally here.
Author of Rising Storm Ian Kane
Ian was an absolute pleasure to interview and I hope you enjoy reading about him, as much as I enjoyed learning about him as a person and Author.
Enjoy his short book trailer first.
Ian Kane is a published author, freelance writer, and filmmaker. After high school, he joined the military and received numerous awards and commendations for his exceptional service. After serving his country honorably, he worked as a writer for online and print publications, as a journalist and as a health & fitness expert, culminating in owning his own successful business. Ian has also worked as a military consultant for film productions.
Travelling to many places in the world, in both his civilian and military lives, has given him unique insights, and he infuses this international perspective into both his writing and filmmaking.
A storyteller at heart, Ian has recently made the transition to do what he loves most: Creating stories of people whom others can identify with, and hopefully be entertained by along the way as well. He recently signed with Assent Publishing, and is launching his debut novel— Rising Storm: Fading Empires Volume I:—in May 2014. This is the first of twelve epic novels.
Ian writes a regular column called Kane’s Corner for multi-national newspaper The Epoch Times, which is available in print and online, spanning 35 countries and 21 language editions. He is also currently working on a horror short film, Beneath, which will be released Summer 2014. His next film will be an action thriller based on the beginning of Kilbane’s escape from the training island in Rising Storm.
Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into writing?
My parents are both brilliant storytellers, so I think that had a lot to do with me becoming interested in telling stories (as opposed to tall-tales…mostly). I was also into role-playing games and would make up my own unique, highly detailed worlds for players to adventure in. Movies and comic books were also big parts of my life growing up, and ones with compelling stories were those which I gravitated to the most.
After a while I thought to myself: “I can do this writing thing,” and just started doing it. Although I’d taken Creative Writing courses here and there, and was always good in English, I pretty much taught myself how to write screenplays as well as novels. I’m also an artist, so that helped me out as well. Since I’d had so many story ideas bottled up for so long, I was never at a loss for creating original material.
What genre is your new book, Rising Storm?
Apocalyptic/Survival Horror, and in a broader sense it’s also epic science fiction, since it will comprise twelve novels in all.
How would you sum up your new book, Rising Storm?
If one is interested in what’s going on around the world today, and wants to peer into a possible future world that might just happen, Fading Empires draws many parallels from today’s tumultuous events. Blatant corruption, an encroaching police state, environmental neglect and destruction, the suppression of basic human rights and dignities, a huge divide between the haves and the have-nots.
Rising Storm is an opportunity to escape this new universe and live vicariously through one or more of the characters whom you identify with. All wrapped into an engrossing universe. Rising Storm serves as an introduction to many of the characters, and the storyline of the Fading Empires series.
What inspired you to write your Rising Storm book?
Ideas that I’d had stored up about the state of affairs today, and a possible future.
You told me you were up to some pretty quirky stuff, what more can you tell us about this?
I can wear brown corduroy pants with matching vest and look good in them for starters.
If you could have one writing wish, what would it be?
Simply to write compelling stories which I hope people can enjoy, and universes to escape into.
In one sentence, why should people buy your book?
If you have even a little bit of underdog in you and wonder what it would be like to go up against seemingly insurmountable odds in a nightmarish near-future, come join the resistance with Rising Storm.
What is the one message that people will take away from reading Rising Storm?
Reviewers have pointed out, after reading Rising Storm, that in spite of the harsh and bleak environments and situations in my book, the characters still maintain a sense of humor, and humanity. I think that’s a good message to impart to everyone. Never give up, and always look out for others.
I got back in the early hours of this morning from London, having been to The Business Show at the ExCeL centre, for two days. I heard from some super authors that have had their books published by Wiley, who publishes the Dummies series.
I read this post and felt compelled to share it with you. This is a fantastic post about not being ashamed to read whatever books you like and creating originality out of stories that have been written before, using your own ” mash up“.
Look out for my interview with Author Ian Kane, coming soon to this blog. His new book is called “Rising Storm” and is part of his “Fading Empires” series. You are going to love his book, love his answers and love him.
I was in the children’s room of my beloved library earlier this week and was horrified to hear a mom tell her son to put a particular book back because he was “too old” for it. She said, “That’s too easy for you.” I actually winced.
I’m sure this mom was very well-meaning. I’m sure she just wanted to encourage her son to try something a little more challenging. But, you are never – NEVER – too old for any book. I’ve shared it before, but I’m going to share again the wonderful quote from the fabulous Madeleine L’Engle, “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
I am, by chronological reckoning, a full-fledged adult, but I will never, ever stop reading so-called children’s books. Some…
I thoroughly enjoyed The Business Show today. I heard from a lot of successful business people and entrepreneurs. I am feeling excited, invigorated, challenged and inspired.
My highlight was winning a copy of Brad Burton’s latest book; Life. Business. Just got easier. Also, having my photo taken with Brad and speaking to the new Commissioning Editor at Wiley about writing opportunities.
I have to give a special mention to Paul Lancaster, who is a Wiley published Author and did a great job at explaining how to implement social media into your business.
Looking forward to another exciting day tomorrow, to learn a ton of new stuff.
Thanks to everyone who has left comments for me, and thanks for the positive comments about my videos and to those of you who have subscribed to my channel. It’s always a little scary trying something new and I wasn’t sure how you felt about videos in blogs but you seem to like them so I will continue. They are a bit rough around the edges but I just wanted to post natural videos because I try to always be true to who I am on this blog.
I am in London for The Business Show and I have had my phone switched off for most of the day due to low battery power and meeting up with a friend. The signal was bad on the train and it wouldn’t let me reply to your comments. I will get around to messaging back but it may be after The Business Show, as it is after midnight now and I have to get some sleep.
I have taken two more videos but my phone won’t upload them.
I can’t wait to see and hear some successful published authors speak at The Business Show, to gain valuable insight, hints, tips and insider knowledge to pass on to you.
I am stay at a Travelodge and my hotel room is very nice and huge.
I published this post earlier today, but because I did the draft for it in March, it has posted it back in my March archives. Here it is again.
I wrote a previous post regarding a guy who makes dogs out of sand. A few weeks ago, I managed to talk to him and I can reveal a few details about his story.
He is from Romania but lives in Liverpool. It takes him 3-4 hours to build a sand dog. He has a wife and 3 children and this is his only job. He says he doesn’t speak very good English and it is hard for him to get another job. His wife doesn’t work. He says he likes Exeter and wants to move here. Lately I have seen a young boy helping him, which I am assuming is one of his children.
In principle I have finished writing my Break through the barriers of redundancy book, but I still need to go through it again and re-index it.
I am now in hibernating mode to finish my Break through the barriers of redundancy book.
I finished re-working and amending the Preface and Introduction today. I now have a total of 9 days off from my day job, and go back to work on Wednesday 2nd of April. I am determined to finish my book by then. I went out shopping for food and Mothers Day presents today. Now it’s time to batten down the hatches and have what I call ‘cave days’. I will be less active in the blogosphere until the 3rd of April.
Quirky Books 
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