ASEXUAL PERSPECTIVES BOOK: What is the hardest part of writing a book?


ASEXUAL PERSPECTIVES BOOK: What is the hardest part of writing a book? BEHIND THE SCENES PART ONE. What is the hardest part of writing a book? Special Edition Video Series. In this video series I give you a behind the scenes look at what it is really like to be a writer and author. Part Two shows more of the making of the book and my daily routine.

I have been working tons of hours on my Asexual Perspectives book since New Year’s Day!! (Home, day job, book, home, day joy, book!)

I have finally uploaded my Asexual Perspectives book and waiting for Kindle to approve it and then I will be a self-published Author x 3 – but this book will be in print also asap!!

Stay quirky and look out for part two soon!!

Love xx Sandra

Happy 3rd Birthday Snow!


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Snow is on the right at Chestnut's Birthday party. Today is Snow's 3rd Birthday.

Happy 3rd Birthday my Snow White princess.xxxxxxxx

Tonight is Snow’s 3rd Birthday party and I will have some new photos and a video on my http://www.youtube.com/quirkybooksTV channel that I will post here; although it may not be today because we are at the party.

Last night I was hard at work on the final amendments for the printed version of my Break Through The Barriers Of Redundancy To Get Back Into Work – An A-Z ‘How To’ Guide. I am simultaneously working on a few updates/amendments to the already published Kindle version. A DEA – Disability Employment Advisor, no longer exists at the Job Centre with that title. Also, ex Dragons Den star and entrepreneur Doug Richard, who I mention in my current Kindle book, has had charges brought against him, which he is currently denying, but I still think it’s best to remove his name from future copies. The problem with my original master copy Kindle version that I created in Word for Mac 2011, is almost every hyperlink has turned black and I can’t turn them all back to their original orange colour. Some have unhyperlinked themselves, so I have to manually re-do each one.

Have a quirky good day.

Write soon
Sandra

I AM A PUBLISHED AUTHOR OF BREAK THROUGH THE BARRIERS OF REDUNDANCY BOOK – BUY NOW ON AMAZON!


I AM A PUBLISHED AUTHOR OF BREAK THROUGH THE BARRIERS OF REDUNDANCY BOOK – BUY NOW ON AMAZON!

Check out my hilarious video and celebrate with me as I am now a published Author of  BREAK THROUGH THE BARRIERS OF REDUNDANCY BOOK -AN A-Z ‘HOW TO’ GUIDE. BUY NOW ON AMAZON KINDLE!

It is published under my publisher name of Quirky Books. Here is the link to take a peek and buy it

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BREAK-THROUGH-BARRIERS-REDUNDANCY-GUIDE-ebook/dp/B0128RWB5O

You can download the Kindle Ap for multiple devices, not just Kindle.

I have a fear of heights and this video was taken on the Indian Jones ride in Disneyland Paris. What barriers have you broken through recently?

I am going to be starting a blog tour soon, so if you would like accommodate me on my tour, please let me know.

Stay quirky and keep reaching for the stars.

Sandra

Bristol Zoo Gardens Feeding the Lorikeets – Valentine’s Day Video Two


So it feels like an age since it was Valentine’s Day and International Celebrate Being Single Day. I had an absolute blast feeding not one, not two, but three lorikeets! Enjoy the video and let me know what you think.

I am mega busy with my day job and producing the course content for my teaching job. Which often takes hours to write and produce. I am working as a Peer Trainer for the Recovery learning Community, that is part of the NHS Partnership Trust. I am their social media trainer. I teach Blogging, Facebook and Twitter for recovery. It feels fantastic to write the course content myself and  after suffering from depression for a lot of my life, up until about 3 years ago, to help aid other’s recovery from mental ill health – feels wonderful.

As I have special permission to keep the copyright of all course materials, I will be using a lot of it for future non-fiction ‘how to’ books, that I intend to sell as e-Books.

I am still going to self-publishing my Break Through The Barriers Of Redundancy Book. I have more people interested in it.

Watch this space for the future of Quirky Books. It’s very exciting.

Write soon and keep being your quirky self

Sandra

When is it good not to think?


Hi everyone

I have so much to tell you.

I am back from my trip to the Success Seminar in London. While I was up there, I also visited London Zoo, I saw the film Anomaly and I went to the Digital Revolution Exhibition, that blew my mind.

On the day I came back, I had 4 hours sleep, then taught the Introduction to blogging course. I took so many photos and that much video footage of the Digital Revolution Exhibition, that my phone stopped working and I couldn’t call or do anything with my phone, until I got it fixed in the EE shop after teaching on Monday 7th.

On Tuesday 8th, I had an admin day. I also cleaned, tidied and cleared out some bottles of stuff from underneath my kitchen sink.

I have been working in my day job every day since, and trying to catch up with social media, emails and blogging.

As you know, I am a deep thinker and my brain never stops thinking. Sometimes it’s good not to think. I have so much to do that if I sat down and did the sensible thing of writing everything down that I have to, it would overwhelm me. Yes, I make written lists of things to do and set myself tasks and goals each day, but if I become too rigid and ‘work-like’ with everything I have to do, it doesn’t feel good. Instead of enjoying what I do, the opposite happens and I become unproductive. Yes, I have an overview of what must be done, but I have to do it the quirky way. If I schedule too much, it becomes a chore and that shows. Does that happen to you?

Things I need to do:

  • I have to create a new website for http://www.beatredundancyblues.com as my web host no longer services RV Sitebuilder that I used to build it. I have been unable to access my admin panel for at least a couple of months and now I can get into it, I can’t make any amendments due to constant Java script errors. This site is currently more popular than my http:// http://www.beatredundancyblues.co.uk site that is built using WordPress. I have no choice but to change it.
  • After making a few amendments to my Break through the barriers of redundancy book, I need to re-index and paginate it, within the interior CreateSpace template.
  • After being asked by businesses about training staff in blogging, I thought it best to set up a website to build a professional brand for my blog training. I have bought the domain name http://www.BlogTrainer.co.uk and have yet to build the site. I have a new @blogtrainerUK Twitter account and now need to grow my followers. Thanks to those of you who have already joined me on that account.

I haven’t forgotten that I still have blog awards to officially accept in future posts. Thanks to all of you who have given me awards. I very much appreciate them.

I managed to track down my English teacher from college. She edits manuscripts. I sent her a copy of my Break through the barriers of redundancy book manuscript so she could give it a quick scan. Her feedback was encouraging. She said it’s interesting, well thought out and there are not many books like it on the market. I was thrilled with those comments. As she is very critical, I know it must be a good book.

Because my Break through the barriers of redundancy book advertises my http://www.beatredundancyblues.com site on the front cover, updating that site, must be a priority.

I have to not think too much and just get on with it.

When would not thinking, be good for you?

Write when I can

Sandra

To feel alive – Start living!


Hi everyone

Thanks for all of your kind comments and support during this difficult time of my Grandma’s passing. Her funeral was yesterday and it went well considering it was a funeral. I read my entire poem without stumbling on my words. Being quirky, I made sure it was a funeral with a difference. I went around hugging everyone, including the people carrying the coffin, the guy playing the organ, the Funeral Director, the Vicar and all guests. I even had the Birdie Song playing us out of the crematorium. Me and my Grandma used to dance to that together and do the actions.

I used to suffer with depression and thankfully I have been free of it for about two and a half years. I cured myself, and still maintain a good head through sometimes very quirky, unconventional methods. I am well aware that I have to prevent myself from going back to that dreadful place ever again. I believe life is for living, to the fullest. Although my Grandma has passed, in the rest of my life, I am the happiest I have ever been and so grateful to be living a young life. In my mind, I am getting younger and I love it. I believe in order to feel alive, you must start living. Do things that make you feel fantastic, alive, enthusiastic, excited and passionate, over and over again, and never stop. I live in my own quirky magic bubble and so long as I am in that, life is beautiful.

My Grandma loved living a full and active life. Today is a new month and time for me to start living a new life. What wonderful opportunities will come my way? I wonder? After crying a lot this morning, this is the attitude I decided to take and I went to the cinema to feel alive and enjoy a part of my life in that moment.

In my usual quirky Roving Reporter style, here is my review of Maleficent. It is less that one minute long. Enjoy it and let me know what you think.

I am currently working on reformatting the interior of my Break through the barriers of redundancy book. It would seem that the CreateSpace templates have errors in them. One template I had 5 attempts to reformat and I had to scrap each one. Self publishing is hard but I am determined to publish my book.

Write when I can

Sandra

How to obtain an EIN for self-publishing with CreateSpace


Hello, how are you?

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.

Please refer to http://www.CreateSpace.com/International for additional information for non-US members.

To update this information, visit https://eu.createspace.com/pub/accountsettings.royaltypaymentinformation.do to access your “Royalty Payment Information.”

Upon opening this link:

https://eu.createspace.com/pub/accountsettings.royaltypaymentinformation.do

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.
Until next time, write soon
Sandra

Exclusive Preview – Break Through The Barriers Of Redundancy Book Blurb


Hi everyone

I am still working on the final edit of my book and it is taking longer than I expected, but it will be worth the wait.

After a short break, I am working back in my day job again, and I start teaching Blogging as an aid to recovery on Monday 24th of February. I had planned to publish my book in February, depending on how long it took to edit it to a standard that I am happy with. Although I have people waiting to buy my book, I won’t compromise on quality, and I know they wouldn’t want me to. It looks likely I will publish it in March rather than February.

I now own the copyright of the book cover illustration and design, although credit still goes to my illustrator Victoria Warby for creating it. I think she has done a fantastic job.

Please note that the entire book cover is copyrighted and will be revealed in the future – For now, I can exclusively reveal the Book Blurb.

Break Through The Barriers Of Redundancy Book Blurb
Break Through The Barriers Of Redundancy Book Blurb

Break Through The Barriers of Redundancy Book Blurb: Copyright Sandra Bellamy/quirkybooks – Cover Illustration created by Victoria Warby

Coming soon to Amazon: My new book – Break Through The Barriers Of Redundancy To Get Back Into Work: – An A-Z ‘How to’ guide.

I am pleased to say that a link to my website http://www.beatredundancyblues.com has been added to http://thefilmorecv.co.uk/job-search-sites.php site, that is the sister site to http://www.jobmanji.com.

I would love to have your feedback on the blurb.

Always remember, your writing dreams can come true, if you work hard and believe in your abilities as a writer.

Write soon
Sandra

Do you see the light?


Hi everyone

image

It can be very easy to slip into a negative state of mind, when everything seems to be going wrong or not as planned. As one thing builds on top of another, it is extremely important to still see the light.

One of my mottos is – Through the downs comes the ups – So if I am experiencing a lot of downs, it must mean there is a ton of ups coming my way.

I didn’t always used to think so positively, in fact, I used to be very negative and in a depressive state, but when I was made redundant for the second time in my career, in 2009, my life began to change for the better.

It’s been a while since my last blog post. To give you a quick update, after being off sick from my day job for 4 weeks, I went back to work and got an upper respiratory infection and had to be off another week. I went back to work part-time last week and today is my first day working full-time. If I am off sick for a third time this year, before the 5th of December, I am due to be investigated and possibly have a first written warning. I don’t feel that this would be fair, as I have doctor’s notes and was taken to hospital by ambulance whilst in a work meeting, for my first illness. Nevertheless, that’s the situation.

I am still self-employed and so long as I do that, I will always be in work, but I currently do need my day job to pay the bills.

After my illustrator moved the book completion deadline from Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd, and I started back to work on the Tuesday 21st, I had to work throughout the night on Tuesday, to get my book finished for Wednesday morning.

Although in theory I did finish the book and the cover is now complete, I am still working on the index and book content. Whilst the number of pages has to remain the same, I am adding some text and cutting some out to make improvements to it, before uploading it to Amazon. It needs to be the best it can be.

I start teaching again next week, on one of my days off from my day job, and yesterday I had to attend a tutor meeting.

Yesterday, I also got my four furry babies back from their long vacation at my parents. Daisy has recovered well after major surgery to remove a lump that turned out to be a hair follicle cyst that had got badly infected.

At the moment I teach on a self-employed basis but I have recently been offered a contract with the NHS to go on their staff bank, with a new job title and 69p per hour pay rise. I don’t work many hours for them but I still think it’s fantastic. I have to have an informal interview with them before becoming staff. That I can hopefully do soon because I am feeling better than I was. I have had to stop taking one of my tablets because it was giving me bad side effects and even working part-time last week, was a struggle towards the end of the week.

My Grandma was very poorly with an infection before her birthday but is off anti-biotics and thankfully seems to have improved.

I got upset when I visited her and she said to me, “I want you to hold my hand until my name is called.”

Me and my Grandma have a special bond, I can usually understand her when no one else can and when anything does happen to her, I will be devastated. We just ‘get’ each other. Whilst some others, just don’t.

I have faith that there is light at the end of this down tunnel and that I still have lots to look forward to in 2014. The teaching contract is a great achievement for me, as I got a teacher/trainer PTTLS Level 4 qualification in 2012, but I couldn’t get a teaching job back then because I didn’t have enough experience. Consequently, I went back into retail for a 16th year. Ironically, since working in retail, I now have a teching job.

I want to thank you for your patience, time and understanding whilst I finish my Break through the barriers of redundancy book.

I know I haven’t visited many of your blogs recently or left many comments and I thank you for your loyalty and support whilst I finish my book. I have people waiting for it to be published so they can buy it. Therefore, I do need to take more time out to do just that.

I hope if you are experiencing a lot of downs, that you too, can see the light.

Write as soon as I am able to
Sandra

quirkybooks.net – New website coming soon


Hi Everyone

My apologies if I have not been blogging or commenting as much lately but I have some amazing news to share with you. Not only have I been having some time off from work to celebrate my birthday week but I have also commenced work on changing http://www.quirkybooks.net into a much more impressive author website which will incorporate an e-Book store in the near future. All books on this site will be my own written work. Book cover illustrations will be from a variety of sources including new illustrators.

This is an exciting time for both me and quirkybooks.

If you search for my website at the moment, you will see that it is currently under construction whilst I spend the next weeks adding content to my site. By June or July I hope to have my first e-Book available to buy on this site. I intend to self publish on Amazon too.

As always, I like to do things the quirky way, so rather than having books galore to start with, you will see books gradually appearing over time.

For my Birthday day, I visited the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth and I hope to upload some photos I took there soon.

I have a lot of blog award posts to catch up with and I am very grateful for each and every one. Please bear with me, I will get around to officially thanking you and accepting them, although I may not be able to devote the time to contact all nominees individually due to my website preparation and new future work commitments.

Something magical is starting and I am thrilled to have you along for the journey. Thank you my friends.

Write soon

Sandra