Ways to Save Ten

Ten Things to Help Writers Save $$$

Attend Local/Regional Events Versus National Conferences: Here are two examples of actual lodging and registration costs for attending national conferences: RWA National: $1175.00; Romantic Times: cost $965.00 (and these figures do not include airfare or other transportation costs, meals, parking etc., which can run an additional $500.00 - $1000.00.) Skipping national conferences and attending a regional or local event will cost considerably less, such as Lori Foster's Annual Reader & Author Get Together for $332.00 lodging & registration. Author Shiloh Walker (who kindly provided the figures for me) also mentioned that at Lori Foster's event writers are given plenty of time to interact with readers, attend workshops, and have appointments with agents and editors (and my thanks to Shiloh for sharing the financial info and advice.)

Barter for What You Can't Afford Now: Offer to barter for something you need with another writer friend. It can be an even trade, i.e. "You proof my manuscript, and I'll proof yours" or an exchange of specialties, such as a techno-savvy writer making a flash web site for an artistic writer who trades an e-book cover art design. The idea is for you both to end up with something of equal value that you need but can't do yourself and/or afford to buy. Your specialty doesn't have to be writing-related, either -- I once restored an heirloom family quilt for a friend who paid me in some hard-to-find research books I needed.

Brew Your Own Coffee: I know how much writers love coffee and convenience; the first place they go to when they want to write in public is a bookstore coffee shop. But buying that $2-$3 cup of coffee can over time add up to a major expense, as per Barbara Thau's article Savings Experiment: The Perks of Brewing versus Buying Coffee over at Wallet Pop: "A 6-ounce cup of coffee made at home, at about 17 cents a cup per day, adds up to $1.19 a week and $62.05 a year. A 16-ounce grande coffee from Starbucks, at $2.29 per day, adds up to $16.03 per week, and a hefty $835.85 per year -- the price of a mini vacation." Or a new laptop, for that matter.

Buy Used Instead of New Books: Most authors frown on this because we make our living off new book sales, but for half of my life I couldn't afford any new books so I'm not one of them. Buying from used book stores is simply common sense when money is tight, as is checking out library book sales, thrift stores, junk shops and garage sales. Make up a list of books you're looking for and keep it in your wallet for unexpected finds. You can also hunt for used books online; one place I still use to find out-of-print titles is Alibris.com, and they almost always have what I need in a range of prices. I've never had a single problem with condition of the books I've bought or their sellers, and I can't say that about any of the bigger online chain booksellers.

Cancel or Swap Trade Mag Subscriptions: There are a limited number of writing and Publishing magazines out there, and I think Publishers Weekly is the most expensive (according to their web site, they're currently charging $249.99 per year for US subscribers, $299.99 for Canada and $399.99 for international. The digital edition is only slightly better at $180.00 per year, but the site doesn't specify if this is US-only or global, so don't hold me to that price.) The quality of the content of the trades in general has gone down to the point that they are utterly useless to me, so I've cancelled all my subscriptions, and this saves me a couple hundred dollars a year. I know how hard it is to let go of them, though, and it's not necessary to give them up entirely if you form a monthly issue swap with some writer friends. This is when everyone agrees on a list of mags they want, and each of you subscribe to one of them. After you're finished reading each issue of the mag you've subscribed to, you pass it along to the next person in the group, who do the same with theirs, and repeat until everyone in the group gets a chance to read the mag, which then returns to the person who subscribed to it. If you live close to a bunch of other writers, you can also use an issue swap as a reason to get together (at which point you can discuss the articles and share info.) This works great with a crit group that meets every month, too.

Go Laser instead of Inkjet: When it's time to replace your old inkjet printer, consider buying a laser printer instead. Over the years I've used many types of inkjet and monochrome laser printers, and laser is superior to inkjet in almost every category: they print faster, are designed for high-volume printing (which writers need for manuscripts), last longer and have fewer problems. Even the toner for a laser printer is cheaper (depending on where you shop, about 50%-75% less than inkjet.) Inkjet printers themselves are much cheaper, and therefore less pricey to replace, but with the supplies you end up paying more for using them. According to this article over at SmallBusinessComputing.com "Monochrome laser costs about two-to-three cents per page (about half that is for consumables, the rest for hardware). Color laser printing runs 10 to 15 cents, and a personal inkjet is about double that price."

Recycle Old Manuscripts and Used Printer Paper: Put a box by your computer for old manuscripts and other printed papers you don't need and place them in it with the blank side in the printing position (usually up, but run a test on your printer to be sure.) When you collect a stack, put them in your printer paper tray instead of new paper (and save new paper for formal use like business correpondence, submissions, etc.) By using paper twice you can cut up to 50% of the cost.

Refill Toner Cartridges Instead of Replacing Them: Depending on the type of printer you use, you're probably paying $30.00 - $70.00 every time you need a new toner cartridge. Office Depot sells a bunch of black and color toner refill kits under $20.00, and they often last for up to three uses, which would save you anywhere from $30.00 to $150.00 dollars. If you're not in love with the idea of refilling cartridges, which can get messy, try to buy remanufactured replacements, which are usually 25%-50% cheaper than brand-new.

Replace Your Web Site with a Free Blog: WebPageFX says that the average cost of an informational or small business web site runs from $2,000.00 to $6,000.00 per year. I've paid even more than that, and cutting that expense permanently from my budget was a huge savings. Blogger/Google, which provides the space for PBW and its archives, charges me nothing. Last year they gave me an additional ten pages where I've parked a lot of my author info. I've had no major issues with Blogger since I started using it for my old blog back in 2000. As for those people who say you have to pay in order to draw traffic, PBW is also usually in the top 200 book blogs listed on Technorati, so I'm proof that you can make a free blog just as popular as a pricey web site.

Track Expenses, Evaluate and Weed Out the Unnecessary: If you don't know what you're spending your money on, how can you save any at all? It's like trying to diet without knowing how many calories you're consuming. For fixed expenses you can add up your monthly bills. To track personal expenditures like food, gas and entertainment, get a receipt for every penny you spend, put all the receipts in your wallet, and at the end of the month take them out and add them up. Seeing how much you spend on a monthly basis on non-fixed expenses is usually an eye-opener, especially when you discover you spend more on McDonald's than you do for medical insurance. It will also help you discover areas where you can eliminate wasteful spending or try a cheaper alternative (like brown-bagging your lunch.)

The Economical Writer

Most writers and their families are facing direct backlash from the economic crisis, and we here at Casa PBW are no exception. My guy is presently in imminent danger of losing his job, which will make me the sole bread winner for a while, maybe as long as the six years we have to go until he retires. Fortunately we saw this coming a while back and made provisions for it, so we'll be okay. The prospect of losing half our household income still means we need to cut back on unnecessary spending and economize wherever we can.

Most writers are already masters of economizing; we usually know where to get the paper, toner and office supplies at the lowest prices. I still recycle my old draft stories and manuscripts by turning them over and printing out new material on the blank side of the pages, and whenever possible I send out things via e-mail versus snail mail to save postage and shipping. My B&W laser printer may not be glamorous or cutting-edge tech, but it's dependable and allows me to make as many copies as I want for half the price a copy service would charge.

I can't say enough good things about the move toward electronic copy-editing that NY is doing. I may gripe about the problems involved (and I just did a few days ago) but what I like most is not paying $95 to overnight a copy-edited manuscript back to NY. Which is what it would have cost me for the last one if we'd done it on the hard copy. Whenever possible, send as much as you can to your editor and agent via e-mail or electronic copy.

I think promotional materials, ad space, mail outs, blog and web site hosting, travel expenses, conference fees and hotel rooms are probably the average pro writer's biggest expenses. Even the writers who are not yet published can still spend a great deal of money if they regularly attend writer conferences and events. None of these things are necessary to do our job, but I won't try to persuade anyone to give them up just yet. What I hope to do is encourage writers to try alternatives.

Promotional materials, ad space and mail outs -- these all cost a bundle, and once they're distributed and used up they have to be purchased again. Consider how much you'd pay to have 100,000 people take a good look at your work, and then hand them a copy of your backlist. That's what I've been doing for the last year, and it hasn't cost me a penny. All it took was posting my free stories and novels on Scribd. And my promotion is there, for free, until I delete it or Scribd goes belly-up. Which means I only have to do it once and it's there practically forever for whoever wants to take a look at it. *Note 9/3/10: Since Scribd.com instituted an access fee scam to charge people for downloading e-books, including those I have provided for free for the last ten years, I have removed my free library from their site, and no longer use or recommend using their service. My free reads may be read online or downloaded for free from Google Docs; go to my freebies and free reads page for the links. See my post about this scam here.

If you're bound and determined to pay for your advertising, think about partnering with another writer or two and doing some group promotion, ads, mail outs, etc. You can split the costs two or three ways and still do the same thing.

Blog and web site hosting -- you get what you pay for, yes? Paperback Writer costs me nothing. Zero. It's a free blog. It's always been a free blog. And while I'm sure all those gadgets and doodads writers get with their expensive blog/web site hosting service are fun to play with, they aren't necessary for a successful online presence. Great content, not fancy bells and whistles, are what bring visitors back for more.

Again, if you'd rather keep your pricey site, again consider bringing in some other authors, doing a group site and splitting the costs.

Travel expenses, conference fees and hotel rooms -- if you're a writer and you're going to writer conferences to market your books, you're not marketing to readers. You're marketing to other writers. Unless you're a member of RWA, which I think has a 9 to 1 ratio of unpubbed to pubbed writers, this is just a waste of time. The $2000.00 you spend for the privilege of hobnobbing with the big names and signing maybe a dozen books at the charity book signing at a single con could be spent instead on an entire year of giveaways of your books to readers at your (hopefully free) weblog or web site.

Should you still want to go, go to reader conferences. RT is the big one for romance writers; I hear these comic cons are great for SF, fantasy and UF writers. Also look for conferences that are within driving distance of your home or within a day's travel by car versus the ones you have to buy an $800.00 plane ticket to get to.

Something I always advise unpubbed writers do to save conference $$$: make it a rule from now on that for every writers conference you attend, you write, finish and submit one new manuscript. Otherwise, what's the point?

And before anyone says "But if I don't do this stuff I'll never be a successful writer." I'm a successful writer, and I don't do any of that stuff. You're looking at all of what I do, right here.

What are some of the creative ways you writers out there are economizing? Let us know in comments.

March: Expenses

This month's biz post is about tracking writing-related expenses during the year and why you should make it your business to get your receipts, expenditures and other financial ducks in a row and keep them that way.

First, the why: Most writers are paid as self-employed independent contractors by publishers. This means the publisher does not take any taxes out of the writer's check. Nor do agents if the publisher pays them whatever is owed to the writer. Filing taxes is therefore different for us than most folks, and most of us have to pay quarterly estimated taxes as well as deal with the final end-of-the-year stuff. It really pays to be meticulous about expenses and record-keeping because we need every deduction we can get.

Now, the how: most writers come up with some sort of ledger or accounting system on their own, but the one I've found that seems easiest for everyone regardless of their accounting experience is the twelve-monthly envelope/ledger notebook method. Take a 3-ring notebook and fill it with twelve standard blank ledger pages. You can make columns for the type of expenses you usually incur (office supplies, internet service, postage, etc.) or keep a chronological accounting and note the expense type in the margin (I prefer the former.) To the back of each page, staple an open 8" X 10" envelope.

During the month, record your expenses and put your receipts in the envelope on the back of the ledger page. Some people prefer to put the receipts in the envelope during the month and then record them all at once at the end of the month. Do whatever works best for you, but at the end of the month you should add up your expenses and note your totals. If you'd rather let the computer do the math, or your expenses and income get complicated, you can set up your ledger as a spreadsheet and print out a ledger page each month.

Some tricks I've learned over the years:

1. Keep one credit card reserved for writing-related expenses only; the monthly statement will help you double-check your record-keeping.

2. If you have a lot of business-related phone use, consider setting up a separate phone line for business calls, internet service, etc.

3. Print out hard copies of all online transactions with order numbers in the event you don't get a receipt when they arrive (which sometimes happens with business materials or supplies ordered from the internet.)

4. Print out hard copies of all online business-related payments using services like PayPal.

5. With any receipts for unusual and/or large expenses, keep good notes explaining what they were for. Make sure these are deductions the IRS permits you to take, too, because if you get audited, this is where they get you with back taxes.

Don't guess at what your deductions should be or take the advice of a writer friend; always talk directly to the IRS about what expenses you can or cannot deduct. It's also good to visit the IRS web site every year to read up on the tax changes and/or one-time deals such as the new telephone excise tax refund for 2006.

Tracking expenses and record-keeping is like going to the dentist, the more often you do it, the less you tend to dread it. It's nice to be prepared for April 15th instead of scrambling for a week trying to reconstruct an entire year of expenses. Set up a system that works for you, and give yourself a little peace of mind.

Resource Links:

D. Larry Crumbley's article Tax Aspects of Authors/Writers/Screenwriters

Tara K. Harper's workshop Taxes and Finances for Writers

Cyn Mason's article Taxes for Writers

Through the Woods

Dad got through the surgery so well that he's like a different person. Turns out that 90% of his right ventricle was blocked, and having normal function restored will definitely clear up the heart and a bunch of related problems. Mom and I are going over medications, diet and exercise plans like two generals planning an all-out campaign.

Typing again after using a headset for so long is interesting. The "R" on Mom's keyboard doesn't work unless I slam it. If only I wrote like Elmer Fudd speaks.

I brought some work with me to keep me occupied in the waiting room, mostly pay-out schedule stuff to update and check on. Here's a little financial advice for when you sign a contract with separate pay-outs on the advance: I give publishers 90 days after they tell me they're request a payment for me for their check to show up on my end, which I think is more than reasonable (imagine if you had to wait three months for your paycheck.)

If no check arrives by the 91st day, I send a polite reminder via my agent to the publisher, and generally get back the same answer: the check is "lost" or "was never issued" and has to be re-requested (which takes four to six weeks from that date to happen.) I update the pay-out list and put a reminder to check on it again in six weeks. I've had two or three payments go lost or unissued every year since I got into the biz, and I know other writers who have to deal with the same problem, so I advise everyone who goes pro to keep a pay-out calendar or schedule and check it monthly.

Now that the last of our split payments are being issued upon publication of the work (this is a new industry/contract trend among major publishers), it's also a good idea to tally up your advances when the book hits the shelf and make sure you've gotten everything as per the contracted pay-outs. I'm told these upon-pub pay-outs are generated by computer, not by wayward requests, which if it's true would be a big help to writers trying to collect for their work. Now if we could just get the computers to handle all the other payments . . .