What my Accountant Said

You know all those tax deductions for writers I wrote about in my last blog? Well, I carefully gathered all my documentation of my expenses and submitted them along with an explanatory note, the hot cover of my upcoming book, and my regular tax stuff. Ring, Ring! It's my accountant, the one I had to get after we inherited stocks, and I could no longer figure out our taxes. To give him credit, he has saved us much money over the years. Very gently, he says, "Miss Lynn (did I mention we live in the South?") about these writing expenses. Now you aren't trying to earn your living this way because there is a difference between a hobby and a real business, you know." I assured him I had a book coming out in April and would someday have royalties, maybe even enough to cover those $1,700 in expenses. The wheels turn. I know he is thinking, "Poor lady paid someone to print her book, and now she has all these losses." I say, "Really, I write four or five hours a day, and it's taken me five years to get this book printed by a real publisher." He mullls that over. "Tell you what, why don't we claim these expenses next year against any royalties you might get." Okay, didn't know you could do that. And that's why he is the accountant, and I am an author--maybe.

Whoooo Dat?

Now I really do have to retire the joke about Hell freezing over when the Saints win the Super Bowl. It was worth the sacrifice. What a terrific win. Well, if the Saints can win the Super Bowl, I should be able to get another book contract if I work as hard as they did. When Goals for a Sinner comes out on April 23rd, I am sure people will look at the cover and say, "Who dat?"

So, here I am waiting for the Super Bowl to start. It seems Hell has frozen over up north and it's mighty cold in Louisiana, too. I predict and hope for a Saints win. After all, the Saints were my inspiration for the fictional Sinners football team in Goals for a Sinner. And no, Connor Riley is not modeled after Jeremy Shockey since I wrote this book in 2004, but he could certainly play the part.

What to do while the day creeps slowly towards 5:30 p.m.? Not being one to waste time, I am organizing my taxes (and blogging). Having just totaled up my "business expenses" as a writer, I am appalled to find I spent $1,700 simply getting this one book into print and haven't earned a cent on it yet. Looks like a big write-off to me. How on earth did I spend so much? I started off by attending a conference where I got three requests for full manuscripts. No one took the book, but I did meet a friend who urged me to try The Wild Rose Press. They took the book and assigned a great editor, Cindy Davis, at no cost to me, but did urge me to blog and set up a web site. Lynn Lamousin built a beautiful site for me at a very reasonable cost. I simply didn't know I had to buy an url and other mysterious things I still don't understand. Then, the Oriental Trading Company catalog arrived and had the perfect promotional item: the flaming foam football. I bought 200. Of course, I had to order labels to stick on them and postcards with my book cover and release information from some very nice people in India. Yes, Miss, it is very, very easy to design your own postcard. We will help you. And they did.

Not included in the above, two celebratory dinners. The first was held appropriately in an Indian restaurant where we ordered extra nand, an appetizer, the main course, and even the beautiful white chocolate lotus blossom filled with mango cream desset. The tab came to $100 for three people, not unreasonable really. When I signed the second contract for the sequel, my husband and I went to Olive Garden and spent a modest $40. I sure hope I can earn $2,000 on this book to assuage my guilt. One thing I can say, I am ready for the release-still three months away. Let's see, it's two p.m. Still, three and a half hours before game time. What else can I do. Oh yeah! I can write.

Ambivalence

Just so you know, I got that ream of paper for Christmas and used half of it printing out the first draft of Lady Flora's Rescue, fomerly My Savage Viscount which just sounded too cheesy. The count came out to 106,000 words, but this will change in the rewrite. On advice I received three conferences ago, I abandoned my light, funny unsold contemporaries for historicals. My first effort, an 1920's novel entitled Queen of the Mardi Gras Ball, is still one of my favorites, but I had to learn the hard way that even if it did final in a contest, The Twenties do not sell. So, on to developing a series based on the eccentric Duke and Duchess of Bellevue and their large family in Regency England. These came out as amusing romps rather than true Regencies. Then, another suggestion: Go back to the 18th century and tell the story of the Duchess and Duke and their meeting. Hey, that's a whole lot of new research, but I've done it.

So what have I sold? None of the historicals, but two of the light contemporaries I wrote five years ago and could not sell because no one wanted funny and light. I guess the economy had to tank for folks to yearn for a little laughter. GOALS FOR A SINNER will be out April 23rd and its sequel in the fall, I believe. You can read an excerpt on my web site: www.lynnshurr.com. And now for the ambivalence. Shall I abandon the historical series and simply go back to my contemporaries which are much easier to write. I mean I don't have to figure out how long it takes to get a letter from Georgia to England in 1815 by sea or research the early Abolitionist movement, though I do enjoy that part of writing historicals. I had plans for at least three more of the Duke and Duchess series, but that might be a waste of time. In publishing, you never really know what to do next.

The Five Year Plan

End of the year, end of a decade-time for introspection and setting new goals or getting drunk and blowing it all off. Not being a big fan of the hangover, I'll go for introspection. Two of my books, GOALS FOR A SINNER and WISH FOR A SINNER, are coming out in 2010. Between the ages of 35 and 40, I wrote two other novels. A single mother, I hoped desperately for some additional income and toiled away every weekend my ex had the children from morning until night. I set a goal for myself of getting a book publshed within five years. I did have an agent for about thirty days, after which she sent a letter saying she was no longer going to handle romance novels but wanted to concentrate on non-fiction and serious literature. I notice she is no longer in the business at all. That aside, my five year plan failed. I put my manuscripts in the closet, remarried, had another child, moved to a larger house with a big yard, and carried out some ambitious projects at work. Ten years later, I had surgery and could not lift, drive, clean, garden, cook, etc. I read a pile of books during the six week recovery, but soon grew bored. Out came the old manuscripts to be rewritten. Two more books followed, then two more (the ones that were eventually published). I haven't stopped writing since, and can't help but wonder how much farther ahead I would be if I hadn't stuck to the five year plan.

Little Fishes

I've come to think of authors as a vast school of little, silver fishes endlessly circling in a vast ocean and hoping to be landed. The publishers, those huge sharks who take most of the risks and make most of the profits, usually pass us by. Editors, toothy barracudas who intimidate the authors into writing better books, come next in the hierachy. Then, the agents-I'd say they are remoras, but most of us don't make enough to feed a remora. No, agents have always seemed more like fishermen to me. They stand on the shore pulling in many fishes, throwing all but one or two back, seeming all-powerful.
Recently, I got a message from a young agent I'd approached. I was surprised to be on her mailing list since she'd turned me down pleasantly but firmly. She hadn't changed her mind, but rather was announcing the closure of her agency. I was sorry to hear that. Sometimes I forget if the publishers aren't taking on new clients, the younger agents don't thrive either. In the RWR magazine, nearly all the first sales have gone to e-pubs and small presses in the last year or so, no profit for agents there. Lots of casualities in this economy, and it is not only tough on us small fishes either.

Staying Forever Younger

Here they are, the new publicity pictures I received as a gift from my husband. The one I usually post was taken six years ago. It's taken me five years of concerted effort to sell two of my fourteen novels. Oh my, how I have aged. So what do you think? Should I select one of these: The Traditonal, the Serious Author, or the Author Outdoors? Or should I stay forever younger?