May Writers Blog: LLC's, Goal setting, Upcoming Events and my current WIP updates.

Welcome to another edition of my monthly writing blog. I have several topics I want to discuss.

Since filing my taxes through my tax professional, he asked if I was filing under an LLC. I had already received an EIN for doing the book signings. I asked him if he thought I should file an LLC, and he said he would recommend it. I spoke with a consultant friend of mine, and for liability purposes, he also suggested I file an LLC.

I went through Legal Zoom, which was expensive, and although I overpaid, the process for filing my LLC was complete in less than five working days. The total cost was just over $400. I then found out that if I wanted to open a business bank account, I would need a certificate of good standing, which was another $100. (I was able to obtain this myself).

I bring this up because most people think of an author as just a writer. However, the actual writing makes up only about 1/3 of your time. The other 2/3's are split between the jobs of marketing and as a business owner.

Taxes are an essential part of any business, and since I took a loss last year, I needed to account for every penny my business spent. To assist with this year's business expenses, I generated several EXCEL spreadsheets laying out how many books I sold and what my profit from those books is (after copy fees and payment to the publisher). Then also take into account event fees, gas, tolls, meals, taxes, hotels (if needed), and any marketing for the event you choose to do.

(Father Evil Holding my Novel Prey for Dawn)

Take the PA Horror Con I attended in March 2022; I sold 18 books in two days. (Not a bad number at all and means I sold over one book an hour). But when I factor in the cost of the hotel, food, gas, the event cost, and the cost of the author copies, which I had to purchase in advance to resell, I ended up with an over $800 loss for that one weekend. (However, I was able to meet some charming people (fans), network with other authors and publishers, and get some great pictures for my website (Advertising).

The gist of this topic for today's writing blog is that being a writer is as much about your market and business as the books you sell. If you are serious about doing this part-time or full-time, you need to know how "the business" is doing. When you are selling your book, you are selling your brand. Do you want to incorporate it into a business? Should you start an LLC? These are your decisions to make, but at a minimum, I believe you should be aware of how your business is doing.

I am confident using these excel spreadsheets will help me set up a budget for next year.

A few updates:

I am announcing an additional book signing event for October 1st at the NJ Collingswood Book Festival. There may still be one more Book Signing planned for September, yet to be announced.

The weekend of May 14th and 15th, I will be signing Prey For Dawn at the Wine in the Pine Festival in Waretown, NJ.

I also wanted to update my fans on how my Goal Setting projects were going so far this year:

In my March blog, I set the following goals for the year:

Finish writing two books
and
Complete one short story

I am currently nine pages into my short story and 97 hand-written pages into my first book. The novel is dragging as I keep stumbling on plot points and how I think the story will end. I also need a more robust character arc for the main character. (The main character is about to realize how bad things are going.)

In addition to this, I am pleased to announce I finished the 5th round of edits on my current Work in Progress (WIP). (No, I'm not ready to release the title yet!) But it was a HUGE weight off my shoulders as I've been editing and re-editing this project since mid-December. ( In addition to writing.)

I have three beta-readers selected, and copies of my WIP will go out to them this week. (Fingers crossed, they like it!) I hope to pick the WIP back up in December and have it ready for publication in mid-to-late 2023.

If things continue to progress at this pace, maybe I can exceed the goals I set at the beginning of the year. (Maybe a second short story is in the cards?)

Thanks for stopping in and reading. Check out my previous blogs and comment below.

Christopher Michael Blake