June 9, 2025 • 32 mins
Being a successful author requires more than just writing skills – it means embracing entrepreneurship and developing a sustainable business model that supports your creative practice.
• Understanding taxes is essential – track income and expenses to claim writing-related deductions
• Invest in your business through editing, cover design, marketing, and professional development
• Use technology to streamline operations – accounting software, social media schedulers, email marketing platforms
• Learn about industry-standard rates for freelance writing, speaking engagements, and workshops
• Apply for grants from government bodies, arts councils, and writing organizations
• Develop an entrepreneurial mindset by setting goals and tracking progress
• Establish a strong online presence with a professional website and consistent social media
• Build a mailing list to connect directly with readers independently of social media algorithms
• Join writing communities and Facebook groups to network and learn about industry trends
• Embracing your identity as a business owner can be empowering rather than intimidating
You can find the episode show notes, your free episode handouts and my how-to guides at amrapajalic.com/podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Amra's Armchair Anecdotes.
I'm Amra Payalich, writer,teacher and storyteller.
Pull up a chair and let's diveinto stories about writing, life
and lessons learned, sharingwisdom from my armchair to yours
.
You can find the episode shownotes, your free episode
(00:22):
handouts and my how-to guides atamrapayalichcom slash podcast.
And now it's time to dive in.
Welcome to Amra's ArmchairAnecdotes, and today I am
talking about the business ofbeing an author.
So, obviously, being a writer,we're concerned with the actual
(00:42):
writing aspect, with thecreative parts of it.
However, if we are wanting tothink of ourselves as
professional authors, there is abusiness side to it that we
need to understand and that weneed to think about.
So, in one sense, you know,writing is the art and
publishing is the business, andso we need to sort of think of
(01:04):
ourselves as entrepreneurs.
So today I'm going to betalking about taxes, business
investment, upskilling,streamlining with technology,
setting rates, monetizing yourskills and creating an online
footprint.
So let's dive in.
In this first part, I'm going tobe talking about understanding
(01:24):
taxes as an author.
So it's very, you know, notglamorous at all, but it is
really important because ifyou're earning money from your
books, your freelance gigs oryour workshops, you need to
report your income.
In many countries, once youstart earning above a certain
threshold, you're considered asole trader or a small business
(01:46):
owner.
When I first started out and Iwas going to claim my taxable
income the income that I earnedfrom my day job and the income
that I earned from my writing, alot of the tax people didn't
understand and didn't want toput it through, which is a real
(02:07):
shame.
It's very important that anyincome that you are earning is
listed on your tax return,because it's about building that
credibility that you are anauthor and that you have things
to claim, and that you are thenable to claim your writing
expenses.
Now the most important thing isthat you need to keep records
of your income and expenses.
So I used to use an Excelspreadsheet.
(02:29):
I had a date in my diary everyweek where I would sit down, go
through my bank account and listall of my income and all of my
expenses.
Then two things happened.
One, I got a grant and two, myincome and expenses got quite
complicated in terms of a lot ofsmall transactions happening.
(02:49):
So I got accounting software.
So I've been using Inuitaccounting software.
Recently they've put theirprices up and I'm not finding
I'm going to finish the end ofthis year.
Our taxes in Australia are donein June, so I will finish this
tax cycle.
And then I've bought newsoftware called Biller and I buy
(03:14):
a lot of my software from acompany called AppSumo who offer
really great deals where a lotof the time you can buy software
that is from a startup companywhere they're trying to sort of
enter the market and get brandrecognition and get people using
them, and they offer you thesegreat deals where it's just a
(03:34):
one-time fee and you've gotlifetime access.
So with Biller, once I startusing it, I'm not going to have
to pay a monthly fee.
I've just bought it and that'sit.
I'm going to be using it Now.
It's really important that youunderstand what you can claim so
you know you can claim homeoffice expenses, software
subscriptions, travel forresearch, book purchases and
(03:57):
might be important to work withan accountant, at least for the
first year to set up correctlyaccountant, at least for the
first year to set up correctly.
Now with publishing and writingincome, what I've found in
Australia is going to a regulartax accountant is not helpful.
They don't really understandthe business and what you can
claim and I actually found itfrustrating going to them in
(04:19):
terms of getting my writingincome claimed.
You need to actually get anaccountant who is versed in the
arts industry and then learn allof the things that you can
claim, and then you might beable to do it yourself, which is
what I do.
I now do it myself using thesoftware and using the online
(04:42):
accounting system, so you reallyneed to have a solid grasp of
taxes.
A lot of our writing income isnot taxed, and so you need to
claim and pay taxes.
However, this is where theexpenses come in, because, in
(05:03):
order to to make an income, weare actually spending money on
software applications, on all ofthese things, and so those
deductions help go towards, youknow, taking back the income and
you paying less taxes.
So it's really important sortof to learn about that and to
find a method of tracking andclaiming everything.
(05:28):
The second thing that's reallyimportant is investing in your
business and your professionaldevelopment, so writing is like
any other career.
That means investing inyourself.
So where should you put yourmoney?
Obviously, editing and coverdesign.
Now you know these are thethings that matter.
As an indie author, I do makemy own covers.
(05:49):
Um, I spent a lot of timelearning about, you know,
principles of cover design, butI can only do basic covers.
I don't have the sophisticatedum understanding of some
software packages where you can,you know, have humans and
blending and stuff like that,but I do invest in editing
(06:11):
through some software that I use, pro writing aid and also
through a human proofreader andeditor who reads my work and
makes sure that we're covering.
You know, all those things thatAI software does not pick up.
Marketing and promotion ads,book tours and review copies all
(06:32):
cost money, so you will need toset aside a budget.
Now you can do these things ona low budget when you're
starting out in terms of gettingreview teams who review your
books, but there are also placesand services that you can pay
to do this, and obviously themore well-known and the more
established companies do havehigher fees and then courses and
(06:55):
conferences, so you want toupskill, attend writing and
business workshops to stayupdated and industry trends and
marketing strategies.
The great thing now is a lot ofthese things can be done online
.
So I do attend a lot of onlinecourses or pay for online
workshops, but I'm also going tomy first in-person workshop in
(07:16):
November, which I'm reallyexcited about, and so those are
opportunities for me to learnand to network, and all of those
will be claimable tax expensesbecause they are all
contributing towards meupskilling and learning about my
business.
So upskilling yourself to savemoney is a really important one,
(07:37):
and this is where I have reallyspent my money and my time.
I have just invested as much asI can in software that will help
support my business and thatwill help me be able to do
things myself.
So you can learn basic graphicdesign for social media using
(08:00):
Carver Now Carver has a freeCarver.
Now Carver has a free program.
I do pay for the paidsubscription because it does
have a lot more elements and alot more features that I find
really helpful.
One of the things that is alifesaver is that you can create
a graphic and then you canresize it for all social media
(08:24):
things.
Obviously, you still have toedit them a little bit, but you
know it is a great time saver.
Now you need to also do bookformatting.
So there are two software thatI know of Vellum and Scrivener
that you can use.
I use Atticus for my formattingand I love, love it.
(08:49):
I find that it does reallybeautiful formatting.
It's got so many features.
I bought it when it was firststarting, and so I bought the
you know one price for thesubscription and initially there
were glitches with it, butthey've been really great about
expanding and introducing newtools and, you know, modifying
(09:10):
the software, and I find itworks like a dream.
You also might want tounderstand the basics of
Facebook and Amazon ads so youcan experiment without relying
on expensive ad agencies.
You can do a course through SPFself-publishing formula, and I
(09:31):
did this early on in my career.
I did not know anything aboutFacebook ads and I paid.
I was paying on a monthly basisfor their course because I knew
that I would need it.
It's something that I alwaysneed to use, and that was my
monthly investment, and now Iown that course.
(09:53):
Whenever I try and do Facebookads or Amazon ads, I go back to
it.
I look at it.
These things are alwayschanging, so you always kind of
need to refresh yourself, and sothat's something that I have
paid for and that I have gotaccess to.
The other thing that you want todo is use technology to
streamline your business so youknow when you are doing
(10:16):
everything by yourself.
There are so many parts of it,so many components, so many
things that you need to do, andso getting software to help
support you is really important,and at the moment, we, you know
, are having this disruption interms of AI and so many more
tools are being created andopportunities are being created.
(10:38):
So I personally find it reallyexciting because I love learning
about new things and loveadapting to technology.
So I've been, you know, lookingat all sorts of things that
come out.
So you know accounting andinvoicing.
You know, as I said, you can dobuild, you can do Inuit,
quickbooks, zero Wave.
(10:58):
There are many social mediaschedulers.
I bought one from AppSumo andit's called Postly, and so what
I do with that is I schedule allof my book posts to be
recurring, for them to show upevery six weeks, and also
sometimes, with my articles,I've set them to be scheduled
(11:19):
every year, and so that way,things just are constantly
showing up on my social feed andit's that constant cycle of
reminders to my audience aboutwho I am and what I'm doing.
And the most important thing isthat I'm not spending time on
this.
I do it once you know, when Ihave a book, I create all of the
(11:40):
reels and the social mediaposts that are evergreen, that
are like hooks about it, and Ischedule them and they just
rotate on a regular basis andkeep showing up and then when
I'm doing things about myarticle, I just put it recurring
every year and that way it justshows up again a year later and
by that time everyone'sforgotten about it.
(12:00):
Email marketing, so that one'sreally important when you are an
author and thinking of yourselfas a business.
So you know, there's ConvertKit, there's MailerLite.
I use SendFox.
Again, that's something that Ibought from AppSumo where it's a
one-time fee.
It actually comes up andschedules social media posts,
(12:21):
does these smart campaigns bycollecting information from my
social media, and so that way italso just has it set up so I
can send it, and I try and dothat every month or more and
just sort of have that regularschedule of sending emails out.
And just backing up yoursubscribers is really important
(12:45):
because you never know whatmight happen.
I use editing and writingsoftware, so I use ProWritingAid
, which is software that isgreat for proofreading.
It's helpful to do that firstread through and pick up just
the basics of errors that aremade, and then I send it to my
(13:06):
human um, you know, proofreader,uh, who then picks up all the
other things that um are missedby me and missed by pro writing
aid.
I've alsoseudoWrite, which isalso great software that's
actually got some built-inthings to help you, you know,
add detail, add sensory detail,et cetera.
(13:26):
But I just find it reallyhelpful to go through and clean
up that rough first draft and,you know, clean up repetitions
and stuff like that, and it'squite intuitive.
Also, the reason I likePseudoWrite is it's got Bibles
where you can import your booksand it creates character
outlines and Bibles, which isgoing to be helpful for me
(13:49):
moving forward with my series.
Then, some other software I useRocket Publisher for keywords
and market research, which isreally important.
So you know I bought that onceand now, every time I have a
book, I use that to create mymetadata and to make sure that
I'm targeting the best keywordsand the best, you know, ways of
(14:10):
marketing my book.
I bought a subscription toDeposit Photos, again through
AppSumo, and this is where I getphotos that I use for my covers
and also for my social media,and I really noticed the
difference when I started usingprofessional stock photos for my
(14:30):
reels in terms of creating thatwow effect.
In terms of creating that woweffect Whenever they have a deal
through AppSumo for depositphotos, I get another
subscription and I just havethat so that I can download
images whenever I want.
I've also bought Audio Hero forroyalty-free music so I can
keep making these reels andadding interesting music to it
(14:53):
and you know, giving my reels,uh, that professional lift.
I bought snap cut where, uh,these episodes, I upload it to
snap cut through the youtubelink and it creates little short
reels that I can then use topromote and and so I'm just also
(15:15):
always looking at, you know,technology that is coming out.
Appsumo sends me regularnewsletters and I'm always
buying some software.
I have bought things that Ihaven't really used, but I like
that experimentation.
Sometimes I buy software, likeI bought EasySpeak, which is
software that puts like ateleprompter on your telephone,
(15:37):
and I had that for a few monthsand I just used it yesterday and
I was like, oh yeah, this isfabulous.
And I've bought this softwarecalled Meeting, which is about
scheduling, you know, likewebinars and stuff like that.
That's what I wanted to do withit and I haven't used it yet,
but I will be using that andtrying to integrate that into my
(16:01):
practice as a way of sort ofconnecting with people.
So, you know, even if it takesa little while sometimes to get
ahead of these things, you doget there, you do come around to
it, because once you've boughtit, it's there.
So something else that you needto think about is about knowing
your rates and monetizing yourskills.
So you know, writing isn't justthe book sales.
We're supplementing our incomein various ways, but you need to
(16:24):
know your worth.
So in Australia we haveAustralian Society of Writers
and they have their rates of pay.
So whenever you are quoting apublic appearance or a workshop,
you need to go to that websiteand find what the standard
industry rates are.
You might be thinking thatyou're doing yourself a favor by
(16:45):
offering something for free oroffering something that is less
than, but you are damagingyourself in the long run in
terms of not creating asustainable practice and
damaging the industry in general, because once you know people
start offering things that aremuch less, it's not going to
happen.
I know that sometimes you haveto weigh up.
You know, doing a talk um,that's for free, in order to,
(17:09):
you know, promote or to buildyour skills.
But the problem is there is alot of expectation in the
industry and a lot of people whotake advantage, um, where they
want you to do things for free,um, for your exposure, um, and
yet you know they pay the peoplewho like.
For example, if it's aconference, they're paying the
venue.
(17:29):
Uh, they're paying for peoplewho are, you know, setting up
the technology and themicrophones.
Um, they're charging people tocome in, but they're not going
to pay the people who areactually delivering workshops
and talks.
So, um, I don't do anything forfree.
I um don't, you know, if thereis no payment attached, I'm not
(17:53):
really um interested in.
But I have also been in thisindustry for, you know, going on
30 years, so I've put in mytime.
So, freelance writing.
Now, markets rates really varyand different publications have
different rates, so you justsort of need to see what the
(18:17):
industry rates are.
There are groups that you canjoin where you can network and
share information with peopleand find out what the market
rates are.
So, speaking engagements, as Isaid, look at the Australian
Society of Authors to find outthe rates and use those, and
also for workshops andconsulting, because you know, if
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you have a skillself-publishing, marketing you
want to offer workshops toaspiring authors, which is
something that I do a lot of,because I am a teacher in my day
job and I've been teaching for12 years.
I do regular workshops and it'ssomething I love doing, but it
is also an opportunity for me tomake money that I can then put
(19:02):
back into my business.
The other thing is, theseopportunities also build, give
networking opportunities.
People buy your books, and sothere is that other side to it.
Also, something else that youcan do is seek grants to develop
your business.
So when you are a smallbusiness, there are various
(19:23):
grants.
I applied and received two agrant in order to use digital
(19:44):
software to improve my business,so I set up a Shopify store
with that grant, which meant Ididn't have to pay money for it
and I was able to use that.
So how do you find grants?
Check government websites,local art councils, writing
organisations, look at programsfrom writing associations such
as Society of Authors ornational funding bodies.
(20:06):
I've also received grants frommy local council.
I delivered a workshop througha library, a memoir writing
workshop that was very wellattended because it was for free
, and so I'm always sort of onthe lookout for grants.
I've received grants fromwriting organizations to
actually have writing time, soCreative Victoria was very
(20:30):
supportive for that.
I actually have a grant writingcourse with bold authors that I
will link in the show notes andso you can check that out and
find out how to write a grantapplication if you're not sure.
So when you are applying, youneed to be clear about your
project, how it will use, theexpected outcomes.
(20:50):
You need to tailor yourapplication to the grant's
funding criteria and you need toprovide a budget.
And then, if you're rewarded,you need to use it and you will
need to report on how it wasused.
And so for that export marketgrant, I had to generate reports
, which was really easy to dobecause I was using this great
(21:12):
software where I had to generatereports of all of the things
that I had paid for that wereadvertising, that were in my
advertising budget, in order tobe reimbursed for that grant.
So it was a reimbursement grantwhere you spent the money and
then you got the money back.
So there are all sorts ofdifferent grants that you can
(21:34):
get and small business there'sreally opportunities.
I also did some digitalmentorship that the government
is providing.
So you know there's some greatthings that you can find on
social media, too, where thingspop up based on your interests.
So sometimes, just you know,follow that thread and see where
it takes you.
The next thing is you want tohave an entrepreneurial mindset
(21:58):
and your online presence, so youneed to be setting goals and
tracking your progress.
So my new goal, for example,with this book that I'm
publishing on the 1st ofNovember, was I wanted to learn
how to insert images and doimage overlays in the actual
book.
Um, I'm doing a kickstarterfirst, so I'm going to be
(22:22):
selling it through presale onkickstarter, so I've been
learning how to do that.
And then also, um, I'm going tobe exploring translation.
So at the moment, there'sopportunities for indie authors
to access translation andpublish their books
internationally using AIsoftware and then partner with a
(22:44):
human proofreader.
So that's something that I'mgoing to be looking at.
So I'm always sort of lookingat how can I build my business,
what are new things I can try?
So think about long-termstrategy rather than short-term
gains.
You know I did audiobooks formy books that were
human-narrated.
That's something I would stilllike to do, but there is a lot
(23:07):
of changes now, with a lot ofretailers like Amazon and Google
Play offering their own AItranslation services, and so I'm
just waiting to see how thingspan out there.
You need to be consistent withyour branding and your online
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presence.
I was just listening to apodcast about search engine
optimization and I've had thesame domain for you know, ever
since domains was a word that weknew about and, um, I have had
a lot of you, different serviceproviders to host my website.
(23:51):
I've always had a website, andthe the advantage of that is
that for search engineoptimization, you need to have a
lot of backlinks, and so I do,because, everywhere that I could
, that I was being published,that I was being acknowledged, I
would always put the link to mywebsite, and so, even if I
change service providers, thatwebsite link still remains the
(24:13):
same and people can find me, andso it means you know when
there's an article published orwhen I did a blog post, my
website appears.
So things like that are reallyimportant.
I would encourage you to.
You know, get a domain, tostart a website, even if it's
only four pages.
You know about me, contact meabout my books, about me,
(24:39):
contact me about my books.
You know, just a basic websiteand then you build and you build
it and you keep improving it.
So I'm always looking at otherauthor websites and looking at
what they are doing and going.
I like that, and then lookingat adapting that on my website
and making those changes.
So at the very least, you needto have your author bio, links
to your books and a mailing list.
(25:00):
Sign up active social mediaprofiles.
Now, with social media, youdecide do you have one or two
that you're really active withand that you love, or do you
want to do what I do, which isuse the social media scheduler
and just kind of publisheverywhere.
And there are some social mediathat I'm more active in and
(25:25):
some I just sort of have thingsrunning.
I sort of view that I want mysocial media on every platform
because I want my usernamelocked down so no one else can
take it, and so then that socialmedia scheduler just allows me
to keep updating things and evenif I don't check in very
frequently, things are just sortof popping up there on a
(25:46):
regular basis and keeping thatgoing.
Now an email newsletter isreally important.
Social media algorithms changed, but the mailing list is yours
to control.
This is your opportunity tobuild a community, to connect
with your readers, to updatewith people, and you sometimes
(26:08):
struggle with it because you'relike, oh, I've got nothing to
say, I'm not publishing a book.
But you have to change yourmindset and think about it, as
do you really want to only beemailing people when you have a
book to sell?
Because doesn't that seem a bitmercenary?
Don't you want to be actuallyemailing them on a regular basis
(26:29):
and letting them know what'sgoing on with you, so that way,
when you do have a book to sell,they're like yes, I've been
following this, I'm curiousabout this, I want to support
this person.
So think of your newsletter andyour social media about
nurturing relationships.
Join facebook groups so you know, when you're seeking a new area
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, use it for research.
So, you know, with kickstarter,I bought a book and I read it,
and I joined a group aboutkickstarter where I would see
other people posting aboutcampaigns, posting their
feedback, and so I was justconstantly researching and
learning because I'll just be,you know, a post would pop up
and I'm like, oh, let me readthat, and through that I would
be learning.
Um, I'm doing the same now withum the wanting to do
(27:17):
translations.
So I've joined a facebook groupfor scribe shadow and, again,
I'm seeing all these peopleposting about their experiences
translating and I'm learningthrough that.
I'm with 50 Books to 20K no, 20Books to 50K which is a
Facebook group for indie authorsstarted by Craig Martell, which
(27:40):
I love because it's sopractical and so useful.
Wide for the Win, I'm in anAtticus group, so I've got all
these groups where I'm just sortof collecting information,
finding out things and learningabout the industry.
And another thing is think aboutsearch engine optimization.
So, you know, in terms ofcreating your website, creating
your online footprint, um, justhaving things out there that are
(28:04):
, you know, showing up with yourname so that, um, you're
building that as part of yourpractice.
So, in conclusion, um, you know, being a, the business of being
an author, is so many things.
We have to do the writing, wehave to do the marketing, we
have to think about the, youknow, business side of it in
(28:26):
terms of following new trends,learning new things.
I find it personally reallyexciting and empowering.
I do get overwhelmed sometimeswith my ambition and with all of
the things that I want to do,but I'm also learning.
I don't have to do them rightnow.
I do have a file, a Scrivenerfile, that I called the
(28:49):
Self-Publishing Bible, and soanytime I learn something new
that I'm like, oh, I'd like todo this, but not right now, I
create a section, name it, and Iput links or the information
there.
And so that way, at some pointwhen I am in, you know know, at
that point in my writing careerwhere I can take on this new
(29:10):
thing, I've got already someinformation, I've got a starting
point, I've got what I was, youknow, looking at at that time,
and then I can find it and buildit.
The other thing that I would sayis, you know, thinking of it as
a business can be intimidating,but it can be also empowering,
because you are the one makingall the decisions and you are
(29:36):
embracing and engaging with thisindustry, and I personally find
it so exciting, and I havenever been more joyful about my
writing life than I have been atthis point where I've been
thinking of myself as a smallbusiness and a small press or a
micro press, and it's even mademe much more entrepreneurial in
(30:00):
terms of really pushing myselfforward and finding gigs for,
you know, freelance writing anddoing writing workshops, because
all of these are opportunitiesfor me to network, to put my
face out there, to buildcredibility, but, more
importantly, to generate income.
(30:20):
And then this is the incomethat I can use to pay for all
the other things that I want todo, you know, to pay for the
audiobooks, to pay for theimages that I need, to pay for
the editing of my books, and soit's made me also much less.
You know, there's the thing ofbeing, I think, especially a
(30:44):
woman, where it's like I needpermission from someone for me
to be able to do this.
I need someone to say you arean author, you are a small
business owner, and leaning intothis and leaning into this new
identity has really given mestrength to overcome all of
(31:05):
those challenges, even my socialmedia.
I knew it was important, I knewit was something that you had
to do, but trying to post on aregular basis felt excruciating.
It's like who wants to hearfrom me, who wants to see me
popping up?
But then, when I found mypassion for creating reels and
creating social media about mybook, for creating reels and
(31:25):
creating social media about mybook, and I just thought of it
as sharing, all I'm doing issharing what I'm doing.
I'm sharing the things that I'mlearning, I'm sharing my
writing journey, I'm sharinginformation about my book, and
that just changed my mindset andmade it just so much more fun
and so much more joyful.
And then when I get thoseechoes, when I get people, you
(31:49):
know, who attend my writingworkshop, and then they connect
with me on social media and thenthey subscribe to my newsletter
and then they buy my book, itjust makes it all worthwhile
because I see what theseconnections are and the
importance of these connections.
So I will put up some links inthe show notes for things that
you might want to investigateand look at.
(32:10):
I hope this episode has beenhelpful to get you thinking
about how to be a small businessowner as a writer and how to
empower yourself and moveforward in your writing journey.
Until next time, thank you fortuning in to Amra's Armchair
(32:34):
Anecdotes.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
follow for more insights,stories and inspiration From my
armchair to yours.
Remember every story beginswith a single word.
Welcome to Amra's Armchair Anecdotes.
I'm Amra Payalich, writer,teacher and storyteller.
Pull up a chair and let's diveinto stories about writing, life
and lessons learned, sharingwisdom from my armchair to yours
.
You can find the episode shownotes, your free episode
(00:22):
handouts and my how-to guides atamrapayalichcom slash podcast.
And now it's time to dive in.
Welcome to Amra's ArmchairAnecdotes, and today I am
talking about the business ofbeing an author.
So, obviously, being a writer,we're concerned with the actual
(00:42):
writing aspect, with thecreative parts of it.
However, if we are wanting tothink of ourselves as
professional authors, there is abusiness side to it that we
need to understand and that weneed to think about.
So, in one sense, you know,writing is the art and
publishing is the business, andso we need to sort of think of
(01:04):
ourselves as entrepreneurs.
So today I'm going to betalking about taxes, business
investment, upskilling,streamlining with technology,
setting rates, monetizing yourskills and creating an online
footprint.
So let's dive in.
In this first part, I'm going tobe talking about understanding
(01:24):
taxes as an author.
So it's very, you know, notglamorous at all, but it is
really important because ifyou're earning money from your
books, your freelance gigs oryour workshops, you need to
report your income.
In many countries, once youstart earning above a certain
threshold, you're considered asole trader or a small business
(01:46):
owner.
When I first started out and Iwas going to claim my taxable
income the income that I earnedfrom my day job and the income
that I earned from my writing, alot of the tax people didn't
understand and didn't want toput it through, which is a real
(02:07):
shame.
It's very important that anyincome that you are earning is
listed on your tax return,because it's about building that
credibility that you are anauthor and that you have things
to claim, and that you are thenable to claim your writing
expenses.
Now the most important thing isthat you need to keep records
of your income and expenses.
So I used to use an Excelspreadsheet.
(02:29):
I had a date in my diary everyweek where I would sit down, go
through my bank account and listall of my income and all of my
expenses.
Then two things happened.
One, I got a grant and two, myincome and expenses got quite
complicated in terms of a lot ofsmall transactions happening.
(02:49):
So I got accounting software.
So I've been using Inuitaccounting software.
Recently they've put theirprices up and I'm not finding
I'm going to finish the end ofthis year.
Our taxes in Australia are donein June, so I will finish this
tax cycle.
And then I've bought newsoftware called Biller and I buy
(03:14):
a lot of my software from acompany called AppSumo who offer
really great deals where a lotof the time you can buy software
that is from a startup companywhere they're trying to sort of
enter the market and get brandrecognition and get people using
them, and they offer you thesegreat deals where it's just a
(03:34):
one-time fee and you've gotlifetime access.
So with Biller, once I startusing it, I'm not going to have
to pay a monthly fee.
I've just bought it and that'sit.
I'm going to be using it Now.
It's really important that youunderstand what you can claim so
you know you can claim homeoffice expenses, software
subscriptions, travel forresearch, book purchases and
(03:57):
might be important to work withan accountant, at least for the
first year to set up correctlyaccountant, at least for the
first year to set up correctly.
Now with publishing and writingincome, what I've found in
Australia is going to a regulartax accountant is not helpful.
They don't really understandthe business and what you can
claim and I actually found itfrustrating going to them in
(04:19):
terms of getting my writingincome claimed.
You need to actually get anaccountant who is versed in the
arts industry and then learn allof the things that you can
claim, and then you might beable to do it yourself, which is
what I do.
I now do it myself using thesoftware and using the online
(04:42):
accounting system, so you reallyneed to have a solid grasp of
taxes.
A lot of our writing income isnot taxed, and so you need to
claim and pay taxes.
However, this is where theexpenses come in, because, in
(05:03):
order to to make an income, weare actually spending money on
software applications, on all ofthese things, and so those
deductions help go towards, youknow, taking back the income and
you paying less taxes.
So it's really important sortof to learn about that and to
find a method of tracking andclaiming everything.
(05:28):
The second thing that's reallyimportant is investing in your
business and your professionaldevelopment, so writing is like
any other career.
That means investing inyourself.
So where should you put yourmoney?
Obviously, editing and coverdesign.
Now you know these are thethings that matter.
As an indie author, I do makemy own covers.
(05:49):
Um, I spent a lot of timelearning about, you know,
principles of cover design, butI can only do basic covers.
I don't have the sophisticatedum understanding of some
software packages where you can,you know, have humans and
blending and stuff like that,but I do invest in editing
(06:11):
through some software that I use, pro writing aid and also
through a human proofreader andeditor who reads my work and
makes sure that we're covering.
You know, all those things thatAI software does not pick up.
Marketing and promotion ads,book tours and review copies all
(06:32):
cost money, so you will need toset aside a budget.
Now you can do these things ona low budget when you're
starting out in terms of gettingreview teams who review your
books, but there are also placesand services that you can pay
to do this, and obviously themore well-known and the more
established companies do havehigher fees and then courses and
(06:55):
conferences, so you want toupskill, attend writing and
business workshops to stayupdated and industry trends and
marketing strategies.
The great thing now is a lot ofthese things can be done online
.
So I do attend a lot of onlinecourses or pay for online
workshops, but I'm also going tomy first in-person workshop in
(07:16):
November, which I'm reallyexcited about, and so those are
opportunities for me to learnand to network, and all of those
will be claimable tax expensesbecause they are all
contributing towards meupskilling and learning about my
business.
So upskilling yourself to savemoney is a really important one,
(07:37):
and this is where I have reallyspent my money and my time.
I have just invested as much asI can in software that will help
support my business and thatwill help me be able to do
things myself.
So you can learn basic graphicdesign for social media using
(08:00):
Carver Now Carver has a freeCarver.
Now Carver has a free program.
I do pay for the paidsubscription because it does
have a lot more elements and alot more features that I find
really helpful.
One of the things that is alifesaver is that you can create
a graphic and then you canresize it for all social media
(08:24):
things.
Obviously, you still have toedit them a little bit, but you
know it is a great time saver.
Now you need to also do bookformatting.
So there are two software thatI know of Vellum and Scrivener
that you can use.
I use Atticus for my formattingand I love, love it.
(08:49):
I find that it does reallybeautiful formatting.
It's got so many features.
I bought it when it was firststarting, and so I bought the
you know one price for thesubscription and initially there
were glitches with it, butthey've been really great about
expanding and introducing newtools and, you know, modifying
(09:10):
the software, and I find itworks like a dream.
You also might want tounderstand the basics of
Facebook and Amazon ads so youcan experiment without relying
on expensive ad agencies.
You can do a course through SPFself-publishing formula, and I
(09:31):
did this early on in my career.
I did not know anything aboutFacebook ads and I paid.
I was paying on a monthly basisfor their course because I knew
that I would need it.
It's something that I alwaysneed to use, and that was my
monthly investment, and now Iown that course.
(09:53):
Whenever I try and do Facebookads or Amazon ads, I go back to
it.
I look at it.
These things are alwayschanging, so you always kind of
need to refresh yourself, and sothat's something that I have
paid for and that I have gotaccess to.
The other thing that you want todo is use technology to
streamline your business so youknow when you are doing
(10:16):
everything by yourself.
There are so many parts of it,so many components, so many
things that you need to do, andso getting software to help
support you is really important,and at the moment, we, you know
, are having this disruption interms of AI and so many more
tools are being created andopportunities are being created.
(10:38):
So I personally find it reallyexciting because I love learning
about new things and loveadapting to technology.
So I've been, you know, lookingat all sorts of things that
come out.
So you know accounting andinvoicing.
You know, as I said, you can dobuild, you can do Inuit,
quickbooks, zero Wave.
(10:58):
There are many social mediaschedulers.
I bought one from AppSumo andit's called Postly, and so what
I do with that is I schedule allof my book posts to be
recurring, for them to show upevery six weeks, and also
sometimes, with my articles,I've set them to be scheduled
(11:19):
every year, and so that way,things just are constantly
showing up on my social feed andit's that constant cycle of
reminders to my audience aboutwho I am and what I'm doing.
And the most important thing isthat I'm not spending time on
this.
I do it once you know, when Ihave a book, I create all of the
(11:40):
reels and the social mediaposts that are evergreen, that
are like hooks about it, and Ischedule them and they just
rotate on a regular basis andkeep showing up and then when
I'm doing things about myarticle, I just put it recurring
every year and that way it justshows up again a year later and
by that time everyone'sforgotten about it.
(12:00):
Email marketing, so that one'sreally important when you are an
author and thinking of yourselfas a business.
So you know, there's ConvertKit, there's MailerLite.
I use SendFox.
Again, that's something that Ibought from AppSumo where it's a
one-time fee.
It actually comes up andschedules social media posts,
(12:21):
does these smart campaigns bycollecting information from my
social media, and so that way italso just has it set up so I
can send it, and I try and dothat every month or more and
just sort of have that regularschedule of sending emails out.
And just backing up yoursubscribers is really important
(12:45):
because you never know whatmight happen.
I use editing and writingsoftware, so I use ProWritingAid
, which is software that isgreat for proofreading.
It's helpful to do that firstread through and pick up just
the basics of errors that aremade, and then I send it to my
(13:06):
human um, you know, proofreader,uh, who then picks up all the
other things that um are missedby me and missed by pro writing
aid.
I've alsoseudoWrite, which isalso great software that's
actually got some built-inthings to help you, you know,
add detail, add sensory detail,et cetera.
(13:26):
But I just find it reallyhelpful to go through and clean
up that rough first draft and,you know, clean up repetitions
and stuff like that, and it'squite intuitive.
Also, the reason I likePseudoWrite is it's got Bibles
where you can import your booksand it creates character
outlines and Bibles, which isgoing to be helpful for me
(13:49):
moving forward with my series.
Then, some other software I useRocket Publisher for keywords
and market research, which isreally important.
So you know I bought that onceand now, every time I have a
book, I use that to create mymetadata and to make sure that
I'm targeting the best keywordsand the best, you know, ways of
(14:10):
marketing my book.
I bought a subscription toDeposit Photos, again through
AppSumo, and this is where I getphotos that I use for my covers
and also for my social media,and I really noticed the
difference when I started usingprofessional stock photos for my
(14:30):
reels in terms of creating thatwow effect.
In terms of creating that woweffect Whenever they have a deal
through AppSumo for depositphotos, I get another
subscription and I just havethat so that I can download
images whenever I want.
I've also bought Audio Hero forroyalty-free music so I can
keep making these reels andadding interesting music to it
(14:53):
and you know, giving my reels,uh, that professional lift.
I bought snap cut where, uh,these episodes, I upload it to
snap cut through the youtubelink and it creates little short
reels that I can then use topromote and and so I'm just also
(15:15):
always looking at, you know,technology that is coming out.
Appsumo sends me regularnewsletters and I'm always
buying some software.
I have bought things that Ihaven't really used, but I like
that experimentation.
Sometimes I buy software, likeI bought EasySpeak, which is
software that puts like ateleprompter on your telephone,
(15:37):
and I had that for a few monthsand I just used it yesterday and
I was like, oh yeah, this isfabulous.
And I've bought this softwarecalled Meeting, which is about
scheduling, you know, likewebinars and stuff like that.
That's what I wanted to do withit and I haven't used it yet,
but I will be using that andtrying to integrate that into my
(16:01):
practice as a way of sort ofconnecting with people.
So, you know, even if it takesa little while sometimes to get
ahead of these things, you doget there, you do come around to
it, because once you've boughtit, it's there.
So something else that you needto think about is about knowing
your rates and monetizing yourskills.
So you know, writing isn't justthe book sales.
We're supplementing our incomein various ways, but you need to
(16:24):
know your worth.
So in Australia we haveAustralian Society of Writers
and they have their rates of pay.
So whenever you are quoting apublic appearance or a workshop,
you need to go to that websiteand find what the standard
industry rates are.
You might be thinking thatyou're doing yourself a favor by
(16:45):
offering something for free oroffering something that is less
than, but you are damagingyourself in the long run in
terms of not creating asustainable practice and
damaging the industry in general, because once you know people
start offering things that aremuch less, it's not going to
happen.
I know that sometimes you haveto weigh up.
You know, doing a talk um,that's for free, in order to,
(17:09):
you know, promote or to buildyour skills.
But the problem is there is alot of expectation in the
industry and a lot of people whotake advantage, um, where they
want you to do things for free,um, for your exposure, um, and
yet you know they pay the peoplewho like.
For example, if it's aconference, they're paying the
venue.
(17:29):
Uh, they're paying for peoplewho are, you know, setting up
the technology and themicrophones.
Um, they're charging people tocome in, but they're not going
to pay the people who areactually delivering workshops
and talks.
So, um, I don't do anything forfree.
I um don't, you know, if thereis no payment attached, I'm not
(17:53):
really um interested in.
But I have also been in thisindustry for, you know, going on
30 years, so I've put in mytime.
So, freelance writing.
Now, markets rates really varyand different publications have
different rates, so you justsort of need to see what the
(18:17):
industry rates are.
There are groups that you canjoin where you can network and
share information with peopleand find out what the market
rates are.
So, speaking engagements, as Isaid, look at the Australian
Society of Authors to find outthe rates and use those, and
also for workshops andconsulting, because you know, if
(18:37):
you have a skillself-publishing, marketing you
want to offer workshops toaspiring authors, which is
something that I do a lot of,because I am a teacher in my day
job and I've been teaching for12 years.
I do regular workshops and it'ssomething I love doing, but it
is also an opportunity for me tomake money that I can then put
(19:02):
back into my business.
The other thing is, theseopportunities also build, give
networking opportunities.
People buy your books, and sothere is that other side to it.
Also, something else that youcan do is seek grants to develop
your business.
So when you are a smallbusiness, there are various
(19:23):
grants.
I applied and received two agrant in order to use digital
(19:44):
software to improve my business,so I set up a Shopify store
with that grant, which meant Ididn't have to pay money for it
and I was able to use that.
So how do you find grants?
Check government websites,local art councils, writing
organisations, look at programsfrom writing associations such
as Society of Authors ornational funding bodies.
(20:06):
I've also received grants frommy local council.
I delivered a workshop througha library, a memoir writing
workshop that was very wellattended because it was for free
, and so I'm always sort of onthe lookout for grants.
I've received grants fromwriting organizations to
actually have writing time, soCreative Victoria was very
(20:30):
supportive for that.
I actually have a grant writingcourse with bold authors that I
will link in the show notes andso you can check that out and
find out how to write a grantapplication if you're not sure.
So when you are applying, youneed to be clear about your
project, how it will use, theexpected outcomes.
(20:50):
You need to tailor yourapplication to the grant's
funding criteria and you need toprovide a budget.
And then, if you're rewarded,you need to use it and you will
need to report on how it wasused.
And so for that export marketgrant, I had to generate reports
, which was really easy to dobecause I was using this great
(21:12):
software where I had to generatereports of all of the things
that I had paid for that wereadvertising, that were in my
advertising budget, in order tobe reimbursed for that grant.
So it was a reimbursement grantwhere you spent the money and
then you got the money back.
So there are all sorts ofdifferent grants that you can
(21:34):
get and small business there'sreally opportunities.
I also did some digitalmentorship that the government
is providing.
So you know there's some greatthings that you can find on
social media, too, where thingspop up based on your interests.
So sometimes, just you know,follow that thread and see where
it takes you.
The next thing is you want tohave an entrepreneurial mindset
(21:58):
and your online presence, so youneed to be setting goals and
tracking your progress.
So my new goal, for example,with this book that I'm
publishing on the 1st ofNovember, was I wanted to learn
how to insert images and doimage overlays in the actual
book.
Um, I'm doing a kickstarterfirst, so I'm going to be
(22:22):
selling it through presale onkickstarter, so I've been
learning how to do that.
And then also, um, I'm going tobe exploring translation.
So at the moment, there'sopportunities for indie authors
to access translation andpublish their books
internationally using AIsoftware and then partner with a
(22:44):
human proofreader.
So that's something that I'mgoing to be looking at.
So I'm always sort of lookingat how can I build my business,
what are new things I can try?
So think about long-termstrategy rather than short-term
gains.
You know I did audiobooks formy books that were
human-narrated.
That's something I would stilllike to do, but there is a lot
(23:07):
of changes now, with a lot ofretailers like Amazon and Google
Play offering their own AItranslation services, and so I'm
just waiting to see how thingspan out there.
You need to be consistent withyour branding and your online
(23:29):
presence.
I was just listening to apodcast about search engine
optimization and I've had thesame domain for you know, ever
since domains was a word that weknew about and, um, I have had
a lot of you, different serviceproviders to host my website.
(23:51):
I've always had a website, andthe the advantage of that is
that for search engineoptimization, you need to have a
lot of backlinks, and so I do,because, everywhere that I could
, that I was being published,that I was being acknowledged, I
would always put the link to mywebsite, and so, even if I
change service providers, thatwebsite link still remains the
(24:13):
same and people can find me, andso it means you know when
there's an article published orwhen I did a blog post, my
website appears.
So things like that are reallyimportant.
I would encourage you to.
You know, get a domain, tostart a website, even if it's
only four pages.
You know about me, contact meabout my books, about me,
(24:39):
contact me about my books.
You know, just a basic websiteand then you build and you build
it and you keep improving it.
So I'm always looking at otherauthor websites and looking at
what they are doing and going.
I like that, and then lookingat adapting that on my website
and making those changes.
So at the very least, you needto have your author bio, links
to your books and a mailing list.
(25:00):
Sign up active social mediaprofiles.
Now, with social media, youdecide do you have one or two
that you're really active withand that you love, or do you
want to do what I do, which isuse the social media scheduler
and just kind of publisheverywhere.
And there are some social mediathat I'm more active in and
(25:25):
some I just sort of have thingsrunning.
I sort of view that I want mysocial media on every platform
because I want my usernamelocked down so no one else can
take it, and so then that socialmedia scheduler just allows me
to keep updating things and evenif I don't check in very
frequently, things are just sortof popping up there on a
(25:46):
regular basis and keeping thatgoing.
Now an email newsletter isreally important.
Social media algorithms changed, but the mailing list is yours
to control.
This is your opportunity tobuild a community, to connect
with your readers, to updatewith people, and you sometimes
(26:08):
struggle with it because you'relike, oh, I've got nothing to
say, I'm not publishing a book.
But you have to change yourmindset and think about it, as
do you really want to only beemailing people when you have a
book to sell?
Because doesn't that seem a bitmercenary?
Don't you want to be actuallyemailing them on a regular basis
(26:29):
and letting them know what'sgoing on with you, so that way,
when you do have a book to sell,they're like yes, I've been
following this, I'm curiousabout this, I want to support
this person.
So think of your newsletter andyour social media about
nurturing relationships.
Join facebook groups so you know, when you're seeking a new area
(26:52):
, use it for research.
So, you know, with kickstarter,I bought a book and I read it,
and I joined a group aboutkickstarter where I would see
other people posting aboutcampaigns, posting their
feedback, and so I was justconstantly researching and
learning because I'll just be,you know, a post would pop up
and I'm like, oh, let me readthat, and through that I would
be learning.
Um, I'm doing the same now withum the wanting to do
(27:17):
translations.
So I've joined a facebook groupfor scribe shadow and, again,
I'm seeing all these peopleposting about their experiences
translating and I'm learningthrough that.
I'm with 50 Books to 20K no, 20Books to 50K which is a
Facebook group for indie authorsstarted by Craig Martell, which
(27:40):
I love because it's sopractical and so useful.
Wide for the Win, I'm in anAtticus group, so I've got all
these groups where I'm just sortof collecting information,
finding out things and learningabout the industry.
And another thing is think aboutsearch engine optimization.
So, you know, in terms ofcreating your website, creating
your online footprint, um, justhaving things out there that are
(28:04):
, you know, showing up with yourname so that, um, you're
building that as part of yourpractice.
So, in conclusion, um, you know, being a, the business of being
an author, is so many things.
We have to do the writing, wehave to do the marketing, we
have to think about the, youknow, business side of it in
(28:26):
terms of following new trends,learning new things.
I find it personally reallyexciting and empowering.
I do get overwhelmed sometimeswith my ambition and with all of
the things that I want to do,but I'm also learning.
I don't have to do them rightnow.
I do have a file, a Scrivenerfile, that I called the
(28:49):
Self-Publishing Bible, and soanytime I learn something new
that I'm like, oh, I'd like todo this, but not right now, I
create a section, name it, and Iput links or the information
there.
And so that way, at some pointwhen I am in, you know know, at
that point in my writing careerwhere I can take on this new
(29:10):
thing, I've got already someinformation, I've got a starting
point, I've got what I was, youknow, looking at at that time,
and then I can find it and buildit.
The other thing that I would sayis, you know, thinking of it as
a business can be intimidating,but it can be also empowering,
because you are the one makingall the decisions and you are
(29:36):
embracing and engaging with thisindustry, and I personally find
it so exciting, and I havenever been more joyful about my
writing life than I have been atthis point where I've been
thinking of myself as a smallbusiness and a small press or a
micro press, and it's even mademe much more entrepreneurial in
(30:00):
terms of really pushing myselfforward and finding gigs for,
you know, freelance writing anddoing writing workshops, because
all of these are opportunitiesfor me to network, to put my
face out there, to buildcredibility, but, more
importantly, to generate income.
(30:20):
And then this is the incomethat I can use to pay for all
the other things that I want todo, you know, to pay for the
audiobooks, to pay for theimages that I need, to pay for
the editing of my books, and soit's made me also much less.
You know, there's the thing ofbeing, I think, especially a
(30:44):
woman, where it's like I needpermission from someone for me
to be able to do this.
I need someone to say you arean author, you are a small
business owner, and leaning intothis and leaning into this new
identity has really given mestrength to overcome all of
(31:05):
those challenges, even my socialmedia.
I knew it was important, I knewit was something that you had
to do, but trying to post on aregular basis felt excruciating.
It's like who wants to hearfrom me, who wants to see me
popping up?
But then, when I found mypassion for creating reels and
creating social media about mybook, for creating reels and
(31:25):
creating social media about mybook, and I just thought of it
as sharing, all I'm doing issharing what I'm doing.
I'm sharing the things that I'mlearning, I'm sharing my
writing journey, I'm sharinginformation about my book, and
that just changed my mindset andmade it just so much more fun
and so much more joyful.
And then when I get thoseechoes, when I get people, you
(31:49):
know, who attend my writingworkshop, and then they connect
with me on social media and thenthey subscribe to my newsletter
and then they buy my book, itjust makes it all worthwhile
because I see what theseconnections are and the
importance of these connections.
So I will put up some links inthe show notes for things that
you might want to investigateand look at.
(32:10):
I hope this episode has beenhelpful to get you thinking
about how to be a small businessowner as a writer and how to
empower yourself and moveforward in your writing journey.
Until next time, thank you fortuning in to Amra's Armchair
(32:34):
Anecdotes.
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