So – I guess the biggest hurdle in spreading your work is getting the accounts set up on these various places. I ran into a hurdle with nearly every one and had to struggle my way through. I’ll try and remember the difficulties I was up against and do up a blog explaining how I overcame each problem.
Amazon’s blog:
The first outlet an Indie author wants to publish with is Amazon. When you open an account with them on the KPD ( Kindle Direct Publishing ) page, you must remember that they need to have the proper tax papers filled out for you and on file. If you’re not an American, you can be subject to a 30% withholding tax (depending on your country and what rules apply). I went along for months with them holding back that amount before it finally dawned on me (procrastination is my nickname when it comes to stepping out of a comfy box) that I needed to get this done. My accountant warned me that old rules had changed and I needed to have the full amount of money paid to me because I would have to pay tax in Canada.
So, I had to obtain a tax identification number – called an ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number). This is for individuals. For a business, you’d need an EIN (Employer Identification Number).
I know some of my friends phoned in and got EIN’s by setting themselves up as a self- publisher and that works just fine. They said it was easy and quick. Personally, I didn’t know you could do that and so I went the long route by filling in the ITIN form and getting my publisher to send a signed letter stating they were paying me royalties. Then I had to go to the Canadian tax office to get a specially signed copy of my passport. Once I had these three pieces of information, I sent it to the taxation office in Texas and waited weeks for the letter to get processed and for me to get my ITIN number in the mail..…only to find out I’d missed a question….. had to resend it…..trust me – You don’t want to go my route.
For the EIN, don’t be put off by the reference to ‘employer’ – if you are a director of your own publishing company, you can apply. If you’re a self-published author, then this works for you.
Step: 2 Read the notes on page 2. Since you are applying to get this EIN for tax withholding purposes, they will confirm there are questions you can ignore.
Step: 3 Complete the form – fill in the necessary information online and then print it.
Step: 4 Now, call the IRS’s dedicated line for businesses that are located outside of the US: 1-267-941-1099. Have the completed form SS-4 beside you.
Step: 5 They will give you the EIN number over the phone and you can expect the paperwork in the post in the next 2-3 weeks.
Next, you will need to fill in and send a form W-8BEN (PDF). Make sure to enter your EIN on it. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw8ben.pdf
Keep a few extra hard copies on hand and leave this form on your desktop where you can have access to it later for when you apply with the other publishers.
***The other accounting you will need to do is fill in the details for their banking. I’m an old-fashioned check girl myself and love getting those envelopes every month. But, they do transfer the funds right into your bank accounts so I imagine if you fill in the information correctly, there won’t be any problems.
As far as uploading your books to Amazon, it’s quite simple. They have well-written steps for you to follow and they make it quite easy with instructions as you go along. (If you still run into trouble, let me know and I’ll be glad to help out 🙂 Truly, this company does work with its authors and considering the number of us that they’re interacting with; I certainly feel that they do a wonderful job.
There is one more question you need to ask yourself when you publish with Amazon. Will you put your book into their 3 month Select program or not? If not, you’ll want to watch for my next few blogs as I go through each publisher and the headaches each gave me while I stumbled and cursed my way through their sites.
