On Sunday 24 February 2008 06:21:17 pm bowerbird@aol.
> pete said:
> > Forming a company isn't necessarily that big a deal.
>
> perhaps not, but it's "an unpleasant pain in the rear", for me.
>
Can you just make up a name and then open a business account in that name?
That is all I did. I am a minimalist.
> and getting a block of isbn is another -- a $300 pain --
Not a pain but an expense. Every business has startup expenses. If you don't
have an ISBN you can't sell books at all except from a table at the Farmers
Market or the street fair. If you use a subsidy house's ISBN you probably
won't sell any significant number of books for reasons already stated. Why
is this so hard to understand?
> and finding a tax consultant is yet another one (because
> if i'm gonna start a business, i'm gonna make sure that i
> find a way to get tax breaks out of all this rear-end pain,
> including the ickyness of dealing with a tax consultant..
>
I just read the IRS publications, and books on my shelf.
> maybe that's just me, i dunno. but i don't think so.
>
> i mean, i _can_ jump through all of those hoops, sure,
> and if i were _guaranteed_ that doing so would bring in
> gobs of money, i might even be _willing_ to go jumpin'...
>
No path guarantees success. But If you are climbing a mountain an alpenstock
is a more useful accessory than a tennis racket.
> but nobody is issuing any such _guarantees_
>
> no sir. people are saying "you'll have to spend one day
> a week on the business end of your publishing company
> if you want a return on your investment, and even then,
> you might just crap out." one day a week? that is a _lot_...
> i have no extra days in _my_ week, i don't know about you.
> and even if i did, i wouldn't wanna spend it doing self-hype.
> especially when i might not even make minimum wage for it!
>
Apparently you want success of some sort without expending any effort
or any money. That is not likely to occur. It is a bit like asking for beer at
a bar without expecting to pay for it.
> i'm not knocking anyone who _does_ want to go that route.
> more power to 'em. but i'm an old man. i don't need that...
> i don't need more money, because i live myself a simple life.
> i'm a poet, and a programmer, so i'd rather be doing poetry
> and programming than sending out press releases, thanks.
>
I will be 76 this year. I programmed or supervised programmers from 1968 till
retirement a while back. As a programmer I learned to RTFM early on. See my
short list below.
> and maybe it's just me and my poet friends, but i know _lots_
> of people who don't want to bother with the b.s. of a business.
> that ain't where our head is at, and ain't where we want it to be.
> we just want to tell our stories, and share them with the world...
>
Poets should get their chapbooks or whatever printed at the cheapest price
possible. No one sells poetry any more, unless your name happens to be Maya
Angelou. I do read a little poetry now and then, but anything newer than
Robert Frost or e.e. cummings is not to my taste. the "Beat Poets" should
have been beaten. The vapid prose with irregular line endings that passes for
poetry today will not excite my senses. You see, I studied poetry at the
university and I can spot the real thing.
For printing books LSI is the cheapest I have found for any quantity of 25 or
more. For less quantity, or extremely slim volumes use Lulu, or a local print
shop.
If you just want to share your stories/poems with the world by all means post
them on a free website or blog. Or you could start up a free newsletter. The
major problem with subsidy publishing is that more often than not almost no
one buys your books. Hence no one reads your books. You are not sharing your
story with the world. OTOH A blog that is cleverly manipulated can gain some
readership. See _Plug Your Book_ on my short list below.
Free is cheaper than any alternative. I use free sites at Doteasy.com. I pay
Godaddy about $10/year for each domain and pay Doteasy $35 for the initial
setup of each site. I do have a business site for which I pay about
$130/year. But just posting your works a free web site is fine. As a
programmer the trivial html needed should not be a barrier.
--
John Culleton
Resources for every author and publisher:
http://wexfordpress
http://wexfordpress
http://www.creative
http://www.gropenas
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