Beau's Dragon Now Available In Kindle Format

I'd like to announce that Beau's Dragon is now available in Kindle version for $3.95 on Amazon. Just go to: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JAXJ18A/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_WJUptb15EAW2R to get your copy. If you would like a personalized autograph, you can request one through Authorgraph - https://www.authorgraph.com/ and entering S. Bradley Stoner in the author search,or by visiting my Facebook page and clicking on the Authorgraph link there - https://www.facebook.com/SBradleyStoner?ref=hl.

The print version is also available and makes a great gift for the little "imaginator" in your family or friends circles.

The Business Side of Writing

Writing is a joy.  The business of writing can be a pain in the you know what. I’m not talking about giving interviews or doing book signings. I’m talking about the nitty gritty aspects of the business side of the enterprise. Marketing, calculating the costs of doing business, accounting, and... shudder... taxes. I’m going to leave marketing for another blog... maybe. There are probably others more qualified to talk about that than am I. I’m going to talk about the housekeeping side of business.  Cost accounting, pricing, Profit and Loss (known in the business world as P&L), bookkeeping, and the good old IRS reporting. Let’s talk bookkeeping first.

There are fundamental aspects of business accounting that figure into the actual cost of doing business (aka CODB).  A good accounting software or an accounting ledger (if you are old-fashioned) is essential to tracing income and expenses.  Tracking is how you calculate your CODB, your P&L, and, ultimately whether you have a business, an avocation, or a hobby. If you aren’t making money after five years, it’s an avocation or hobby. Ask the IRS. The good news is that, with a home-based business, you can keep your costs and overhead down. That means you have a better rate of return on your investment (ROI). The bad news is, most novice writers have no sense of the business of writing, they don’t track costs against sales. A lot of novice writers would be shocked to find out that the article they were paid $50.00 for cost them $75.00 to get published, or the e-book that sold 600 copies on Amazon for $2.99 per that generated a total royalty revenue of $630, cost $700.00 to produce. That’s where good bookkeeping comes in, and that is a big part of business housekeeping.

As a former COO, I have a pretty good accounting breakout for the business of writing. The income side of the ledger is pretty straight forward... it’s what you get paid for your writing, speaking engagements, and so forth. It’s the cost side of the ledger that is the sticky wicket. Let me share the basics of that side. It consists of Direct Costs and Indirect Costs. I’ll break mine out for you... maybe it will help, but in the words of an old friend of mine, at least “it couldn’t hoit.”

·         Direct costs - these are the costs directly attributable to the production of the final product.  Usually I will assign an alpha-numeric project number to these... it can be based on a book project (e.g. FOM6, FOM for the title - Fishing and Other Misadventures - and 5 for the sequence in books I have written). Where an overhead number applies to a specific project, I will use number in conjunction with the project number (e.g., 0740-FOM6 designates postage costs specific to that book).

• DL       Direct Labor (project specific - if you pay yourself an hourly rate as a function of your business enterprise) 
•   DM      Direct Materials
• Office supplies (project specific) 
•  Software (project specific) 
•   DT       Direct Travel 
•  Airline/Train tickets 
•  Auto rental/cab fare 
•  Lodging and meals and incidental expenses (M&IE) 
• ODC   Other Direct Costs 
•  Mailing costs (USPS, UPS, FedEx) 
•  Copies 
•  Advertising (as applied to a single book - general advertising is an overhead cost) 
•  DE       Direct Equipment  
• Hardware (computers, external storage devices, printers, monitors, etc.) 
•  DS       Direct Subcontractors 
•  Cover design (single book - this may or may not be included in Illustrator cost)
• Illustrator (attributable to single book and paid only, not collaborator) 
•  Printer (this includes printing services like CreateSpace) 
•  Publicist/marketer (can be outside service or paid family member) 
•  Web site developer (for a single book - general author’s website development and maintenance is an overhead cost)

·         Indirect costs - these are the things that may or may not be specifically attributable to a specific product.  Many of these can be calculated into a general overhead rate and applied to each book for a per book P&L statement. Below the list of indirect costs I use in my business calculations.

• 0701    OH Labor (general business development, not directly attributable to a project) 
•  0702    Home Office Space (calculated as a % of total living area of your home) 
•  0703    Rent Office or Storage Space (off-site - this includes occasional rental of an executive suite for meetings away from your home and any storage unit dedicated to your business) 
•  0710    Utilities (electric, gas, water bill calculated as a % = Home Office Space) 
•  0719    Facility Repair & Maintenance (for home office space only) 
•  0730    Telephone Costs (hard line, cellular, hardware) 
• 0732    Repair and Maintenance/General Equipment
• 0740    Postage (includes postage machine costs and repair if used) 
•  0741    Delivery & Freight (outside couriers, FedEx, UPS, etc.) 
•  0744    Copiers: Supplies and Papers  (this can apply to your all-in-one printer) 
•  0745    Copiers: Repairs & Maintenance (this can apply to your all-in-one printer)
• 0746    Copiers: Rentals and Leasing Costs (some home businesses use these services) 
•  0747    Outside Printing (copy costs, photos, business cards, etc.)
• 0748    Publications and Subscriptions (professionally related only)
• 0753    PC Software Purchase
• 0754    PC Hardware Purchase
• 0756    PC Supplies
• 0757    PC Repair and Maintenance
• 0760    Office Supplies
• 0761    Small Furniture and Equipment Purchases
• 0762    Furniture & Equipment (rentals and leases)
• 0764    Equipment Purchases (this can include things like camera equipment) 
•  0766    General Field Supplies (e.g., if you do outdoor writing this can include any expendables used)
• 0770    Consultant Services (general, including accounting service, tax service, business management, general publicist, author’s website designer, etc.)
• 0771    Business Conferences (these can be conferences you attend to promote your work, book trade shows, writing conferences, even conferences like ComicCon, etc.) 
•  0772    Training & Seminars
• 0773    Professional Dues & Conference Fees (Writer’s organizations memberships, conference booth fees, etc.)
• 0781    Recruiting: Interview Costs (applies to non-contract assistants both full and part time)
• 0782    Recruiting: Advertising Costs (see above)
• 0784    Employee Local Travel (this is work-related local travel to research, attend book signings, interviews, etc.) 
•  0788    Fees & Licenses (this includes business licenses if required, and can include things like hunting and fishing licenses if they are necessary to your work)
• 0792    Health & Safety Expenses (can include portion of insurance applicable to your business - this one can be a little dicey for newbies - research before applying it)

These costs, using a standard business model, all go into calculating the price of your product if you price for profit.  Of course, you must also project sales to see if your pricing is realistic. Most articles and books, however are not priced based on a standard business model by writers.  Traditional publishers will set the price for books they accept based on the author’s reputation and/or their assessment of marketability and projected sales.  Magazines, journals and on-line publications pay either a set or per word fee for a writers work, unless the writer happens to be a recognized best seller or expert in the field, in which case he or she may be able to negotiate a fee with the buyer.

Whether you are a new or experienced writer, keeping a good set of books will stand you in good stead, and it will help you determine profit or loss, itemize deductions, and generally keep you out of trouble with the IRS. It’s a good idea to start a good set of books early in your career. It forms good habits and it is a lot easier to do it at the outset than wait until you have a file drawer full of receipts to figure it out. Another good practice is to scan all of your receipts and catalog them appropriately, as well as keep expense reports for travel by trip in an electronic filing system by year.

So there you have it. Maybe this will help some of you. I hope so. It beats learning it in the school of hard knocks. Feel free to copy the indirects if you like, just bear in mind the numbering system isn’t set in stone. You can make your own, or your software may generate numbers for them.

Promises, promises...

Ah, as Robert Burns said in his poem To a Mouse, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley..." (in modern English, The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.)  So it is with my best laid plans to myself about writing a blog on a weekly basis.  It started out well, but then fizzled.

My plans to write at least an hour a day did not.  That "hour a day," however, has stretched to six, eight, and occasionally twelve hours a day, leaving little time for blogging.  Add to that research that can take an additional several hours and one has a recipe for long days and no blog.

How is it possible to spend that much time writing and researching, one might ask?  The answer is simple, if the complexity of the writing and researching is not.  The persona of my alter-ego edits and writes scientific books that entail a significant amount of research, careful construction, and, because I serve as the primary editor for my co-author, a monumental amount of time reviewing, editing, and commenting on the text.  To say that takes time from more relaxing and pleasurable pursuits like blogging is a gross understatement.  That is not to say writing scientific books is without pleasure, but it does lack some of the freedom of expression and pure fun provided by writing fiction and blogging.

The book we are working on is a follow on to The Cosmic Wanderer, dealing with the theoretical physics of relativistic propulsion, life support requirements, and spacecraft design for extended deep-space missions.  It is not science fiction, rather it is a book of principles and concepts on near light speed spacecraft supported by physical and mathematical models.  We hope to have it completed and published in the next two to three months.

In addition to that, true to my schizophrenic approach to writing, my illustrator, Julie Rodriguez Jones, and I are awaiting publication by Sage Words Publishing of a children's book we worked on together called "Beau's Dragon."   If you are interested in children's books, Julie built a nice web site for the book at http://beausdragon.homestead.com/index.html.

All of this being said, I have revised my blogging expectations.  I'll do two a month... unless writing intervenes, which it probably will since there is another book on space in the works and there's that novel I want to finish, plus another children's book I have in mind.

Outstanding! A Profane and Unvarnished Portrait of the Horror of War

Although I rarely do reviews, this book deserves one.

To Hell or Richmond is a fictionalized version of very real battles on Grant’s drive to break Lee’s forces and destroy the mystique of one of the most admired military leaders in the annals of American military history.  The tale is peopled with historical figures who led men into battles that took a terrible toll on soldiers of both the Federals and Confederates.  From the impetuousness of the Chief General of the Army, Gen. U.S. Grant, to intellectual commander of the Army of the Potomac, Gen. George Meade to the fiery zealotry of Col. Emory Upton, and even to the earthy soldiers from Pennsylvania’s canal district, the portrait of men at war is stripped of glory and gentility.  Lee is portrayed in a more human than iconic manner, plagued with self doubts, infirmities, and at times confusion; Ewell as overly cautious, but competent; while Johnston, Cullen, Ramseur are resolute, but reactive; and yet J.E.B. Stuart maintains his image as the dashing southern cavalier, just the way he would have wanted it.  All are caught in the fog of war, making and recovering from strategic and tactical errors, all the while inflicting enormous casualties on one another in the most brutal fashion imaginable.  But that is the nature of war and in this realistic narrative, details of its horror are not spared.

From the griping of privates to the acrimony and strategic disagreements among the generals, this story rings true in a way that romanticized versions of Civil War campaigns fail to achieve.  To be sure, individual acts of bravery and cowardice, tactical genius and stupidity, politics, and just plain human foibles all are woven skillfully in the telling, adding to the brilliance of this tale.  Whether languishing in the commanders’ tents as they discuss grand strategies, or slogging through the mud with the men of II Corps, or behind the abatis and earthworks of the North Carolinians and Alabamans, it all just feels real... slaughter punctuated by spates of humor, malaise, boredom, and just plain exhaustion.  Through it all, one comes to appreciate that sheer industrial might and numbers will wear down even the most brilliant strategist and devoted army.  From the Wilderness to Spotsylvania, to N. Anna’s Creek, to Cold Harbor, and on to Petersburg, Hell or Richmond is a book no Civil War buff will want to miss. 

What I Learned From Papa Hemingway and John Steinbeck

From childhood I have done a lot of reading.  Early on I found that great writing can transport one to exotic places and different times.  Words, in the hands of a master, transcend the page and create images in the mind.  This is not simply excellent writing mechanics.  It is a product of life, an accumulation of experiences, and an uncommon perception of the human condition that makes writing compelling.

Ernest (Papa) Hemingway and John Steinbeck were and are two of my favorite writers.  Both are icons of American literature.  Each has a different style of writing.  Papa Hemingway wrote with an economy and clarity of words that was unique and often, but not well, copied.  Steinbeck painted scenes with a broad brush, but focused on characters with a fine point.  Both men won Pulitzer prizes for fiction. They came from different backgrounds, different places, and yet they shared something very important in common.  They lived life.  They were not mere observers.

In their books, it is the grittiness of the human condition that comes to full flower.  The loves, the disappointments, the hardships, the victories, the horror, and the beauty that touches it and leave indelible marks on the human soul.  Only by living, really living, can a writer understand that.  The writer who is immersed in life writes from experience and, provided a facility with words, conveys the substance and captures the essence of life.  Writing simply by observing life lacks substance.  That is not to say a writer is not, or should not observe life.  The fact is, a good writer is a consummate observer.  What a good writer cannot be is only an observer.

Hemingway had great powers of observation, but more importantly he lived and how he lived was, in many respects, extraordinary.  Simply reading his works, one cannot escape the feeling that Papa pursued life like a lion pursues prey; that he lived in the moment without losing sight of the future; that he loved and hated with equal passion; and he did it on his terms.  In his biography, Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir, A. E. Hotchner quotes Hemingway as saying, “Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”  How he lived was integrally entwined with how and what he wrote.

Steinbeck also had unique, some say a holistic, powers of observation.  He understood that life is not a series of unconnected vignettes, but a web of events and environment that cannot be separated.  Those powers of observation, however, would never have borne such ripe fruit as The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, and even Travels With Charlie, had he not worked as a laborer, interacted with people, and developed a deep understanding of the human condition, particularly of the Salinas Valley where he was raised.  As with Hemingway, how Steinbeck lived was integrally entwined with how and what he wrote.

What am I getting at?  Consider this a piece of advice for young writers.  Live, don’t simply exist.  Dare, don’t just watch.  Get your hands dirty.  Get your heart broken.  Do something dangerous.  Live on the edge a bit.  Put down the video games, turn off the TV, and don’t Google it.  Experience the rhythm of life... and let your writing reflect it.  Your work will be better for it.

Extemporaneous Writing - A Blog Revisited

Some years back, my wife and a few of her friends on Multiply (an old social media and blog site predating things like FB, Blogger, etc.) started a "Chicken Tuesday" set of blogs.  Originally, it was intended to share recipes for that venerable staple of the world's table, but then people like me got involved. A lot of people.  At one point a national morning show even started saying something like, "Have a great Chicken Tuesday."

I'm not one to disparage recipe sites, but on the other hand there is so much one can do with them in a humorous bent that I sometimes can't resist temptation.  Since parody is one of my favorite forms of humor, I created a "news" piece for their consideration.  I did it extemporaneously, which is a great exercise to sharpen one's writing skills.  Just for giggles, I thought I might re-share it here.

The Daily Crow Tuesday March 4, 2008

Chicken Tuesday

by Bantam Aurucana

United Peepers International (UPI) reported earlier today that Chicken Tuesday, purportedly an innocent and fun internet blog effort, is, in fact, a front for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

UPI has received reports that the Colonel has been spotted with Elvis visiting chicken roosts in Arkansas and elsewhere.

The Colonel, long believed to be dead, is apparently alive and well and looking to spice things up in the restaurant business.

The office of Farmland Security has raised the threat level to red during this extreme crisis, cautioning all of Cluckdom to take extra precautions for the foreseeable future. If possible, fly the coop and seek shelter in a forest.

All of our readers unable to fly the coop are cautioned to remain indoors if approached by any humans, attempt to make yourself look undernourished, and stay clear of large crowds.

____________

Johnny Brown Detained

by Rhoda Red, Stringer

Johnny Brown, son of Farmer Brown was detained by police on Monday night for allegedly “choking the chicken.”

Details were sketchy, police say this was a private matter, and young Johnny is still a juvenile.

The irrepressible Johnny, however could not be silenced, leaving this reporter somewhat mystified by his parting comment, “I wouldn’t choke it if I could pullet!”

Master Brown will be arraigned before a Kangaroo Court Conviction and sentencing is expected to be swift. 

______________

 

Roosters Shanghaied by DST

by Buttercup Cornish

“We were caught completely unaware by the news,” sputtered Rocky Strutter, head of the local AFL (Affiliation of Feathered Loudmouths).

“Absolutely preposterous,” agreed CIO (Chicken International Orators) spokesman Herman Frizzle. “Usurped by a clock alarm! Indeed... and an hour before sunrise!”

The two local labor leaders were commenting on the news that, once more, their morning chore was going to be replaced by alarm clocks due to the implementation of Daylight Savings Time.

Both leaders threatened a strike, however the AFL/CIO International Headquarters issued a statement calling the point “Mute,” yes, that’s “mute” not “moot,” since all union members are required to stay in bed, fast asleep until the eastern sky begins to brighten.

“There’s just very little we can do about it,” a Union spokesman declared. Crowing before dawn is just unheard of.” He downplayed threats of empty nests. 

He was heard muttering, “Talk about your Shanghaied Roosters...” as he walked from the podium.

____________

Bwaaack Obama Set to Win Texas

by Gimmizah News, Chief Poultry-itical Reporter

Latest polls are giving the edge to Bwaack Obama in this chicken nation’s race to see who will be the chief executive clucker.

Bwaack is easily outdistancing his liberal ticket opponent in the primary, who is reported to be madder than a wet hen and is now employing barnyard tactics to sway the vote in her favor.

Remember... get out and vote... ‘EM ALL OUT.