Destination Konya

Taking you with me on the drive over the Turkish plains to the city of Konya, a most sacred place for Muslims, especially this time of year during Ramadan. There's a military airbase housed here so while I'm stuck inside my hotel room trying to make a deadline I'm listening to some military jets flying overhead. I can only assume the pilots are on high alert considering the proximity of the war in Ukraine and ongoing conflict in nearby Syria.

Book Launches and More Silly Stuff!

Live video that sucks!

Clues and Codes!

More film noir, this one for Chase Baker and the Spear of Destiny much is which takes place in Rome!!!

Chase!

Film Noir featuring adventurer Chase Baker and some clues to The Shroud Key!

No Better Time to be a Writer!

There are more outlets and platforms than ever for a fiction writer to get his or her work out there to the masses, making this the best time ever to be a writer! Go nuts!

It's About Time!

I'm an impatient guy. As an hybrid author, I know firsthand how long it can take to publish a traditional book. Sometimes years! But indie publishing can be accomplished in as little as a few weeks or a month or so at the longest.

A Career in Fiction?

Death, Bitcoin, and Taxes

photo courtesy The Daily Beast

This is going to sound like a bummer, especially coming at you during the festive holiday season. But for all you crypto nerds and Bitcoin investors out there who think you’re pulling a fast one over the US Government and the IRS by hodling and/or trading the seemingly under-the-radar decentralized digital currency in the dark, I have some sober news for you. The IRS is onto you. Or should I say, they’re onto us, and they’re planning on taking their (un)fair share of our Bitcoin whether we like or not, or whether they recognize it as a viable income stream, or not.

Here’s how the IRS views Bitcoin and all other digital currencies. They consider it property, not a currency. What this means is, for any of us who’ve owned Bitcoin for more than a year, we’re going to be subject to a 15% tax on capital gains, or what you and I perceive as profits. Considering some of us buy and sell crypto several times per day, this whole notion of keeping track of how much we owe the government (or how much it might owe us) at the end of any given day, is a daunting task to say the least.  

So what’s the best way to make sure you’re keeping up with what you owe so that you can avoid a black sedan pulling up in your driveway and some poorly suited nerdy robotic still-not-over-all-the-beatings-I-took-in-high-school bureaucrat from knocking at your door? Here’s some ideas to help you keep up with the dreaded Tax Man. Forgive me, Tax Person…we live in a hyper PC culture these days, after all.

  

      Keep a record of every transaction and order be it a buy, a sell, or a transfer. I don’t have experience with all the trading platforms like Bitfinex and Bitmex. Not by a long shot. But I work with the more pedestrian ones like Coinbase and Robinhood. For certain these platforms keep records for you, so all you have to do is print them out at the end of the year and calculate what you owe.

2.     

          Not all transactions are considered equal. If you hold a position for say, half a day prior to dumping it, you’re only required to pay a tax rate according to your tax bracket. This is actually good news for me as a writer since my year to year income is never steady. In other words, I have years when I’m basically living just above the poverty line (living on savings, that is), as opposed to those very generous years I’m required to pay quarterly taxes (welcome to the writer’s life). However, the mean ole’ IRS doesn’t give a rats ass about positions you’ve held for more than a year. If you decide to sell them, you will be paying 15% if you make under $500K and 20% beyond that. 

3.      Keep special track of your losses. As a Bitcoin casual investor and enthusiast, I’m not dealing with big numbers here. But even if the amount of Bitcoin I own pales compared to Elon Musk’s stash, we both need to follow the same strategy at the end of the year. So what if he employs a team of accountants and I go to H & R Block? Try to offset your gains with as many loses as possible. Which leads me too…

4.      Keep up with your tax payments even before you receive a bill. Get ahead of the game by paying a certain amount forward to the Federal Government far ahead of the deadline. This will accomplish two things. It also keep you off their radar and it will prevent you from filing costly extensions. Naturally, investing in Roth IRAs or other tax saving products also helps a bunch. For writers like myself, I keep a detailed record of everything I spend, from toilet paper to breakfast cereal, by keeping a copy of every single receipt. Don’t take my word for it. My late ex-father in law, who was the New York State Tax Commissioner, once pulled me aside and said, “You didn’t hear this from me, but deduct everything. Just make sure you have a receipt for it.” Thanks Pop. Not everything is deductible naturally, but it’s best to play it safe when it comes to the IRS. If I should happen to get audited, I have the backup I need for every deductible I’ve claimed, and then some. And just imagine the expression on nerdy Tax Man’s face when you dump that pile of receipts in his lap (Crap, Tax Person…I just can’t get used to the PC culture).  

5.      Maintain a separate bank account just for your taxes. If you take a crypto profit of say, $100, get in the habit of automatically banking one-quarter of it. At the end of the year, this will be the account you tap into to pay Uncle Sam. Chances are you won’t have to use all of it.

Obviously this is by no means an exhaustive list. I keep repeating this like a broken record because it’s the truth, people: I’m not a financial advisor, nor am I an analyst. I’m just a big believer in the future of digital currency. Apparently, so is the US Gov, or digital currencies wouldn’t suddenly be showing up on their radar. Just make sure to do your own research on the matter.  

The government might be a slow, bloated, and inefficient money suck, but it’s not dumb by any means. It sees the direction Bitcoin is going and like a perpetually starving, scavenging, hairy beasts of prey, it has its good eye on the golden digital asset. Again, this not to sound like a bummer around the festive Holiday Season. But life is unpredictable at best, and terribly catastrophic at worst. One day you’re planning that Sandals all-inclusive vacation and the next, you’re hooked up to a dialysis machine. It’s our job to get ahead of anything that might mess up our plans or our bank accounts. So plan ahead because nothing in life is ever certain. In the final analysis, all we can be sure of is this: death, Bitcoin, and taxes. 

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

The Big Publishing Break that Nearly Ended My Career

photo courtesy prominentoffers.com

The literal definition of the word confluence, thanks to Google (what would we do without Google?), is the place where two rivers merge. The image is just too rich to ignore as a metaphor, especially for full-time writers like me.

I have had times in my twenty-plus year career when I could do no wrong. I just happened to be writing the right manuscript (The Innocent), at the right time (the late 1990's), which I sent to the right agent (Jimmy Vines in NYC), who sold it to the right marketplace (Delacorte Press) in a two book, hard and soft deal worth $235K. I was floored.

Movie companies were frantically calling and full feature picture deals were being considered by the likes of Dreamworks and Robert DeNiro's production company. Even George Clooney wanted in. There were others, but I forget them now. But you get the point. Newspapers and magazines wanted to write about me and I happily sat for their interviews. I'm partying in New York City with my agent and editor, renting lavish hotel suites in Gramercy Park, and dining out in expensive steakhouses. I was maybe 34 years old. It was a magical time.

The novel, which is now renamed As Catch Can since another author had already used the title, is released to spectacular reviews. The New York Post writes me a love letter. They call it, "Sensational...masterful...brilliant." Says the Times Union, "As Catch Can is a thriller that has depth and substance, wickedness and compassion." Don Winslow calls it "...tough, stylish, heartbreaking."

Can this novel do no wrong?

The Writer's Curse: The Big Yawn

As it turns out, yes it can. Despite the great reviews and media attention, the novel doesn't sell. When it comes to book buyers, all we get is the big yawn. When I tell people I meet on the street or inside some bar, the title, As Catch Can, they inevitably look at me with furrowed brow and respond, "As Catch what?" Even when they finally get it, they search for a book called Catch As Catch Can, and I lose yet another sale. Things tumble downwards from there in a ... wait for it... confluence of disasters.

I've put the majority of my advance into a new house, while my wife at the time asks me for a divorce. Whatever money I have left, goes to the divorce lawyer and alimony payments (the divorce was ugly, but we're good friends now). I had been a freelancer prior to the big deal, but since I was falsely convinced more and more huge deals were right around the corner, I cut ties with my clients. My agent won't return my calls, my publisher won't publish anymore books once the contract is fulfilled, I owe the IRS a bunch of cash, and I'm out of work.

Getting a major deal might have been the worst thing to ever happen to me.

Damage Control for the Writer

Fast forward a few years. I'm in full damage control mode, and back to freelance writing, slowly digging myself out of my professional and financial hole. I'm also back to writing fiction on the side. I pen a new detective novel called Moonlight Falls and I sell it to a small press. Its not the biggest deal in the world, but I'm officially back in the game. I write another Dick Moonlight PI novel, Moonlight Rises, and then I write a big standalone called The Remains. It's at this time, a nifty little device called the Kindle hits the marketplace and along with it, Kindle Direct Publishing. All sorts of little publishers are springing up. eBooks are their bread and butter.

In the meantime, my new agent has successfully gotten the rights to The Innocent (As Catch Can) and its follow-up, Godchild, back from Delacorte. It was a stroke of very good luck. Because what that meant was I could now republish both books with my new publisher.

The Writer is Back on Top

I'm in Italy with my then girlfriend when more good news comes my way. The Innocent is not only rocketing up the charts, it will eventually land in the Number 2 spot on the overall Amazon bestseller list and stay in the top ten for a full month. Altogether, I will sell 100K copies in a little more than 6 weeks. At the same time, Godchild will sell 25K copies. And my new novel, The Remains, will sell 25K+ copies also. The movie companies are calling again and so is the press. It's a confluence of good luck.

I'll go on to land another major deal with one of the Amazon Publishing imprints for all of the above- stated novels, plus the entire Dick Moonlight PI series. I'll hit the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists with a box set I'm included in, and my novel Moonlight Weeps will win both the ITW Thriller Award and the PWA Shamus Award. Suddenly, life is grand again.

A Golden Age Dawns for Genre Fiction Writers

Despite the good karma, I'm not as stupid as I was years earlier when I decided to live life like a rock star and give up creating opportunities for myself. Success in the writing business can be cyclical at best, fleeting at worst. That said, I start a small publishing company called Bear Media, and I begin publishing several brand new series under its imprints. Books like The Shroud Key, sell tens of thousands of copies, others not so much, but they still sell, and I don't have to split the proceeds with another publisher or an agent. I can also write whatever the hell I want. Best of all, I have total control. I'm no longer a slave to the fickle publishing system. The golden age of genre fiction writing was upon us.

 Not Everything is Rosy for the Writer

Spring ahead another few years. The editors and marketing pros I worked with at the Amazon Publishing imprint are gone and a whole new crew has taken their place. I still have maybe five novels with them, including The Remains, but they rarely communicate with me anymore and my once four-figure per month income has dwindled considerably. But I now have forty-plus novels under my own label, and I'm writing new books for two more publishers. By the looks of things, I'm about to strike a contract extension with one of them. We're also getting movie interest again.

The point to all this? The older you get, the more you recognize the seesaw patterns in the professional writing business. To put it simply, nothing is guaranteed, and like I once told the New York Times in a 2014 interview, publishers aren't in the business to be your friend. One day they're wining and dining you, and the next they're ghosting your emails. A writer can go through years of total media disinterest and then suddenly, you're once more an overnight sensation. 

The thing to keep in mind is this: the highs are never that high and the lows are really never that low. There are going to be good times, and you must learn to endure the bad by creating your own income streams like I did with Bear Media. That's the reality of the writer's life. But hey, that's show biz, folks. Don't like it? Get a real job.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

 

 
     

The most important thing for a writer is...

I'm lucky enough to spend part of the year writing in this place

... not to think of yourself as an artist. Let me rephrase that. While a fiction author is most definitely an artist first, it's probably more important for us to think of ourselves as entrepreneurs first. What I mean is, we're all running a business with accounts receivables and accounts payables. We have electric bills and cell phone bills (exorbitant), and for some of us, child support, and then there's the bar bill. Yeah, that last one can be pretty steep sometimes, especially if you've just nailed a new contract or a Book Bub and you find yourself buying a round for the whole bar. Luckily, the big contracts don't happen all that often (that's a joke. ha ha).

Writing for a living

But authors need to separate the art from the business because otherwise, the bank accounts will dry up and we won't be able to write for a living anymore. It's that simple. The trick, is to live as simply as possible. Here are a few rules that I abide by for my writing "business."

1. Live simply, in an apartment preferably, since household repairs are taken care of for you (heat and hot water are free too).

2. Don't get married (or at the very least, give it a lot of thought before saying "I do") I recall saying this very thing to a journalism class I was guest lecturing for at the State University at Albany. You wanna see some jaws drop. Marriage comes with massive responsibilities, both emotional and financial, and eventually your partner is going to tell you your writing comes first and you just might find yourself on the next episode of Divorce Court.

3. Purchase a vehicle that you can pay off quickly or even in one single payment. Cars are expensive and require constant maintenance. Add to that a monthly car payment and it can sometimes consume the entirety of your month's royalties. I drive a very expensive Jeep Wrangler, the monthly payment of which is more than my rent was, say, fifteen years ago. But I'm paying double payments and soon I will own it outright.

4. If you are an indie writer, DO NOT USE A CREDIT CARD TO PAY FOR ANYTHING PUBLISHING RELATED. Your return on investment (ROI) will most likely be slow, but the interest rate on your credit card will compound fast.

5. Don't hire an assistant until you can afford it. If you live near a college or university, consider taking on an intern. In exchange for assistance, you can help him or her with their writing and you can also provide them with a small stipend.

6. Travel. If you can't afford to head to Europe for a couple of months, or if you don't have enough to cover the flights to Nepal, get in the car and drive. Sam Shepard was always driving his pickup somewhere, and despite his fame, he lived frugally, often staying at the Motel 6 or the Howard Johnson. Jim Harrison, used to drive all over the States as well. He also stayed at cheap roadside motels.

7. Work Saturdays, but try and take Sunday's off if you can. This will help you recharge those precious batteries. I often find myself working Sundays too, but then, I'm a freak.

8. Back to relationships. Some of you are gonna wanna toss a beer bottle at my head, but I'm going to say it anyway. Do not get involved with someone who is too needy, too expensive, and just generally sucks the life out of you. Do not get involved with anyone who will consider your writing business competition for their time and attention. Better that you involve yourself with like-minded individuals who will be supportive of your work, and of the fact that you are always writing even when you're not at your desk. In turn, be just as supportive to them and their work. At the end of the day, pop a cork together, make a nice meal, and talk about one another's day. Then have sex (that's another joke ha ha)

9. For indies and hybrids: Think in terms of scalability. By this I mean, is it more worth it for me to be working on a genre novel that will earn me a passive income long after I'm dust?  Or is it better to spend my time writing an article for a magazine or newspaper for which I'll be paid a one time fee? I'm a firm believer that you could, and should, do both. But I also lean more on the side of writing books and stories that will earn me money for nothing, for a long, long time. Which leads me to...

10. Don't place all your eggs in one basket. Back in the early 2000's I had one contract with one publisher and when it ended, I was shit out of luck. I found myself having to start all over again. Publish traditionally and independently (build up that list of books for the passive income), freelance when necessary or freelance because there's a particular topic that intrigues you.

11. Maintain a blog and monetize it. The Vincent Zandri Vox has thousands of readers, many of whom click on my books and purchase them (Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!). I try and write as many helpful articles for writers as possible at the Vox.

12. Exercise. Sitting at a writing desk makes you fat.

13. Give your books away for free. Seriously. I give away thousands of books a year and in turn, many of those who read them go on to buy other books in the series.

14. Start a YouTube channel. I sort of suck at this, but I'm learning.


 Writers need to work their bottoms off

Okay, so there's just a few rules/advice that I try and abide by for my writing business. These are by no means gospel (you might even find a few of them insulting), but they are definitely something to consider if you're thinking of doing this full-time. Be smart. Be creative. Be a business person. But most of all, work your ass off.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM