Publishing from outside of USA

Mithat · 01-29-2015, 11:12 AM

Hello fellow Romans,

I would like to start out by stating my problem and go on with my related question.

I live in Turkey,Istanbul . We do not have many e-book publishing places to go, the ones there are have very very few readers/customers. I would like to write 2 types of books ; Erotica (to make enough only to cover my book covers and editor costs ) and what I call scooby doo short stories in which something supernatural and scary possibly bothers the protoganist of the story but turns out something very expected and not so supernatural. It can be considered horror/fantasy. I also do not like using IRS because IRS scares me to death , even the idea that Al Capone , one of the biggest mob boss ever lived get caught not for what he did but for not paying his taxes

.

So long story short , I would like to publish my works to amazon/smashwords etc etc. as much places as I can . I do not care about where I publish it as long as I can and get numbers ( I may even offer free for a long while until I see people download with high numbers ) .

What is the easiest way / easiest place to publish my books if I live in outside-USA (Turkey,Istanbul for this instance)

Nancy Fulda · 02-02-2015, 11:40 AM

Smashwords and Amazon both take international authors. They may hold a percentage of your earnings for tax reasons, though. And unless you have a US bank account, they won't pay out your earnings until the total passes a minimum threshhold (usually either $20 or $100). The details will be specified in their FAQs and Terms of Service.

If you're willing to offer some of your work for free, you may also want to check out Wattpad.

Little.Egret · 02-02-2015, 02:16 PM

Lots of authors publish from outside the US. Christopher Nuttall has been quite successful first from Scotland and now from Malaysia.

The Amazon author forums have detailed advice but the usual advice, if your country has a Double Tax Treaty with the US, is to download a form and register for a TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number, works like a US SSN) with the US IRS.

They of course will notify the equivalent tax administration in your country.

Mithat · 02-03-2015, 09:59 AM

I do not want to work with IRS at all , all the holywood movies I have watched so far make them look like monsters

One example I remember clearly : Al Capone did not go to jail for murder or extortion , he went in jail because of unpaid taxes

I just wanted nothing of tax sorts , just upload my thing first for free and if it gets download enough , I want the website to send the money to my paypal , simple as that. But amazon asks for credit card information which I do not want to give and smashwords asks for IRS related stuff :/ Is there a way to simple upload and get paid without all this ordeal?

Nancy Fulda · 02-03-2015, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Al Capone did not go to jail for murder or extortion , he went in jail because of unpaid taxes

Personally, I think he did go to jail for murder and extortion. The authorities just couldn't manage to make an accusation stick in that area, so they went hunting for tax loopholes and then slammed him with the highest penalty feasibly possible. You can bet the judge was not feeling particularly magnanimous on the occasion.

Within the US, I do not believe it's possible to legally get paid for your fiction without having the distributor pay tax withholding on your behalf. The US is very tax-grabby, and any income associated with a US trade or business (including ebooks) is taxable, even if the author is not a US resident. However: the last time I checked the IRS doesn't care a whit about anything as long as they get their tax withholding. You don't have to file US tax returns unless you want to try to recoup the withheld taxes.

In other words, you don't have to give the IRS any of your personal info as long as you're content to let them take about 30% of your earnings.

eschwartz · 02-03-2015, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mithat

[...] all the holywood movies I have watched so far [...]

Holy Wood

theducks · 02-04-2015, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Holy Wood

I always thought it was Holly weird

cromag · 02-05-2015, 12:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mithat

I do not want to work with IRS at all , all the holywood movies I have watched so far make them look like monsters

One example I remember clearly : Al Capone did not go to jail for murder or extortion , he went in jail because of unpaid taxes

I just wanted nothing of tax sorts , just upload my thing first for free and if it gets download enough , I want the website to send the money to my paypal , simple as that. But amazon asks for credit card information which I do not want to give and smashwords asks for IRS related stuff :/ Is there a way to simple upload and get paid without all this ordeal?

The fact is, Al Capone didn't pay taxes on the income he derived from criminal activity.

I don't think anyone likes their taxing authority, no matter where they live, but if you earn money from a US-based company you will probably have to deal with the IRS -- after all, the company will declare the money they paid to you.

If a US-based company suggests they will pay you without fulfilling their responsibilities to the IRS I would be very skeptical that they could be trusted to fulfill their responsibility to you.

gmw · 02-06-2015, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mithat

I do not want to work with IRS at all , all the holywood movies I have watched so far make them look like monsters

One example I remember clearly : Al Capone did not go to jail for murder or extortion , he went in jail because of unpaid taxes

I just wanted nothing of tax sorts , just upload my thing first for free and if it gets download enough , I want the website to send the money to my paypal , simple as that. But amazon asks for credit card information which I do not want to give and smashwords asks for IRS related stuff :/ Is there a way to simple upload and get paid without all this ordeal?

Well, with free stuff there won't be any tax, just sign up with Smashwords and let the U.S. have their 30% of nothing.

If you want to side step the tax issues take a look at the options offered by BookBaby. When I was last with them (a year ago now) they would pay by paypal and they don't require a U.S. tax number. I never understood why it was different for them than for the others, but they're still going (and have been for many years in one form or another) so I presume it's legitimate.

(I had/have no particular complaints about BookBaby, other than being rather slow to respond to emails - a week or more. I parted from them when I came to release my second and third books because I wanted the options I could get with Smashwords and dealing with Amazon directly.)

JackElgos · 02-10-2015, 12:15 AM

Hi mate
I'm outside the US too.
I went with KDP and Createspace (very easy) and the IRS have absolutely nothing to do with anything I write or publish. Just go for it.

Jack

pdurrant · 02-10-2015, 04:30 AM

You only need to deal with the IRS is you want to keep all your earnings. Otherwise the IRS will be given some percentage of your earnings automatically, and you'll still have to pay income tax in your home country on the remaining money you receive.

shimmering · 02-11-2015, 06:44 PM

Drivethrufiction has a pay-you-by-paypal method.

But you know if you want visibility then you need to get into the bigger retailers (direct with Amazon and either direct or via Smashwords or DrafttoDigital for the others), which means you're going to have to give them the information they ask for.

I don't know what the tax arrangement is between US and Turkey, but the situation now can be simpler for non-US authors than it was a year ago: many non-US authors no longer need to acquire a US tax number (you used to have to ring up/contact the IRS to register with them directly to get one of these but as of about 6 months ago that's no longer the case). The native national tax number can be used instead.

01-29-2015, 11:12 AM	#1
Mithat Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2015 Device: Kindle	Publishing from outside of USA Hello fellow Romans, I would like to start out by stating my problem and go on with my related question. I live in Turkey,Istanbul . We do not have many e-book publishing places to go, the ones there are have very very few readers/customers. I would like to write 2 types of books ; Erotica (to make enough only to cover my book covers and editor costs ) and what I call scooby doo short stories in which something supernatural and scary possibly bothers the protoganist of the story but turns out something very expected and not so supernatural. It can be considered horror/fantasy. I also do not like using IRS because IRS scares me to death , even the idea that Al Capone , one of the biggest mob boss ever lived get caught not for what he did but for not paying his taxes . So long story short , I would like to publish my works to amazon/smashwords etc etc. as much places as I can . I do not care about where I publish it as long as I can and get numbers ( I may even offer free for a long while until I see people download with high numbers ) . What is the easiest way / easiest place to publish my books if I live in outside-USA (Turkey,Istanbul for this instance)

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02-02-2015, 11:40 AM	#2
Nancy Fulda I write stories. Posts: 700 Karma: 16437432 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Northern Germany Device: kindle	Smashwords and Amazon both take international authors. They may hold a percentage of your earnings for tax reasons, though. And unless you have a US bank account, they won't pay out your earnings until the total passes a minimum threshhold (usually either $20 or $100). The details will be specified in their FAQs and Terms of Service. If you're willing to offer some of your work for free, you may also want to check out Wattpad.

02-02-2015, 02:16 PM	#3
Little.Egret Wizard Posts: 3,168 Karma: 37800000 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK Device: Kindle Keyboard 3G, Kindle Fire 2, NOOK ST, Kindle HDX, Fire 7"	Lots of authors publish from outside the US. Christopher Nuttall has been quite successful first from Scotland and now from Malaysia. The Amazon author forums have detailed advice but the usual advice, if your country has a Double Tax Treaty with the US, is to download a form and register for a TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number, works like a US SSN) with the US IRS. They of course will notify the equivalent tax administration in your country.

02-03-2015, 09:59 AM	#4
Mithat Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2015 Device: Kindle	I do not want to work with IRS at all , all the holywood movies I have watched so far make them look like monsters One example I remember clearly : Al Capone did not go to jail for murder or extortion , he went in jail because of unpaid taxes I just wanted nothing of tax sorts , just upload my thing first for free and if it gets download enough , I want the website to send the money to my paypal , simple as that. But amazon asks for credit card information which I do not want to give and smashwords asks for IRS related stuff :/ Is there a way to simple upload and get paid without all this ordeal?

02-10-2015, 12:15 AM	#10
JackElgos Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 120648 Join Date: Feb 2015 Device: none	Hi mate I'm outside the US too. I went with KDP and Createspace (very easy) and the IRS have absolutely nothing to do with anything I write or publish. Just go for it. Jack

02-10-2015, 04:30 AM	#11
pdurrant The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠 Posts: 73,937 Karma: 315160596 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Norfolk, England Device: Kindle Oasis	You only need to deal with the IRS is you want to keep all your earnings. Otherwise the IRS will be given some percentage of your earnings automatically, and you'll still have to pay income tax in your home country on the remaining money you receive.

02-11-2015, 06:44 PM	#12
shimmering Member Posts: 15 Karma: 12698 Join Date: May 2014 Location: England Device: none	Drivethrufiction has a pay-you-by-paypal method. But you know if you want visibility then you need to get into the bigger retailers (direct with Amazon and either direct or via Smashwords or DrafttoDigital for the others), which means you're going to have to give them the information they ask for. I don't know what the tax arrangement is between US and Turkey, but the situation now can be simpler for non-US authors than it was a year ago: many non-US authors no longer need to acquire a US tax number (you used to have to ring up/contact the IRS to register with them directly to get one of these but as of about 6 months ago that's no longer the case). The native national tax number can be used instead.

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