Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series (as Riley Adams) and the Southern Quilting mysteries for Penguin and writes the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently. She also has a blog, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers. There she posts on the writing craft, finding inspiration in everyday life, and fitting writing into a busy schedule.

Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific

Bluebird with beak open and 'Twitterific Writing Links' by ElizabethSCraig superimposed on the image

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 48,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox!  Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

New Stuff:  

Industry expert Jane Friedman is hosting a webinar on Friday, March 8 (it will be recorded, so you don’t have to watch it live) on ‘perfecting your author website, email newsletter, and social network’.  I’ve heard Jane speak before and she’s incredibly knowledgeable (I’m not an affiliate…just a fan of Jane’s).  The webinar is only $12 if you sign up before March 1.  More information here.

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Prepping for Tax Prep

Business of Writing

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Clearly, I’m no accountant or tax lawyer.  In fact, I encourage anyone with a large-ish writing business to use a CPA, as I do.  I had one terrifying moment in 2013 where I realized that my tax return was a disaster.  Fortunately, I found a well-recommended CPA to help me out before the tax deadline.

My accountant had me do two things right away: start pre-paying the state and federal estimated taxes, and set up a separate bank account for my book earnings and book-related expenses.

In 2013 I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this was so much of a business.  I’d always tried to treat my writing as a business, but on the dollars and cents side I sometimes failed to handle it that way.  Now writing income is direct-deposited into my account and whenever I need to buy printer ink (or a laptop), I make sure I take the money out of that writing account.

I’ve also gotten good about keeping track of possible write-offs.   Here are the types of expenses that I track and give to my CPA:Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific

Bluebird with beak open and 'Twitterific Writing Links' by ElizabethSCraig superimposed on the image

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 48,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox!  Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here.

Continue reading

Writing on the Tough Days

Motivation and the Writing Life

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

A few weeks ago I’d read an interesting post from Cathy C. Hall about the danger of waiting for ‘the perfect time to write.’   She gives examples of likely ‘perfect time’ scenarios, which are basically anytime but now.  Waiting until life is less-challenging.

As Cathy puts it:

There is no such thing as the perfect time for writing. There will always be something or someone coming along to give us a perfectly good reason not to write. And before you know it, it’s been weeks, months, years, since you’ve written much at all.

Waiting for the perfect time (or, at least, a better time) to write may seem to have an easy solution: prioritize your writing.  But that’s only part of it.Continue reading

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