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Writing and Publishing, Part 20:
Becoming your own publisher:
Starting a business:
In this essay I will be discussing some of the basics of starting
a legitimate business. By legitimate, I mean a business which
has a name and is licensed and/or registered with the appropriate
government authorities. This is pretty much the same for any business,
be it publishing or landscaping. Although my experience is in
Michigan and based on Michigan law, I suspect the procedures are
very similar for most other locales.
The first step in starting a business is to get legal recognition for your firm. To do that, you must have a name. I will get into name selection when I discuss your company identity in the next essay. For now, I will say that selecting an appropriate name is very important. It should receive a great deal of thought. I agonized for many days before I selected Wesoomi Publishing.
With a name, it is possible to register your firm with the appropriate local authorities. In my case, in Michigan, it was almost too easy. I telephoned the county clerk's office in the county where I wanted to locate my business. They mailed a form to me which was an application for conducting business under an assumed name. I filled in the form, got it notarized, and returned it with a $10.00 filing fee. A few days later, the approved application was returned to me and I had established a legal business name.
In essence, the form consists of a very simple, lawyerized statement of intent. Here it is. I, the undersigned, whose name I signed in full below, do hereby certify, in pursuance with Act No. 152, P.A. 1949, as amended, for the State of Michigan, that I the undersigned now own, (or) intend to own, conduct and transact a business at (my address here) under the assumed name, designation and style of Wesoomi Publishing.
There was a bit more verbiage, my signature, and a notary's stamp with signature. It was quite unusual for a government document in that it was only one legal sized page.
With a name, it is possible to do the remaining simple things required to start a business. A few of these are not strictly necessary, but they are desirable. It is really a matter of keeping your personal affairs separate from your business affairs. You will want to give most of your attention to your creative effort, so good organization of routine things is essential.
A business phone with some kind of automatic answering capability is one thing you will want. This probably means having an extra phone line brought into your home. I suggest you do this as soon as you know your firms name. I made the mistake of assuming it would happen quickly. I was wrong. GTE North was going through some kind of internal spasm at the time and it took 3 months to get the line installed. I was furious, but it was somewhat like being furious at a stone. It just sits there.
For the automatic answering I elected to have a simple answering and recording device. It is possible to get very elaborate about this with different message boxes and such. In theory, this gives the impression that your firm is larger than is the real case. Would anyone who matters notice? I suggest simplicity at first. It's less expensive and requires less attention.
If you intend to accept book orders by fax, you will need a fax machine or fax software. If you opt for software, it will mean having a computer up and running all of the time. That's a tall order for a home business. My experience tells me that a fax capability is not justified in a small publishing business. In four years I have receive three fax orders.
If you feel you must have a fax capability, I recommend having a dedicated phone line with only a fax machine on it. I have tried to run a fax on my voice phone line and had disappointing results. The fax machine worked erratically and the fax functions caused unacceptable delays in the answering capability. I finally disconnected the stupid thing.
For a home based business, the United States Mail becomes very important. Just for keeping your love letters separate from your business mail, I suggest a post office box. This also has the effect of giving you a business address other that your home address. Getting a box is a simple matter of filling out a request form at your local post office. There is a ridiculously low annual fee. The size of the box does not matter. If your mail won't fit in the box, they will leave a note and hold your mail for you inside.
Now you have a name and an address. You can open a business checking account. The idea again, is to keep separate records, but also to have checks with your firm's name on them. When I first did this, I went to a bank. They set me up as a grand-gouge victim. I was paying a $10.00 per month fee for the privilege of using my own money. Later, I went to a credit union and opened an account. Now, instead of paying them, I get interest on my deposits. That was not my biggest blunder by far, but it did cost me money.
Finally, you will need a place to do your work. In the above paragraphs, I have implied a home based business. That is what I am doing. If you have money running out of your ears, you may opt to rent office space. Until you have some indication of income potential, I recommend against it. For myself, I have a nice office in my home. I don't have to worry about traffic, because my spouse has her own areas.
We are both retired and our kids live separately, so I have a very quiet environment. For creative effort, I find a quiet environment to be essential. Simply by being here to answer our personal phone, my wife shields me from intrusion. She deals, sometimes rather abruptly, with those damned, obnoxious telephone solicitors.
For a publishing business, there are three other things you will want to do. You will want to get a block of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN). These are the numbers which appear on the copyright page of a book and give it a unique identification. It's one number per book, one book per number. This ISBN also appears as part of the bar code on the back cover of a book. Here is the fact. Without an ISBN and bar code, you will never get your book into a bookstore. The booksellers will insist on it.
The problem with these number is that there is an unreasonably long delay in getting them. This means, you should apply for them as soon as you know you are going to publish books. The numbers are issued by R. R. Bowker. (http://www.bowker.com/). Bowker is the agency which maintains the (ISBN) system and assigns the numbers. They also publish a yearly volume called "Books In Print" along with several other publications. They maintain the database of books in print. You can visit their website to find information on getting your block of numbers. I'll discuss more on this in a future essay.
If you think you will be selling books to libraries, a Library of Congress Catalog Card Number (LCCN) will be important. This is how libraries keep track of books. These are preassigned by the Cataloging in Publication Division of the Library of Congress. You must know some of the details of your book before you can get a number. Fortunately, they respond quickly to requests for numbers. The information you need for this can be found at the Library of Congress website (http://www.loc.gov/).
Another thing we need, in Michigan, is a sales tax license to collect taxes for the State. This license is issued by the State Use and Withholding Tax Division, Michigan Department of Treasury, Lansing, MI 48920. In other states, as good place to start is with your local state representative. Those folks like to look good by helping us when it doesn't cost them anything.
I must stress this final item. It is very important. That is, get to know your book manufacturer as soon as you know you are going to publish. The good ones are your allies. They can only succeed to the extent that publishers succeed. They will help you all they can, but they must know what you want to do. Don't wait until you have laid out a book and produced output files to find out that you have done it wrong. Involve them right from the start. They are a resource. They really want you to get it right.
Next time, I will discuss establishing your firm's identity.
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