The wealth of Croesus! MINE, ALL MINE!!!
OK, first a little memory refresher. In early 2013 I decided to test out Amazon's Kindle publishing arrangement, whereby if one is as cheap as I am, one can publish e-books at no monetary cost. This is possible if one does all of one's own editing (for which I am, in fact, qualified) and draws one's own book covers (well, kinda). I took a property of mine which I'm sure would stand no chance of catching on in conventional publishing--my best SF comedy sketches--and gathered them into four collections, each making up about a 50-minute performance set (the books also could serve as rehearsal scripts, although I cautioned people about carrying Kindle-enabled devices around on an unforgiving hard surface, like a stage). I then spent a fair amount of time in the first half of '13 flogging them, again at no monetary cost to me. So, to me, this venture managed to be slightly less shameful than actual vanity press.
The result was no surprise: Total sales that eventually made it into double figures (books, not dollars). Having picked up no emotional scars, I decided not to try any more e-pubbing and got on with my life. I was fully aware that Amazon's policy is that money is sent to e-authors (as paper checks in physical mail) only after the royalty total passes $30, and because I was still in no-cost-to-me land, I just shrugged off the prospect of ever seeing payment.
Flash (or trudge) forward to early September of this year. Amazon informed me that all unpaid royalties for all non-lucrative e-authors would be paid by chek in the mail, later in the month, no matter how little there is banked up. Sure enough, today I received a check for $4.55. I am now trying to work out how to spend it in more than one place.
This all appears to have to do with Amazon trying to get everyone to go over to e-payments. The accounting involved in hanging on to all the sub-$30 stacks of money, technically belonging to other people, may be creating some legal issues. Year after year, are these stacks assets or liabilities? Jeff Bezos already has the Washington Post as a tax loss, and maybe that only works if he doesn't have other people's money sitting around.
This, however, is not my problem. Can I get bowling shoelaces AND clarinet reeds?
The result was no surprise: Total sales that eventually made it into double figures (books, not dollars). Having picked up no emotional scars, I decided not to try any more e-pubbing and got on with my life. I was fully aware that Amazon's policy is that money is sent to e-authors (as paper checks in physical mail) only after the royalty total passes $30, and because I was still in no-cost-to-me land, I just shrugged off the prospect of ever seeing payment.
Flash (or trudge) forward to early September of this year. Amazon informed me that all unpaid royalties for all non-lucrative e-authors would be paid by chek in the mail, later in the month, no matter how little there is banked up. Sure enough, today I received a check for $4.55. I am now trying to work out how to spend it in more than one place.
This all appears to have to do with Amazon trying to get everyone to go over to e-payments. The accounting involved in hanging on to all the sub-$30 stacks of money, technically belonging to other people, may be creating some legal issues. Year after year, are these stacks assets or liabilities? Jeff Bezos already has the Washington Post as a tax loss, and maybe that only works if he doesn't have other people's money sitting around.
This, however, is not my problem. Can I get bowling shoelaces AND clarinet reeds?