In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Member Q&A podcast, hosts Michael La Ronn and Sacha Black discuss whether authors should release print, e-book, and audiobook formats at the same time or stagger them to maximize visibility and sales.
Other questions include:
- What are some affordable alternatives to NetGalley for getting book reviews?
- What should I do if someone is copying my work and publishing it as their own?
- How can I approach a museum gift shop to carry my book?
- Is it better to market a book’s availability on IngramSpark, or should I focus on general book promotion?
- How can I distribute my free audiobook codes most effectively?
- What are the best strategies for marketing books without relying on social media?
And More!
Listen to the Podcast: Best Timing for Print, E-Book, and Audiobook Releases
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Now, go write and publish!
About the Hosts
Michael La Ronn is ALLi’s Outreach Manager. He is the author of over 80 science fiction & fantasy books and self-help books for writers. He writes from the great plains of Iowa and has managed to write while raising a family, working a full-time job, and even attending law school classes in the evenings (now graduated!). You can find his fiction at www.michaellaronn.com and his videos and books for writers at www.authorlevelup.com.
Sacha Black is a bestselling and competition winning author, rebel podcaster, speaker and casual rule breaker. She writes fiction under a secret pen name and other books about the art of writing. She lives in England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son. You can find her on her website, her podcast, and on Instagram.
Read the Transcripts
Michael La Ronn: Hello, and welcome to the AskALLi Member Q&A.
It's great to see you all. If you're new here, welcome. This is the show where we answer all of the most burning self-publishing questions. You've got the questions. We got the answers.
I'm Michael La Ronn, joined by Sacha Black. What's up, Sacha?
Sacha Black: Hello. How are you?
Michael La Ronn: I'm hanging in there. How about you?
Sacha Black: I'm good. I'm very reflective today. I'm very thoughtful, intellecting, thinking about the past, the present, and the future. So yeah, I'm good.
Michael La Ronn: Ah, okay. A moment of reflection, season of reflection.
One of the things that you might know, this is a secret of the podcast, we don't mention weather, we don't mention dates, because sometimes we record ahead.
So, whenever someone is listening to this, hopefully you're reflective as well, and if not, maybe you've inspired some folks to be reflective because you're thinking about author goals and stuff.
Sacha Black: Yeah, I think you can use any excuse to be reflective. I don't think it has to be a particular time of year. I love a fresh start. I'm like, ooh, Monday. It's a fresh start. It's a fresh week. Or ooh, first of the month, it's a fresh start, a fresh month. Any excuse, I will look for a fresh start, and fresh starts always lead me to think about the past and the future kind of simultaneously.
So, yeah, I love a good bit of reflection.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, I love reflection too. Again, we don't talk too much about weather, but I find that the dead of winter, like the beginning of winter, is perfect for reflection and then the beginning of spring. We talked about before the show, the cold, depressing darkness of winter, I love it. It gives me energy. I'm a weird creature.
Sacha Black: No, I think that's hilarious because I was listening to Joanna Penn's podcast the other day, and she was saying the opposite, that she's really not a winter energy person. I am. It depends, I'm a mix and match. Having kids has made it slightly harder, but I used to furrow away and hibernate, but hibernate energetically, in the winter, and then I get this other burst of energy in the summer as well because, obviously, it's sunny.
But obviously having kids has made the summer extremely unproductive, I'll be honest.
But one of the things that I do is I love to use a quarterly planner, because you get that reflective cycle four times a year. So, it doesn't matter what time of year it is. I've also used Clever Fox, I think it's called the Ultimate Achiever Planner, and it's a 13-week planner, but it's undated. So, you can date it yourself and start your 13 weeks at any point.
So, one of the things that I was thinking about is that, and this is a tangent, but the fact that business quarters are really good, no offense, but for either men or single people, or people without children. When you are somebody who has a child, actually working within school terms feels like a much more productive time period for me, because quite often I can't get stuff done in the school holidays.
So, I am waiting for somebody to bring out a planner that is like achiever for six weeks or 12 weeks, however long your school term is, I'd love that.
Michael La Ronn: That's a good way of thinking about it. I'm the same way. I do find that summers can be tougher. I think that's probably a universal thing, right?
Because there's also summer vacations and other things, you know, holidays that people are doing.
Dean Wesley Smith has this term that he calls the time of great forgetting, which for writers, it's that time during the summer when you get nothing done, you completely forget that you're a writer, because you're on summer vacation, your kids are home, and then by the time you get to September, then you remember again that you're a writer and you're able to get to things. It's a similar concept.
Sacha Black: Yeah, I love that.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, good stuff.
So, let's just jump into our questions.
What are cheaper alternatives to NetGalley for book reviews?
First question is from Tim. Tim says, after experiencing sticker shock for submitting one book to NetGalley, I ultimately found it too cost prohibitive. Do you have any cheaper suggestions of getting book reviews?
Perennial question we often get.
Sacha Black: Yeah, there are cheaper versions. Hidden Gems, Book Sprout, I believe is another one. There are lots and lots of different options like that.
I also find going into Facebook groups that are reader Facebook, genre -specific ones. There are some that are very specific to ARC reviews and readers looking for ARC reviews, you just have to do a bit of digging and also checking on the group rules because you don't want to go in and then violate some of the rules very quickly.
The other thing that I do is I do post on social media, but I also do the hard donkey work of reaching out to reviewers on social media. So, I will go into whichever social media app you're on, and then I will type in some hashtags that are relevant to the genre. So, it could be #crimebooks or something. Then I will go and look at people talking about crime books, and then I'll just slide into their DMs and see if they'd be willing to take a review copy.
Honestly, if you are doing your first book, getting reviews is just hard work. It's just sweat equity. For the most part, you just need to put the time and the effort in.
The last one is BookFunnel and probably StoryOrigin, they will do group, for want of a better word, not necessarily giveaways, but projects where they will find readers for you who will download the book, and you can ask for reviews and things that way.
Michael La Ronn: Yep, perfect. There's so many different ways of getting reviews, but you covered it. We get that question so often that I think we can move on.
Someone has plagiarised my books. What should I do?
Next question is from Wendy. I have written books for over 30 years for interior designers, and they are called curtain sketchbooks. They consist of my designs of curtains and blinds. I've just been told that someone I know has copied my sketches and is calling his book sketchbooks and has done it before. Do you know what I should do?
Sacha Black: I feel like that's a you question.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah. First off, I want to read those books. That sounds like really fascinating. Looking at curtains and blinds, that sounds cool. I get books sometimes on interior design from the library, and they're just always very calming and comforting to look at.
Sacha Black: I often get them on interior design, but for other types, so steampunk or gothic. So, I won't necessarily go for modern, but I'll go for the aesthetic of something else.
Michael La Ronn: That's cool. Yeah, I got a book from the library once and it was just nothing but windows. It was like windows of the world. It's like a coffee table book.
Sacha Black: I love you. You're hilarious.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, it was awesome. It was one of the highlights of my year, actually.
So anyway, to Wendy's question. This is definitely something to take very seriously. The first thing I would do is figure out where the author is publishing.
It might be a good idea to try to resolve this without the help of a solicitor first, because once solicitors and attorneys get involved, things get complicated, things get expensive. You might be able to resolve this with an email to the author stating your case, saying, hey, I noticed that you've published XYZ images, I'm the owner of these images and these appear to be violations of my copyright, please remove them or I will have to pursue legal action.
And just see what the response is. Maybe this person doesn't know about copyright. Maybe they thought that they had the ability to use these images and didn't understand that you can't do that.
Just take a take an approach that maybe that's what's going on, and if you don't get a response or you get a hostile response, then it's probably worth doing a DMC takedown. I think that you can do DMC takedowns outside of the United States. I think they might be called something else.
But essentially, you go to wherever the person has published their books, you make a complaint with the retailer, and they pull the book down as a result of a copyright complaint. I would start there, and then if that begins to fail, or if things start to go off the rails, then I would look for a solicitor.
Unfortunately, we can't recommend any solicitors, but you could ask in our member forum, you could ask other authors in your area, because you're going to have to find somebody who's licensed in your area to be able to help you.
I don't know, Sacha, if you have any thoughts.
Sacha Black: I think we call them DMCA.
Michael La Ronn: DMCA, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is what it's called. That's the U.S. law. So, I didn't know if the same terminology was used elsewhere.
Sacha Black: Yeah, it is used here as well.
Michael La Ronn: Okay. Yeah, do a DMCA takedown, is what I would do. That's how I would start, and just see where that gets you. But at the end of the day, if you do have to get lawyers involved, just know that it can be expensive.
My novel is inspired by real-life events. How do I avoid being sued?
Okay. Next question is from Robin. Robin says, my novel is about a cult and inspired by a real cult in which there was a lot of abuse. The leader of the cult, which has a different name from my fictitious cult, died years ago, but his children and widow are alive. My copyright page says that the novel is fiction in any resemblance to events, places, or persons is coincidental. Is there anything else I need to do?
I'm not super worried about being sued, but it has crossed my mind. How do people who write memoirs or biographies handle this?
Sacha Black: I remember interviewing a lady who was writing a book about, I think it was a cousin, who was basically a serial unaliver, or something along these lines. She had to get written consent, signed written consent documents, to basically publish. She would interview and record and then transcribe, and tried very hard to stay very accurate. But that's probably a slightly different situation than if you've not directly gone to them and asked permission.
So, I would probably defer that one to you to answer.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, this is a difficult thing here. I would say, Robin, you're writing in one of the three most dangerous genres. The first is true crime, the second is biography, and then the third is memoir.
Naturally, I would imagine that the estate of this person that you're writing about is not going to agree to give you permission to write this book about this cult or whoever they are.
So, there's a couple of things that you can do. Simply saying in your copyright page that the novel is fiction, and any resemblance is coincidental, that's not true in this case, because there is a resemblance and it's not coincidental. So, that line is really not going to help you in your copyright page. So, I wouldn't rely on that.
A couple of things that you can do, and again, this isn't legal advice, I would do some research into slander and defamation and all that. The best thing you can do is just make the novel such that it doesn't resemble this person.
There's lots of novels out there where there are characters that are drawn from people in real life and nobody thinks twice about it, but if it hits a little too close to home, then that's where you can get into trouble.
So, by making the novel not resemble this person, making the facts a little bit more out there, that's one way to do it.
Beyond that, I would just encourage you to be really careful. Again, this is a difficult genre to write in and we often get the question on this show, do I need media liability insurance? That's a question that's very close and near and dear to my heart. People have asked that question six or seven times this year. Do I need media insurance for my novel? And the answer is, if you're writing true crime or anything that's very closely resembled to reality based on real events, that sort of thing, you can't get media insurance, because insurance companies are terrified to death of these sorts of books because of lawsuits and things like that.
Just tread carefully. I would just make sure that if you're writing anything in the novel, that it's not accusatory or leading readers to draw their conclusions. But again, I would just say extreme caution. Thoughts, Sacha?
Sacha Black: I don't know. Is paying for like a pre-emptive legal session, like a one-hour consult with a lawyer useful?
Michael La Ronn: Oh, it'll cost more than one hour. If you're going to cover your bases, you could pay an attorney to read the entire thing and offer notes. Traditional publishers have that, they do that, but that's expensive.
But yeah, you could consult with an attorney, maybe pay an hour and just get their initial thoughts on what you're doing. It'll be hard for them to help you if they can't read the book, but they could give you some guidance. So, that's a good additional tip.
Start there, Robin, and like I said, best of luck and just tread carefully.
How do I promote that my books are being published with IngramSpark?
Next question is from Tina. Tina says, after initially publishing my seven books on Amazon, I now have them all on IngramSpark in paperback. This is me attempting to go wide, but I have no idea how to promote the fact that I now publish with Ingram. Could you please suggest some next steps for me?
Sacha Black: So, ingram, to me, isn't really publishing wide. Publishing wide means lots of different things. With the physical books, your readers will have more ability to find your books in other online retail stores. So, your books will be pushed to places like Barnes and Noble, Take a Lot in South Africa, maybe Boll in the Netherlands. You will find that your physical copies of the books are accessible.
Also, some indie bookstores will be able to order your books. The tricky thing about that kind of marketing is that, unless you're on the back-end side of publishing, saying that you publish on IngramSpark is going to mean nothing to readers.
Really, I would say it's not really about raising awareness of the fact that you're publishing through Ingram, it's about just raising awareness of the book. The more people I funnel through book one, the more I see indie bookstores picking up my books, or the more those sales have grown with IngramSpark.
So, I would just say, great, well done. If you can push to publish on other platforms as well, do, and then just keep marketing that book one.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, I agree. Making your book available on IngramSpark is not going wide, but it does allow for more people to purchase your book if they wanted to, and it does allow for opportunities.
For example, I'm going to a conference in February, and they're doing some books on consignment, and they're going to order the books. So, in order for them to do that, I have to be distributed through Ingram. So, there are situations where being on Ingram makes a lot of sense, but I wouldn't call it part of being wide.
Being wide to me is being on Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Google Play.
Sacha Black: Yeah, me too.
Michael La Ronn: Draft2Digital, that kind of get you into the little places that you can't get into yourself. That is my definition of being wide, and also selling on your website.
Sacha Black: That's exactly what I was going to say. I feel that there's wide and then there's wide plus, and wide plus is things like crowdfunding or in-person sales, Shopify sales, or your website sales. It's like that extra.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah. So, in short, good on you for getting on Ingram. I would keep going if you can.
How can I get my books into a museum gift shop?
Next question is from Carrie. Carrie says, I am a U.S. based children's author, and I just found out that the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK has an exhibit opening in March 2025 that would perfectly tie into my book. They have a gift shop with other children's books, and I'd love to try to get my books sold there as well. Any recommendations on how I should go about this? Do you think that they might buy their books through Ingram or another distributor?
It's funny you mention that. So, yeah, having your book on Ingram probably would not be a bad idea, but probably you're going to have to get the books to them manually.
Sacha Black: And reach out to them manually.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, you're going to have to pitch them and give them your best pitch. Maybe there's a form or something you could fill out, but if they don't have that, if this is not on their mind, you'll have to put together your best pitch.
That should be a short pitch detailing who you are, what your books are about, why they're a good fit for the museum, why they would be a good fit for the opening, and that they align with the people that are going to be visiting the exhibit.
If you've got enough time, that's what I would do.
I would say they probably wouldn't purchase the books, maybe it would be a consignment thing.
Sacha Black: Yeah, I don't know. Lots of the gift stores in UK museums do have books. So, they must have some purchasing mechanisms, but again, I think it's one of those where you've got to reach out and make contact.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, that's true. That's one of the things I loved about when I was in London. I went to a bunch of museums and the bookshops there were amazing.
Sacha Black: Yeah, they are incredible.
Michael La Ronn: Unbelievable. The gift shops here in the United States are just pathetic compared to across the pond.
Sacha Black: They're pricey though.
Michael La Ronn: They're pricey. They just look so much nicer, and they're more well thought out. Whereas over here, you walk through a gift shop and it's an afterthought, just a bunch of tchotchkes, but anyway, that's neither here nor there.
So, I would start there, but you may want to just reach out to the museum and just see if they are even amenable to this.
Should I release my eBook, paperback and audiobook at the same time?
Next question is from Robin again, and Robin says, I've heard some contrasting advice on whether or not to release print, eBook and audio formats at the same time. An author that held a self-publishing class said, release all three at the same time. But another author said, he heard it's better to tickle the Amazon algorithm by spacing out the releases. Which strategy is better?
Sacha Black: There are a couple of schools of thought on this. Okay, I'm just going to say it.
If you are a really established author, and you know that the book is going to sell, and therefore, the audiobook will sell, then if you can release all three formats at the same time, I would release all formats at the same time, because there is never a greater sales pulling power than on that first initial launch.
Every sale you run after, every push that you run after, just does not have the same juice as the initial launch.
That said, if you maybe have one or two books, maybe five books, maybe you're making $1,000 a month, then I would think very strongly about whether or not you make the audiobook, because audiobooks cost thousands, and it takes an awful long time to earn back the money for that.
Therefore, if you don't have a solid evidence base showing you that the audiobook will sell, then I would not do it at the same time. I would wait and gather the evidence from the eBook and paperback sales, and then I would invest in the audiobook. So, that's probably my best judgment on that.
Michael La Ronn: There was one word that you said that I think is critical, and that's investment. Audio is an investment.
One, we're just assuming you pick the right narrator, and you've got a high-quality audiobook.
It's going to take time to make the money back for your audio.
I agree with you, Sacha. I think if you can swing it, assuming you've done the math and audio makes sense. If you can swing it, then it's a good idea to do them at the same time.
That said, I don't think it's going to hurt you to not do it that way. Say you release your eBook and print book at the same time, and you release the audiobook six months later, that's a great opportunity to remind people that the book exists, and maybe there are people that would buy the book that wouldn't have bought it otherwise in audio.
So, even if you don't do the audio at the same time, that's a great excuse for getting back in front of your list and your community.
Sacha Black: Yeah, definitely, because I have readers who will only read audio, and I also have readers that will read in eBook or paperback and then go and listen to the audio anyway.
So, either way, you'll be able to pick up readers. I just feel it's critical that you're going to get a return on that investment.
Michael La Ronn: Exactly, and remember, the most power you're going to have is at that launch, I agree, 100%. But don't forget, your books have a long tail, too.
So, just do what works best for you.
The big downside to doing all three at the same time, I think, is the timing.
It requires some good orchestration skills to be able to do all three at the same time. Because that means that you've got to have your cover, your interior, and the audiobook all narrated, which means you've got to have the book edited and ready to go well in advance.
Sacha Black: This is where I'm working towards for next year. My whole goal next year is to be several months in advance, and I just feel like it's the height of irony that I'm lending more towards traditional publishing timelines, even though I'm a die-hard indie.
But the fact of the matter is that if you do want simultaneous launch, then you have to be several, probably six months in advance at a minimum, I would say.
I think it's hilarious, but that is the situation.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah. Not to mention, you've got to get on your narrator's calendar.
So, not only do you have to have the book edited and done, but you’ve also got to have the narration done before all that. That's a tall order, especially if you're using a professional narrator and they've got lots of projects they're working on and things like that.
So, if you can do it, go for it, but it's not for the faint of heart. I find that a lot of authors have to work up to it.
How do I distribute free audiobook codes?
Okay, Nolan asks, ACX provides free codes to distribute to Audible for both U.S. and U.K. markets. They recommend distributing those codes to influencers. Do you have any recommendations on how to find the most effective ways to distribute these codes?
Sacha Black: Do you know what? I feel like it's exactly the same thing that we talked about with reviewers. It's one of those where you have to do the legwork for stuff like that, and this is me assuming you don't have a mailing list, because if I had a mailing list, that's the first place I would go.
I would just see if there were people, and reward those people that have been on your mailing list and been supporting you, that's the first place I would go. Second place I'd go to is social media, and I would then do the legwork of reaching out to people.
Michael La Ronn: I don't know why I don't know this off the top of my head, but you mentioned Hidden Gems and Book Sprout and Book Sirens, I can't remember if readers there can specify if they want audio versions.
That might be a good thing to look into.
I can't remember. I seem to remember one of them does allow readers to specify that, but I can't remember. So, look into that. Just to take that as a tip, look into those three services and see if they can do it.
At one point there were dedicated websites. I forget what they're called, or the names of them, because it's been so long, that do nothing but facilitate the giving away of codes, like Audible codes, and I cannot remember the name of that website.
There was one that was a really big site. I'll see if I can find it and throw it in the show notes.
So, just look at the show notes and see if we were able to find it.
It's like a board where you can post your book and describe it, and then readers can choose whether they want the codes or not. This is how I remember it.
That was this website's entire business model.
Sacha Black: And it wasn't a fever dream?
Michael La Ronn: No, it was not a fever dream.
The reason I'm blanking on the name is because they started off as one name and then they rebranded, and I can't remember what they rebranded to.
I think the original name was Audiobook Junkies, but I'll see if I can find it.
It could have been a fever dream at this point, I don't know.
How should I approach local bookstores?
Okay. Next question is from Grace, Sacha. Grace is generally looking for alternatives to social media marketing and wants to know how you would approach grassroots marketing, i.e. through local bookstores?
Sacha Black: What is your goal? I suppose is the real question, because if your goal is to sell a lot of books, this isn't the way to do that. Grassroots marketing in terms of building up relationships with physical bookstores is going to get you a handful of sales in each store. Maybe they'll take five books, but you're not going to get a huge amount more than that.
So, look, the best way to do it is to shop in that store, talk to the booksellers, try and get to the purchasing bookseller. The one thing that I will say is that there tends to be a lot of movement in and out of bookstores in terms of who the people are, and so you can find that you'll build a relationship and then that person leaves. That has definitely happened to me before.
I honestly feel like if your goal is to sell a lot of books, then publishing is a game of visibility, and visibility means traffic. So, going and doing one on one sales is not going to garner you a lot of traffic. If your goal is to be able to see your book in a physical bookstore, and you don't mind if that's only one or two stores, then this is a great methodology to do that.
Another thing, Adam Croft, I don't know if he's still a member of ALLi, but he definitely used to be. He set his crime books in Rutland, which is the smallest county in the UK. I actually, funny enough, live very near to where they were set, and I see his books in all the local bookstores because it's location specific and location relevant.
So, that is one way to get bookstores to pay attention because when they are located situationally in a small region rather than a big bookstore chain, they're much more likely to have location-based books in their stores. So, that's something else to think about.
Michael La Ronn: Perfect.
I found the name of that company, by the way. So, it used to be called Audiobook Boom. Now, it's called freeaudiobookcodes.com.
I'm just giving the tip. Again, I don't know how they are, and we'll probably pass them along to our watchdog, but just take a look at it. See if that could potentially help, and I'll throw that link in the show notes as well.
How do I publish a cookbook as a one-off print run?
Next question is from Emma. Emma says, I'm writing a cookbook, which is relevant to my business. I'm really looking for help in how to have it self-published, edited, designed, printed. It won't be a general public sale book, and it will just be for my clients to purchase. So, I'm initially looking to print around 500 copies.
So, essentially, offset printing. Looking to print a cookbook just for her clients. Not publishing it on Amazon or all the places that our members typically publish. So, really just doing an offset printing run of 500.
Sacha Black: So, what is the question? Is she asking for suggestions of printers?
Michael La Ronn: Suggestions on how to produce the book.
Sacha Black: You go to a printer.
Michael La Ronn: Before you get to the printer. The production of the book; the design, the layout, the interior.
Sacha Black: Technically you could do that, even in Canva. As long as you've got the specifications for the print file sizing, then you could do it in Canva. What you'll often find is that people do them in things like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, or they will pay a formatter who may cost you a few hundred quid, but you'll find that they'll do it professionally. The only downside to doing that as an indie author is that if you ever want to change or tweak a file, there is very likely to be a cost to do that. But that's what they would do.
Then you just contact a printer. 500 is the key number. I'm actually looking at offset printers and print runs now anyway, and a print run of 500 tends to be the key number. They'll quite often charge you a flat fee for 500, and then the more that you do, you get economies of scale.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, it's the classic author/service problem, right? You either do it yourself or use a tool that will facilitate it, and you can edit it in the future, or you hire somebody.
I would suggest that if this is the only book you're ever wanting to do and you don't think you're going to update it that often, or if you don't have the skills or the time to update it, it might be better just to hire somebody just so you can ensure, hopefully, a higher quality product.
Especially if this is the only thing you're ever going to do. If you were a career author, I would say you need to learn how to do it yourself. Some people are not career authors. Some people just want to do one book or a couple of books that are very focused, very niche, and they want to maximize their time, and I think that's okay, too.
Sacha Black: Especially if the content is evergreen, then I think it is worth paying somebody to do it.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, and Sacha, you probably know this, but with the offset printing, just really make sure you understand the math. Sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge just really understanding what the costs are up front and then also having a place to store all of your books.
Does ALLi have a list of reputable or vetted publicists?
Next question is from Danny, is there a list of reputable publicists vetted by writers in the community?
Sacha Black: That's a really good question. I don't know about publicists. We've got our service directory, which has a whole host of different types of services that authors would need.
I haven't personally checked to see if there are any publicists, but if you log into allianceindependentauthors.org and then navigate your way to services. But also discounts and deals, you might find some in there.
Also, our partner directory, that's a really good place to look.
I don't know if I've ever seen publicists in there.
Michael La Ronn: I have. I don't know if they're still members or not. As with all things, it depends on when you look at it. I would take a look at our directory, see what's in there at the time that you look at it, and go from there.
I would definitely start with publicists that we have vetted.
As a UK author selling on Amazon, how do I deal with US sales tax?
Next question is for you, Sacha. This is from Zoe. I'm going to paraphrase because it's a bit of a long question.
I'm a UK author looking to sell my books to the U.S. market via Amazon. However, I can't find anyone to advise on how to deal with U.S. sales taxes. Where do I start?
Sacha Black: So, the good news for you is that you don't really have to worry about it because there is, this is not legal advice, this is not financial advice, there is a tax treaty between the US and the UK. Google will tell you what it is, and then go and look at the Articles of Governance. But basically, depending on if you're self-employed or via a limited company, you fill in, I think it's called a W8 BEN form, or something like that. The numbers and the exactities of it, you'll be able to find in a quick Google.
But essentially, we fill out this tax form and we put in our national insurance number. We put in our legal information. We tell this tax form, if we're self-employed or employed, what the business is.
Then you use this article and the paragraph from the article, and you basically say that you are not a US citizen, and because of this article of governance, you don't have to pay tax. It basically then gives you a 0 percent withholding rate, because otherwise Amazon will withhold 30 percent from you.
Then the tax forms, depending on which platform that you are on, will last for, I think it's either two or three years. So, that's pretty much it. So, we shouldn't really be having to pay tax.
The only exception to that is if you are doing a Shopify and you sell mega loads. So, let's say within one year you sold over, I don't know, 10,000 copies in Tennessee or something, then you may be liable for sales tax, but that's such a specific thing. The chances of you actually doing that are pretty low, and if you do that, you're going to be at a point where it won't matter anyway, because you'll be making so much money that you'll be able to pay the tax anyway.
At which point, it's very much a tax and accountant and legal thing, where you need proper official advice. But yeah, basically, it's a pretty easy thing to do.
It's not easy. I completely take that back. That is 100 percent a lie because the form's really long and there's lots of big words in it. But theoretically, it's just putting in your legal information and finding that article and being able to quote it, and that's about it.
Michael La Ronn: All right. I have no expertise on that.
A company is accusing me of photo piracy. What can I do?
So, this question is, candidly for me, it's from Harry. I won't say the name of this company, but I think Harry's question is a really good one, and one that I think we should answer.
Yesterday, I received an email from XYZ company accusing me of photo piracy. It's full of legalese and quite threatening. I'm accused of using an image on Facebook I don't have the rights to and they are asking for $299 to resolve the case.
Regarding the photo, I did use it, but I usually source images from Google Images or FreePixabee. I usually take out short-term subscriptions to Shutterstock etc. This was six months ago, and I didn't take note of where the photo came from. I'm not seeing XYZ Company in your database. I've looked online; they appear to be a legitimate company, but their morals are in question. Some people have told me to ignore the email. Other people have said do so at your own peril. What are your thoughts?
Sacha Black: Oh, I feel like that this is tough.
Michael La Ronn: Harry, I'll probably reach out to you via email, just to talk this through a little bit more, but we can give a generic answer. What are your initial thoughts, Sacha?
Sacha Black: I'm very wary about the images that I use anyway. I keep all license type receipts. I download all the license information and stuff anyway. Or I use Wikimedia, and you can then find the Creative Commons license and stuff.
What I actually tend to do these days is pay a designer to design something. So, one of the things that I do is character art and you always have to ask for the commercial license not just the flat fee for the art itself. So, I don't know. This is a legal question, and I don't feel like I am qualified really to answer it
Michael La Ronn: I can't give legal advice either. I can only pinpoint what I would have done here.
First things first, I don't use Google Images or even Wikimedia. I've seen situations in my own work and with other work where something you think has the Creative Commons, you think there's a Creative Commons license on it that you have the ability to use it for commercial use, but the image is actually stolen.
Sacha Black: So, I only ever used those on my blog when I had a blog back in the day. Whenever it's been inside a book, I've either made the image myself or I've paid a designer to do it.
Michael La Ronn: Absolutely. In this case, he was using it on Facebook and look at what happened.
Sacha Black: Yeah, it's just such a minefield.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, stay away from Google Images. Stay away from free image sites. If you want to use an image, I can't say to use AI, but.
Sacha Black: Shutter Stock. Deposit photos is a great one.
Michael La Ronn: Every couple of months they run a deal where you can get a hundred images for a dollar per image or something like that.
This is just something you don't want to leave to chance. I think Creative Commons is a good thing. It's not a good thing if you're running a business. You don't really know if the image you're getting from Unsplash, for example, is legit.
Now, some places offer guarantees. I think Unsplash does have a guarantee that if you were to use one of their images and you get into trouble, that they would guarantee it. Don't quote me on that.
So, that's the first thing I would start with.
So, getting this letter from this company. The first thing I think you have to figure out is, is this image a registered copyright?
Who is this company representing? Are they representing the photographer? First off, just make sure that they're legitimate, because I don't know if it's a scam or not, and do as much diligence as you can to figure out what's going on and if they have a valid claim.
Sacha Black: So, not quite the same thing, but I've seen a few comments in author groups recently about scammers posing as printers from a particular company and a particular country, and intercepting their communications partway through a transaction and then diverting the funds elsewhere, and looking extremely real for want of a better word.
They're just making very tiny changes to email addresses and things. I know that's not quite the same as this, but I really agree about the due diligence on trying to find out who this company is.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, because scammers are like water, they're looking for the path of least resistance. Because a lot of people probably get those emails and just freak out and just pay it, but if you start asking some questions, it could fall apart, and they could go away. So, ask them to provide some evidence about why they've submitted the demand letter against you, and see where that goes.
You might get a real person that might provide some evidence and then you've got to make your decision and lesson learned. But I would start there.
Again, we can't give you legal advice, but I would just say to be extremely careful in any media you use, particularly any media you use in your books.
Like you, Sacha, one of the things that I do is I cover my bases. I always get the designer to warrant to me that they're using their own designs and not something else.
I don't know if you do this for your book covers, but something I started doing lately is I make the designer provide me all of the stock images they used for my cover, and I go off and I purchase a license to that image as well. Because technically, if you read the terms of service of Deposit Photos or ShutterStock, you can't sublicense an image.
So, it's ambiguous as to whether, if a designer purchases an image, can they technically give that to a client?
Sacha Black: What about if they have edited that image so it no longer is the original, because that's usually what happens, isn't it?
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, but the license is to do that. The license is to do just that. It's to use it in a commercial work. I'm paranoid. So, if somebody ever came to me and said, hey, do you have the rights to use this image? I've got a license that I can show them, and I do the same thing with fonts as well.
We try to use fonts that come with Adobe, that's what's used in nine out of ten of my books, but every once in a while, there's a good font, and I'll pay for a license for that font, even if the designer says that they have the rights to use it.
It's just due diligence, just to make sure.
Anyway, Harry, I will write to you. So, by the time we get this, you will probably have heard from me, but thank you for asking your question.
Sacha Black: Yeah, it was a good one.
Michael La Ronn: Sacha, we are at the bottom of our questions. Isn't that crazy?
Sacha Black: That is wild. Another show in the bag.
Michael La Ronn: Yeah, another show in the bag and it has been a great year, although we don't talk about when we record this. I'm just going to keep saying that because that just becomes a funny inside joke. So, you can guess. So, if someone wants to guess when we're recording this, please let us know.
I'll buy you a Coke if you get it right, if you ever see me at a writing conference.
So, this has been the AskALLi Member Q&A Podcast. Thank you for listening. We will be back next month with another episode. Take care, everybody.
Happy writing.
