Eureka! After over a year of trying to secure an ITIN (personal tax file number) from the USA, and going quite mad in the process, I finally attended an ASA seminar on the topic, and took James’ advice to apply for an EIN (business tax file number) over the phone. Done and sorted in half an hour, after which I sent the W-8BEN form to the publisher of my last two Janna Mysteries, CreateSpace, and today have had confirmation from amazon that in future they will only retain 5% of my sales instead of the 30% they were taking off for the US tax department. Definitely the way to go! Thank you James and the ASA.
More good news: My article Writing A Ring Through Time has been published in the latest Viewpoint magazine, Vol 20 No. 4 (Summer 2012). It explores the rocky road I travelled when sitting down to write my new YA novel, struggling for inspiration, trying to write against that nasty little voice that tells you that what you’re writing is rubbish, confronting a blank screen and an even blanker mind! We all go through this process sooner or later, but it’s sometimes those novels with the most difficult gestation and birth that turn out to be amongst the best and most exciting that you’ve written – at least, that’s what I’m hoping! A Ring Through Time will be published by Harper Collins in February next year.
