Writing is a business, with all the myriad little tasks that running a business entails. Our Mom, Nancy, likes to exhort us with a, “You want this to be your job? Then treat it like a job.” This is usually following a period of inactivity on the part of one or both of us. She is definitely the work horse of the three of us.

This week, while completing the final read-through on Cold Prairie, we’ve been focusing on the business end of our writing partnership. It is a painful but necessary process, that while not yielding any tangible results as of yet, will help us in the long run. We’re talking banking, taxes, preparing to publish all the books in hard copy format and general planning for our media blitz this coming summer among other topics we’ve been kicking around. (And by media blitz, I mean our local county fair but hey, it’s a start.)

After we’d been writing for a few months, we realized that we could actually make this work. This meant that we needed to draft a contract between the three of us. For while we love each other right now, it is entirely possible that sometime down the road we could have a falling out. Or something could happen to one of us. Or one of us could wind up on a legal hook of some indeterminate nature. We drafted a contract, registered our business and then promptly forgot about it. Fast forward a year and now it is actually time to figure out the nuts and bolts of the self-publishing business with the arrival of our first tiny royalty check…that was promptly routed to the wrong bank account. Not a good omen for things to come. We got that fixed and now, hopefully, things will go a bit smoother and we’ll get to once again neglect the business end of things for a while.

As I’ve said before. It’s a learning process and far more complicated than we’d ever imagined. Even if you get picked up by a major publisher and you land that perfect agent, there are still many roads to navigate in order to protect yourself and your work. We think we’re doing alright so far. Time will tell if we’ve done our due diligence.

We hope you continue to follow us on our journey. Look for Cold Prairie in the coming weeks and as always, we appreciate the support.
Anne, Nancy and Eric