Getting through the legal hurdles when you self-publish

My “Nature Poetry” book is ready for submission and then for eventual publication. I say “eventual” because I will need to use a fine tooth comb to go through the prototype of the finished product, despite all the extensive proofing I have already done on my draft. All this, though seemingly finicky and tedious, nevertheless is standard procedure (apparently) for any serious writer.

Before I can consider submission to my self-publisher (CreateSpace), I now need to plow through a bewildering amount of information regarding U.S. tax laws, to do with royalties. CreateSpace will not let you progress to the submission stage until you have jumped through this bureaucratic hoop.

I was working through nine pages of guidelines, when I discovered that there was a newer edition to these; in typical bureaucratic fashion now 14 pages long! Sigh! It doesn’t seem to be in the nature of bureaucrats to SIMPLIFY their guidelines; on the contrary: the name of the game seems to be “How can we make these guidelines more confusing”! A worldwide “culture” among bureaucracy! There, that’s my whinge for the day!

I think that I have now discovered which form to use but, living in Australia, how can I quickly dispatch this and is it REALLY the right form after all? Do I need to send it by mail, can I use email and a digital signature etc. etc.

Last resort: contact CreateSpace! I am now waiting one more day to get this legal obstacle out of the way, in this process of publishing.

And I can hear Winston Churchill’s admonition ‘… never give up. Never give up! Never give up!! Never, never, never-never-never-never!’

 

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