Monday, March 05, 2007

All Business

Posted by Lisa

Well, this won't be the most creative post I write. Or the most heartfelt. Or reflective, or probing, or curious. But, it is important, because I'm thinking about taxes. Arrgh! Yawn! Yowza!

I spent the better part of yesterday morning tallying receipts, checking credit card statements, flipping through my checkbook, and getting organized in general. I came up with seven categories of the dough I spent on writing in 2006, but I'm wondering if I'm missing anything. Here's what I came up with:

1- Postal Fees - all those query letters from my agent search, the SASE's, the partials, the fulls.

2- Books I bought on writing craft.

3- Fiction books that help me hone my craft - this is deductible, right? (Michael Lowenthal's Charity Girl was like a weekend seminar on character.)

4- Seminars, conferences.

5- Travel to conferences.

6- Parking for Grub Street courses I attended.

7- Office expenses (paper and ink).

The total of what I spent on my habit was ... astounding. Though I'm thrilled I can deduct this, I've been bitten by the write-it-off bug. Please, you more experienced writers out there, is there anything I'm missing? I thank you and my family thanks you!

Oh, and while we're on the subject of Michael Lowenthal, he's speaking at Porter Square Books in Somerville Thursday night at 7:00 PM.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can also deduct clothing you purchased to attend those conferences.

Lynne Griffin and Amy MacKinnon said...

It's so important to sit back and reflect on how writing IS a business. We need to think about our expenses and treat them as such.