If you are an Indie author, and therefore your own publisher, there are a number of things that you are legally responsible for. I thought I’d write a post about this as a checklist for reference, and to help anyone who may need the information. Bear in mind that the information in this post applies to UK citizens who are self-publishing their own work.
1. Registering ISBNs.
If you are a UK Indie publisher of your own work, like me, you will have bought your ISBNs from Nielsen – a block of 10 costs £174. (A note here that I’m not referring to folks who have self-published using KDP’s free ISBN – Amazon own those ISBNs, not you). For Indie authors/publishers who own their ISBNs, each time you assign one of those ISBNs to a new book, you need to register it with Nielsen title editor. Did you know that you’ll need a separate ISBN for each ebook (unless you’re only publishing through Kindle, like me, as KDP doesn’t require one), paperback and hardcover title, even if it’s the same book? Also, if you later make significant changes to your book, you’ll need to register a new edition of that book with a whole new ISBN.
2. Registering for tax purposes in the UK
When you buy your ISBNs, you’ll need to set up an imprint. If your imprint is your author name, then you will be a sole trader and can only publish your own work. If your imprint is a publishing name of your choice, then you will be a limited company and can publish others as well as yourself; though many Indie authors I know still only publish themselves under their chosen publishing-house name. If you earn more than £1000 in profits, after costs have been deducted, then you’ll need to pay tax with HMRC as a self-employed sole-trader. This doesn’t affect me, or probably the majority of authors, since we get paid so little in royalties (my expenses greatly outweigh any trickling royalties) but it’s still best to be aware.
I haven’t chosen to be my own Limited Company, but I believe that you will need to register with Companies House in the UK if you are the owner of a small company, though double check the requirements through the highlighted link for more info as I haven’t looked into this in any real depth.
3. Registering as a UK citizen for tax exemption in the US with the IRS
Another thing you may or may not know is that, even if you are a UK citizen, you will still need to register with the IRS in the US for the purpose of tax-exemption, especially if you intend to self-publish with US based distributors such as Amazon, IngramSpark, etc. This will involve giving the IRS a phone call to discuss your self-publishing business, at the end of which you’ll receive an ITIN number, which you can then use to avoid paying the 30% tax on self-published books. If you don’t declare yourself tax exempt, you’ll be paying 30% without knowing it, so it’s best to check this to be sure.
4. Posting legal deposit copies of your books
Did you know that within one month of publication of your book, you’re legally required to send a copy to the British Library for legal deposit? At a later stage, you may get asked by the Agency for Legal Deposit Libraries for a further 5 copies to be sent to Edinburgh for distribution to the other 5 libraries across the UK and Ireland.
The good news about this is that, even though you are having to send 6 copies at your own expense for legal deposit, you can rest assured your books will be safely archived for 500 years, and available in the reading rooms of the following awesome libraries:
- Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford
- Cambridge University Library
- The National Library of Scotland
- The Library of Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin
- The National Library of Wales.
Ah, responsibilities! If all of the above sounds rather stiff and serious, just remember that if you’re serious about your writing profession, it’s another part of the business to take in your stride. There’s so much involved in the publishing side of getting books out into the wide world, but it’s all worth it.
Leilanie Stewart 