PSA: Fledgling Mailing Costs

[rolanni]

Down in another thread, slash_reader asks the following question:

I live in the UK & am concerned about the postage you will be facing to send my copy. I feel like I made my donation at the time & now you will have to give me back $10-15 of this donation for the postage... I am not so pleased about this.

Is there a way to donate to cover postage costs which won't annoy your tax authorities?

To which I replied:


Thank you for thinking of this.

I went over to the US Post Office site and fed in the information for sending Fledgling to the UK. It would appear that, cheapest, we're looking at $14.20 for one book, which is, frankly, somewhat more than we had budgeted for postage out of the donations*. The post office has been going, er, batshit the last few years with rates, which of course we didn't -- and couldn't -- know in 2007, when this all started. (We have, for the record, seen four postage rate increases since January 2007.)

Because we are freelancers, the IRS considers any money we take in to be taxable -- that's just how it is.

Let me poke around for a couple minutes and see if I can set something up with PayPal. I will make a new post at the top of the journal detailing what I may discover.

Watch the skies!

---
*the accounting for Fledgling and Saltation went like this: 33% off the top for taxes; split the remainder in half, one half to postage and (so we thought at the time) printing, the other half to keeping the authors under roof.
* * *

This message is to note that those who wish to donate money toward postage, may do so by sending an amount they deem appropriate to postageATkorval.com (where AT is replaced by @).

This is not a requirement; we said that we would send those folks who donated $25 or more a signed copy of the book when done, and that we will do. This is an option provided to those folks who, like slash_reader feel that they want to do something more.

Thank you all. We have the Best Fans Ever.

Comments

[star-gazersusan.livejournal.com]

Actually, I believe people can also pre-purchase shipping costs. It's like a coupon that's mailed to you, you take it to the post office with the package and it covers the shipping. I used to trade videos with people from England which is how I learned of this. I'm not sure what it's actaully called, but you can probably call the post office and ask about it.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Really? I will have to investigate this...

[keristor.livejournal.com]

From http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=5200012&mediaId=27000662

Sending an International Reply Coupon with your mailing means the recipient can reply to you for free or by paying only part of the postage cost. You can buy the coupons from most large Post Office branches for just GBP1.10. Then whoever you send the coupon to can exchange it for international postage at a post office in their own country. They can be used to buy postage for anywhere in the world, not just to reply to the country they have been sent from.

However, I'm not sure from that whether that means that each coupon is only worth GBP1.10 equivalent to the recipient. Or possibly less (if you receive one in the UK you only get 62p worth of stamps, about a dollar's worth). Plus you'd have to pay more for postage to send the things.


They were invented in a time before PayPal, when international postage was at fairly equivalent rates in most civilised countries (i.e. countries where one actually trusted the mail), and when a Pound Sterling was actually worth something useful, and they were expected to be sent with the written order so wouldn't cause extra postage costs. These days PayPal is easier and almost certainly cheaper (and faster) for most people.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

postage is a business expense, but you get that only when you do your taxes and declare it.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

This is true, and in the meantime, we get to pay tax on the income via the quarterlies. Remind me again why I do this?

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

because you love writing so much, its worth the pain.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Quarterly tax is based on estimated annual net income. Expenses paid by others is a wash.

Question

[berneynator.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I'm probably blanking on something really obvious- how does one donate money to an email address? Do you type it into PayPal, or something? Thanks for writing!

Re: Question

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

This only works if you have a PayPal account.

Log into your account.

Hit the tab at the top that says "send money"

Fill the email address and the amount into the appropriate places and hit send.

Re: Question

[berneynator.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'll do that.

one option: IRC's

[(Anonymous)]

I'd suggest that recipients outside the U.S. send you an international reply coupon (IRC) for the required postage.

(cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reply_coupon)

Re: one option: IRC's

[star-gazersusan.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think this is the item I wrote about earlier, but couldn't remember the exact name of. The wikipedia mentions a size limit. I used them for videos several years ago, so it might work for shipping books. It's worth investigating.

[(Anonymous)]

What is/will be the shipping weight of Fledgling?

Brom

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Fledgling-inna-box weighs 1.5 pounds.

[pakwa26.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure you need an account to use PayPal, I have lots of friends who purchase things via Etsy etc using PayPal who haven't 'signed up'. It's worth checking out...

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Ouch! It strikes me that you are probably short on postage for my other order (which has now started arriving, BTW, the second package this morning) as well, I'll just add that into the 'postage' PayPal contribution (I was thinking of using the "trip jar" button but a specific one is better).

[painoarvokas.livejournal.com]

PayPal is asking me to categorize this. The options are: purchase goods, purchase services, purchase ebay items, personal gift, personal living expense, personal payment owed, personal other. Now, I can rule out most of them quite easily, but that does not yield an obvious only choice. How would you like me to categorize it, so that it doesn't cause your bookkeeping and government relations any trouble?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

My guess would be "purchase services" as postage is supposedly a service *insert hollow laughter here*. Second choice, in case PayPal starts asking too many impertinent questions would be "personal other." I need to claim it as income on my end, regardless.

postage

[(Anonymous)]

Could you give us an idea of how much the postage would be, then maybe we could mail you a 'stamp' for that amount. It would get around the income issue, I am just paying my own postage. You wouldn't have to put "my" stamp on "my" order, just use it on whatever order is convenient.
Sue H

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

Second that. What is the domestic postage expense. I'd gladly send some stamps. Are you taxed on those? (Perhaps they could be listed as a charitable donation to the USPS - as it seems to keep going into the red!)

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Please, no stamps.

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

What is your increased postage burden for mailing within the US. I'd gladly pay more

[katmoonshaker.livejournal.com]

How much is the postage to 37219-6629? USA

Stamp out that idea

[bookmobiler.livejournal.com]

At a guess I'd think dealing with actual postage stamps would quickly cause you both to go postal!

An extra donation would work for me, but are you sure you'd actually come out at least even with this tax wise?

It might be a good idea to ask if any of your fans who are CPA's might give a free opinion on this point.

[k-10b.livejournal.com]

according to usps web site: Media Mail for up to two pounds run from $2.38 to $5.50 depending on how far from the originating post office (assuming Maine) you live. Flat Rate Priority Mail in an envelope or the USPS nifty box is just under $5.

will be visiting PayPal in a moment ...

KB

[fridayflute.livejournal.com]

As I understand things, you only pay estimated taxes on your net income, not the gross -- at least that's how I figure it. I do mine based on gross income minus expenses minus a pro-rated portion of last year's home office deduction and it seems to come out reasonably square - or at least within the margin that keeps me from paying penalties.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I do mine based on gross income minus expenses minus a pro-rated portion of last year's home office deduction and it seems to come out reasonably square

The chances of my (1) remembering to do this every single quarter and (2) getting it right are into the negative numbers, I fear. Even doing a percentage of gross, we somehow wind up always owing taxes.

[slash-reader.livejournal.com]

thanks for setting this up! Looking forward to my copy of Fledgling even more now.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

There are companies that will take a quantity of stuff to UK/Europe in one shipment, and mail it there. (Some Worldcons have done stuff like that for Progress Reports.) I don't know how much that might save you in foreign postage.

[https://me.yahoo.com/a/mVbUuqolno8SBXYiPj8Y.sUsWTAwhRnnckM-#9f005 (from livejournal.com)]

That sounds like International surface airlift from the USPS. However they have 50lb minimum weight requirement.