Ahem.

[rolanni]

Dear Barnes and Noble:

I am yesterday in receipt of your threatening letter, sent to an address on which the forwarding order has long expired, commanding me to file a W9 before January 22 or face fines and reprisals from the IRS.

No, I am not faxing my social security number to a machine that, for all I know and suspect, dials into the mail room at B&N corporate.

You acquired Fictionwise in March 2009, and could have contacted me any time during the intervening nine months in order to acquire an updated W9; you had a working email address; a telephone number; and a PayPal account direction.

This "emergency" is not of my making; it is of yours, and I will be pleased to explain that to the IRS.

Sincerely,

Sharon Lee

Comments

[lagilman]

did you see my rant about the original letter? I tore a strip off that guy... was NOT pleased with them.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I think I did see it go past, but didn't quite know what it was about, because -- no letter here. I guess the first one got sent back by the former postmaster. I have no idea how this one got forwarded -- Fairy Godmother Department, I guess...

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

Morons. A lack of planning on their part should not constitute and emergency on your part.

I wonder if any of their offices are near Boston? It sounds like they need competent Project Managers and I'm looking for work.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Wow, this seems to be happening to quite a few authors I follow on LJ. Stupid B&N.

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

I believe everyone who has an account with Fictionwise got the letters.

My first showed up on January 13th, threatening fines and withholding if I didn't get the paperwork back to them by the 15th.

Not impressed.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Not impressed.

I particularly like the salutation: To Whom It May Concern. OK, you can put the wrong address on the envelope, but not on the letter itself? Or, if your clerical skills are that bad, you can't do something a little relevant like "Dear Fictionwise Author"?

Clueless and rude.

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

I e-mailed the guy from B&N about this, and he explained that it wasn't just Fictionwise authors receiving the letter, which is why it was so generic (and uninformative).

He sounded like he had gotten stuck with a crap job on this, so I feel bad for him, but there's no excuse for handling it all so badly.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Man, they not only dropped the ball, they lost the entire playbook.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

What's a form W9?

(On second thoughts, I probably don't want to know. I'm a non-resident alien, under no obligation to pay the IRS taxes. It's bad enough keeping up with what HMRC, who I am liable to pay ...)

[lagilman]

the form actually allows THEM to pay US. Which we will later have to pay taxes on.

It is, from what I've been able to learn, a sizable lack-of-information-transference between B&N and Fictionwise that makes me wonder about the bookkeeping, not to mention due diligence, done in that acquisition...

[caoilfhionn.livejournal.com]

There was a time when I ran a small book distribution business that sold to B&N both direct and through wholesalers. My impression is that B&N figures it is so big and so important to bookselling that, if they flail enough and play dumb, the little people will do the paperwork for them. The burden of bookkeeping is never on them.

But they still deduct them

[mtz322.livejournal.com]

Because if they don't have either a W-9 for residents or a W8-BEN for non residents, then the company has to withhold tax at a fixed rate and send it to IRS.

Paying directly to authors and very small publishers is something new, I believe, for B&N so they probably panicked when they realized they had to issue 1099-MISC to anyone they'd paid at least ten dollars in royalties for books.

According to the W9

[elgordo303.livejournal.com]

Failure to furnish TIN. If you fail to furnish your correct TIN to a requester, you are subject to a penalty of $50 for each such failure unless your failure is due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect.

Seems like B&N are storing up ill will to no purpose ...

Re: According to the W9

[keristor.livejournal.com]

TIN? (I'm a Brit, I was going to ask about the W9 but others posted stuff first.)

Re: According to the W9

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Tax Identification Number. In the case of an individual, this usually be their Social Security Number.

[zola.livejournal.com]

I can't stand Barnes and Noble and refuse to purchase anything from them.

I have been boycotting them since there was a problem with one of my orders (went to old mailing address despite updating my info on their site) and they wouldn't lift a finger to help me retrieve the books--UPS would have gone by and attempted to get the package back, but Barnes and Noble had to ask them since Barnes and Noble had shipped the order.

They kept my money, too. I asked them if it was worth a permanent loss of my business, cancelled the other pre-order and haven't shopped there since.

Maybe they think they're too big to fail.

[laurajunderwood.livejournal.com]

I didn't get a letter because according to what I was told by Wildside Press, my collection Magic's Song was not going to be listed anymore (contract ran out in 2008--all rights reverted to me).

So imagine my surprise when I looked on the B&N webside and discovered my former Fictionwise title was actually listed for sale.

I have tried to contact Wildside, but get no response. Meanwhile, I did email B&N and asked how they got permission for a book that was technically out of print and therefore unavailable, but they wrote me a silly note about where to find their author/publisher faq.

Dorks.

I plan to write again, and it won't be as nice of a note.

Laura J. Underwood

[laurajunderwood.livejournal.com]

And I JUST heard from John, so all is well. He has removed the links and says I will be paid in the next royalty period for any sales that might have happened.

Stick that in your Books, B&N!