UPDATED: September 2015 - Amazon's KDP, Smashwords, Withholding Tax, International Authors, ITIN and EIN

As a Canadian author using Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), my journey has been less than hassle free, so I'm posting today to help other non-US authors get through the headache of withholding taxes and IRS forms.

If you're a non-US author and you've noticed your royalty checks don't match your numbers online, it's most likely because a withholding tax has been implemented--30% on average. But there's a solution.

First, a non-US resident and DTP publisher/author does NOT need a US address or a US bank account. Amazon will mail you a check or via direct deposit.

However, Amazon will withhold approx. 30% of all earnings of non-US residents UNLESS authors have an ITIN or EIN, which you must get from the IRS.

FYI, this is how I did it a few years ago when everyone said I needed an ITIN. But I should warn you--it's much easier now, and I'll tell you exactly what you need to do after I share my experience.

Don't apply for an ITIN!!!

1. I contacted an "Acceptance Agent" in my city. There's a list of Canadian Acceptance Agents (and US and International Acceptance Agents) on the IRS website.
2. I had Smashwords send me a letter stating I was selling my books through them. You need one letter only from one distributor, and when I asked Amazon they were completely uncooperative and refused to send me the letter.
3. I filled out the W-7 form at the Agent's office, he photocopied my passport and he sent these out along with the letter from Smashwords (who are aweseome about giving letters).
4. It took about 7 weeks before I got my letter from the IRS with my ITIN.
5. Then I filled out the W-8BEN form and sent one to each US distributor (Amazon, Smashwords etc). From that point on, I've received 100% of my royalties due; no tax was withheld.

Smashwords has great instructions on all this on their site. I don't know why Amazon hasn't done the same. Smashwords also has links to all the forms and the address for sending the W-8BEN. Again, Amazon could take some pointers on customer service.

As per Smashwords, here are the important links you need:

• Request a letter for your W-7
• Download form W-8BEN
• Download W-8BEN Instructions
• Download form W-7
• Download W-7 Instructions
• Send us your completed W-8BEN

Is this a hassle? Most definitely. That's why I no longer recommend this way. Get an EIN!!!

Is it worth it to get an EIN? Yes. Why should 1/3 of my earnings be held back? I'm Canadian, I pay my taxes here.

Does anyone know the correct mailing address for sending in the W-8BEN form to Amazon?

"We need to receive a physical copy (paper form) of the W8 that contains a US tax id and that is signed in blue ink. Please put the supplier code/vendor code, vendor code: DUVNS in the upper right hand corner and then mail it to the below address. As soon as we receive it, we will update the account and reimburse withholding that has been deducted this year. Note: withholding can only be paid back in the current year it was deducted.

Amazon Digital Services
Attn: Vendor Maintenance
PO Box 80683
Seattle, WA 98108-0683

If you have further questions, please write back to us at dtp-support@amazon.com."

Please note that you may want to check to ensure that the "supplier code" is the same for everyone. I have no idea if it is or if it's linked to my account only. If you know the answer, please email me at cherylktardif (at) shaw.ca.

UPDATE 3: Sept 29, 2015 - Forget the ITIN. Get an EIN instead. It's much easier and FREE!

Get an EIN by phone via the IRS's toll-free number: (800) 829-4933.

UPDATE 2: One writer reported to me that the supplier code was different than mine, so your best bet is to email DTP support and ask them.

UPDATE: May 18, 2011 -
- Createspace will send you the letter you need to get the ITIn rolling, if you sell your books via them.
- Smashwords has a Google Chrome bug that is preventing emails to go through to them via the customer support link at the top of Smashwords.com. If you've emailed them about this or any other matter and haven't heard back from them in 3-5 days, your email may never have reached them. They're working on this issue. In the meantime, try IE or another browser.
- From Mark Coker at Smashwords: "At Smashwords, authors request the letters through their payee profile at https://www.smashwords.com/account/payee. They can request the letter once their account balance reaches $10.00."

Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Amazon Prime Members Can Borrow My eBooks with Kindle Owners' Lending Library

Did you know that if you have a Prime membership on Amazon and live in the USA or UK, you can borrow one ebook a month via the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

You can choose from 180,000+ ebooks FREE, including over 100 New York Times bestsellers. And there are no due dates.

A Prime membership has other advantages too. For only $79/year or £49/year, you'll also receive free 2-day shipping on millions of items on Amazon, plus unlimited streaming of over 25,000 movies and TV shows. There are other perks too. You can learn more about Prime here.

You can borrow directly from your Kindle (e-ink versions and Fire):

1. On e-ink devices (regular Kindles & Touch), click on "See all categories" then scroll down to "Kindle Owners' Lending Library" to view titles. Find a book and click on it to either buy or borrow for free.

2. On Kindle Fire devices, the Lending Library is located in the bookstore. Browse books and look for Prime badge. Click on a title and you'll have the option to either buy or borrow for free.

3. You can also borrow and read on an app for your desktop, iPad and more. Download your borrowed books directly from Amazon.com by looking for titles that show the Amazon Prime icon.

Remember, as a US or UK Prime member, you're entitled to 1 free borrow a month. That's 12 free books each year.

Don't own a Kindle? Get yours now. If you're not a US Prime member, start your one month free trial today. If you live in the UK, start your one month free trial of Prime here.


Borrow Cheryl Kaye Tardif books! Look for the Prime icon.

How I Made Over $42,000 Selling My Kindle eBooks

In March 2012 one Canadian author boldly went where few have gone before—into the land of making real money with Amazon's KDP Select program, where she has now earned over $210,000 in 11 months.

This is her story…

My name is Cheryl Kaye Tardif and I am an international bestselling suspense author who earned over $42,000 dollars in March 2012 selling ebooks via Amazon's KDP Select program, captured the interest of a major literary agency, and went on to sign with a foreign rights agent. And I'm about to tell you HOW I did all that.

I don't normally tell people how much money I make, but I believe writers need to know it IS possible to earn a real income from your books. Seriously, if I can do it, anyone can—if you have the right combination of criteria and techniques.

In this book, I'll share with you what I believe are four key elements you must have in place to see high sales. And I'll reveal the strategic techniques I used during my KDP Select promotions that resulted in earning over $42,000—with $32,000 of that from ONE title alone.

Not only did I earn over $42,000 in ebook sales, I was contacted by one of the leading literary agencies in New York. The chairman noticed my success when my one title made #4 in the Top 100 Bestselling Kindle ebooks, right under The Hunger Games trilogy. Since then, I've signed with an agent at Trident Media Group, and a senior editor at Penguin, who also contacted me after my Amazon success, is awaiting my next novel.

So, if you're ready to earn some real money with Select, let's begin…

Available at Amazon (Kindle) for only $2.99.

Should writers pursue print publication or publish their own ebooks?

The above question came up in a forum recently, and while everyone has to determine what's right for them as it is a very personal decision, I gave them my thoughts on the topic.

I say go for both--print and ebooks. If you have a traditional publisher for your print, all the better. But don't let that stop you from publishing your own ebooks, especially the ones your agent and publisher aren't interested in. You definitely don't want to overlook the ebook market. That's where the money is right now for authors, if you publish the ebooks yourself.

As a self-published and traditionally published print author, I've seen the pros and cons to both sides.

If you have a backlist of titles that your publisher is finished with, get them up on Amazon Kindle, KoboBooks and Smashwords right away. Sales of ebooks are on the rise, and they won't be stopping or slowing any time too soon.

Other ideas for ebooks: publish a collection of short stories or an anthology with other authors, publish a novella or novelette, publish a how-to book or a book of poetry.

I have 4 ebooks coming out between April 1, 2010 and Sept 27, 2010. :-) There's only one thing better than promoting your books, and that's writing them!

My agent is holding 2 thrillers. I'm considering taking one back and publishing it as an ebook next spring.

The key is this: you want to build momentum, then try to keep that momentum going. And the only way to do this is to keep releasing books under some semblance of regularity.

With Amazon's recent royalty raise to 70% for qualifying ebooks, it's possible for authors to now make more money selling less expensive ebooks than selling traditionally published print books. But in the end, it depends on the personal goals of each writer.

NovelRank creator Mario Lurig dishes on Amazon sales rank, Kindle and more

Many author I know have used various Amazon sales rank tracking systems online so they can see how their books are selling on Amazon, so today I'm interviewing Mario Lurig, the creator of NovelRank. Mario, welcome to The Write Type! ~Cheryl Kaye Tardif

CKT: As the creator of NovelRank, please tell us what led to the creation of such a program.

ML: I'm a self-publishing author myself, and that means marketing my book is a one-man team. The problem was that Amazon sales info is delayed about 6 months from my publisher, Lulu. Therefore, it's hard to know what is working and what is not as not every purchase happens where you want it to happen. I tried other sales rank tracking websites, and was not satisfied with any of them.

I then remembered, "Oh wait, I can write code." So I started tracking sales rank on my own, then realized that other authors probably could use the same thing; I'm not the only author selling less than 15 copies a month. So, I've put in 200+ hours of work and NovelRank was released to the public.

CKT: Who uses NovelRank, and why?

ML: A few publishers, definitely a large collection of self-promoting authors, and I suppose for the same reasons I do: To get some feedback on how well your book is selling on Amazon without having to obsessively visit Amazon.com, trying to figure out if the book's sales rank has gone up or down, and what that means. Authors are busy enough!

CKT: How does NovelRank work? And why is it important to authors like me?

ML: It's a pretty simple concept: Every hour, get the sales rank of your book on all Amazon domains that carry the book that you choose to track. Then, based on trends and changes, estimate the number of sales that occur. Is it important to know the sales at any one moment? No, unless you are actively promoting it. The key to good marketing is good feedback, and that is what NovelRank provides for authors like you.

CKT: Can I only track my sales rank from Amazon.com?

ML: Other sites only track Amazon.com and some track Amazon.co.uk. NovelRank tracks all Amazon domains, including US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan.

CKT: I've used TitleZ in the past to track my sales ranks and at one time could track my Kindle sales rank too, but then TitleZ removed this feature. Can I use NovelRank to track Kindle editions of my work?

ML: Yes! It's a bit of a long story, but the quick version is that every site that exists to track sales rank uses Amazon's API (efficient way to get information from a service or site). Months ago, Amazon removed the ability to get any information about Kindle Edition books, and after some persistence from myself and a few others in their forums, they finally stated that this was deliberate and permanent. Everyone's source of information was lost, including NovelRank.

I wasn't satisfied with that option, so I found another way to get the information from Amazon that was 20% of the API's efficiency. Without this new method, it would have been only 4%, which just isn't a feasible amount to get the data in a timely manner. Now NovelRank allows you to add Kindle Edition books for tracking, and still get hourly results, including sales estimates, exclusively.

CKT: On TitleZ I could track a list of items and see them on one page. This was great for comparing ranks for my 3 novels. It was also useful if I wanted to track a comparative title and compare to one of mine. Can I track more than one item and compare their stats easily using NovelRank?

ML: You can definitely track more than one item, and you can even share the book's page with others without them needing to create an account, just share the URL of the page. However, this is the one place NovelRank lags behind others, the ability to have an account and track everything on one page. It's coming, let me be clear, but I opted to reduce the barrier to entry, because I really dislike having to login or make an account everywhere.

So, I made it really simple to add a book, track it, and share that with others or integrate it with your regular life with things like RSS feeds. I'll be keeping the spirit the same however, because you won't be creating an account, but simply logging in through one of 6 services you already have an account with, such as Google, LiveJournal, Facebook, and Twitter. Just like the current book details page, you will have an 'account' page accessible by URL so you won't need to login to see everything on one page, only to make changes to your settings or lists.

CKT: Are there any features (current or future) that really make NovelRank stand out?

ML: Kindle tracking is the standout feature right now, as nobody else supports it. Nobody.

CKT: Do you charge for this tracking service?

ML: I like to think that the second best thing about NovelRank is that there are no advertisements, never will be, and it has the best price: Free.

CKT: On the home page of NovelRank, you feature 3 lists? Tell us about them. Are there any others, and what do they track?

ML: It actually features about 10 lists, because every hour the 3 featured on the home page change, as they are randomly selected from all of the Top 10 lists available. It always shows Recent Additions on either Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, as the most popular Amazon domains, and then 2 other lists.

Most lists are obvious, showing books that were recently added, top sellers, top Lulu sellers, etc. However, my favorite lists are called Diamonds in the Rough, which represent books that have sold a copy recently, but have been on a dry streak in the last couple of days. In other words, books that are valuable enough to garner your attention and your dollars, but probably not top sellers.

CKT: Do you have anything else to add?

ML: Being an author is hard, even for those of us doing it part-time, but it's incredibly rewarding. If NovelRank can bring value to an author who is taking their book's sales and marketing into their own hands, it has succeeded. Like my book, NovelRank suffers from the same fate: I'm its biggest fan, and everything else is gravy.

Authors: you can now promote your book on NovelRank. Just send Mario a copy for his once a month book draw. http://www.novelrank.com/blog/donate-novel-authors-monthly-promotion-and-giveaway/

Thank you for dropping by The Write Type, Mario, and for sharing this valuable service. I've tried NovelRank and it's simple and easy. All the best in success with NovelRank.

Top 10 Tips to Help Authors Successfully Promote Their Books

Most authors should know that it's really up to them to promote their books, not the publisher. The publisher will do what they can do, of course, but the author is the one who can really get the word out there to the masses. So here is my Top 10 list of things authors can do to successfully promote their own books.

1. Promote your book BEFORE it's even published. Think of this like movie trailers. Film companies are super intelligent; they give people a sneak peek to get them interested, then hook them with anticipation by announcing a release date. Authors can do the same. Give your readers a sneak peek--a free sample, a book trailer. Then as soon as you know the release date (and about 1-3 months in advance) start promoting this new release.


2. Have your book PROFESSIONALLY edited. If you want longevity as a writer, you must treat this like a career. This means that even self-published, author-originated works must be edited professionally by someone who knows HOW to edit. NEVER be the only editor for your book. If you put out an inferior product you will lose fans and sales, and bookstores will not promote you. If you're going to do this, do it right! You're competing with every other book out there, and there are millions, so find a good editor.


3. Once your book is published, promote the heck out of it! Too many authors leave marketing up to their publisher. This is your baby, no one else's. As soon as your book is released, you have a window of about 3 months to get it off the ground, and another 3 months to keep things rolling. Not even a publisher can market your book as well as you can, and if you don't know how, LEARN. If you don't know where to start, I'm a book marketing coach; I can teach you.


4. Create a solid internet identity. What will we find if we Google your name right now? Will we find someone else with the same name who sells lawn ornaments? Are there 10 hits? 1000? 100,000? Are the first 3 pages of any search engine all about you or at least 90% you? If not, you've got work to do. Make sure you have a professional looking website and blog. Don't use a free host with ads for your site. Invest in a domain name (your name preferably) and pay for hosting.


5. Blog at least 2-3 times a week. On numerous blogs. Blogging about anything sells books. Readers like to see the human side of their favorite authors, so blogging should not be a hardcore sales pitch every post. Find a controversial or thematic angle within your book and blog about that. My novel Whale Song dealt with assisted suicide. I not only researched the topic, but I blogged about it and was then contacted by a radio station because of my blog post and then was interviewed. Blog about the journey you took to get where you are in your writing career. Blog about editing, rejections, writer's block, courses, anything that might be helpful to other writers.


6. Hold a virtual book tour. VBTs are an excellent and inexpensive way to get the word out about your book. Other bloggers are now promoting YOU. There is, however, an effective way to do this and an ineffective way. Successful blog tours have the following main elements: thoughtful planning, research, themed articles/posts, calls to action, proper scheduling, advertising and high sales. Your book should reach the bestsellers lists on Amazon, at the very least.


7. Sell your book on a specific day by holding a contest. If you ask people to order from one major retailer, like Amazon for instance, on a specific day and offer them some kind of incentive, you will have the opportunity to make Amazon's bestsellers list. Pick a day, offer a prize they can't turn down (remember: never make your book your prize-at least, not the book you are trying to promote) and have a proof of purchase to ensure sales are submitted on one day. Once you make Amazon's list (and don't forget, books are broken into categories), you're a "bestselling author" with a "bestselling novel". That statement alone attracts more success.


8. Find out where your readers are. The goal is not to have your book in every bookstore. First, very few books achieve that. Second, having them in a store is no good if no one is buying them. So find out where your readers are. If you write mysteries, find out where mystery readers meet in your town. Become a guest author at a book club. Look for online reading groups or sites like GoodReads and start schmoozing with readers.


9. Cultivate personal relationships with bookstore staff. Most authors underestimate the power of signing books in a store. Too many authors focus entirely on sales, or lack of sales. Forget sales! Think about relationships instead--with store staff, customers and potential fans. That is what is important. When you build these relationships you will have store staff who will hand sell your book and go out of their way to promote you, invite you to special events and feature you on special front-end shelves that publishers have to pay for. Customers can turn into media contacts and interviews. Potential fans can turn into lifelong fans who will buy everything you write and recommend you to their family and friends.


10. Contact media for every event or set of events. If holding a bunch of signings during October, call it your "fall tour" and promote it. Send out press releases to local TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. Send out online releases to services like 24-7pressrelease and free online services. Just Google 'press distribution services'. Many authors consider interviews a form of success, and the more you create a need for your area of expertise (whether writing, getting published, or a particular theme from your book), the more media will want to interview you.

It takes a combined effort and partnership between author, publisher and retailers to make a book successful. A partnership. That's how you must think of it. So don't just throw your "baby" out in the world and expect someone else to baby sit it or expect it to fend for itself.

Take control and responsibility seriously. Being a writer is the emotional, creative side; being a successful author of a published book means you have to recognize the business side. It comes with the territory. Accept it. Embrace it. And be the most successful author you can be.

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
bestselling author and book marketing coach
http://www.cherylktardif.com/