BPAL sale!

here

Potential 2011 con travel

For planning & budgeting purposes. Note that the hotel prices I'm using are estimates in some cases (any con where there are more than one hotel) and exact in others (where there's only one hotel and the website lists tax rates), and in all cases assume I'm not sharing it. I'd love to share rooms with people, though. I like saving money. (You can also see the cons I can drive to vs the ones I need to fly to.) I've also given them ratings of 1-5 on how much I want to go to each of them.

link to google spreadsheet

I may consider applying to be a guest/participant at some of them, most likely the more local ones.

Self-employed/freelance writer: how to?

I've been poking around on the net, and a lot of the advice boils down to things like "set up separate business & personal accounts" and "keep track of EVERYTHING" and "in order for the IRS to consider it a business, not a hobby, you have to turn a profit 3 years out of 5."

Will I need to do all that crap when I start making royalty-based sales? I got the payment for Retro Spec, and it was $24 ($23 after paypal fees), which isn't enough to report as income.

Of course, the other main piece of advice is "when in doubt, ask your accountant." I, of course, don't *have* an accountant.

I know some of y'all are freelancers or self-employed; how do you do it?