Change to GST for B.C. freelancers

Photo by Jorbasa. Some rights reserved.

Today I started working on my first HST remittance of the year, which made me look up the last information about the change from HST to GST in B.C.

Here’s what you need to know if you’re a freelance editor in B.C.

• There’s no need to apply for a PST registration number because professional services other than legal services are exempt from PST.
• From April 1, 2013, editors just charge GST on their work, using their existing GST/HST numbers.
• The place of supply rules stay the same as before: an editor who lives in B.C. charges a client the HST or GST rate of the province where the client is located (see the rules about place of supply). So when I work for a B.C. client, I charge 5% GST, but when I work for a company in Ontario, I charge 13% HST (list of GST/HST rates by province). And when I work for a client outside the country, I charge no tax at all.
• If you use the quick method of GST/HST accounting (and I strongly recommend it for editors), your remittance rate is now 3.6% for B.C. clients. This is the remittance rate for a service provider based in a non-participating province (which B.C. is now) to a client in a non-participating province. Your remittance rates for income earned from clients in other provinces stays the same (except PEI, which instituted HST this April 1). Don’t forget that this new rate for B.C. clients only applies to your income from April 1 onward only.

Sources for my information

B.C. Government: PST exemptions (see “Professional services” at bottom)
CRA: List of GST/HST rates by province
CRA: Place of supply rules for services
CRA: Remittance rates for businesses that provide services

As always, this is backed up by a few calls to the CRA help line.

Other tax information

See also:

• Income tax for Canadian freelancers, part 1: Allowable deductions for freelancers and small business owners
• Income tax for Canadian freelancers, part 2: T2125 Declaration of business or professional activities

Janet Mackenzie on running a freelance editing business

I’ve been reading The Editor’s Companion by Janet Mackenzie. I started with the chapter on starting a freelance editing business, and found it very useful. In eighteen pages, she seems to outline all the major points you need to keep in mind:

• Qualities that make a good freelancer
• Running your office and being productive: time management, dealing with clients, stress, professional development, choosing projects
• Business considerations: what a business plan can do for you, insurance, bookkeeping
• Contracts: what needs to go into a contract, and a nice half-page example of a simple contract

What to charge

To help you calculate how much you need to charge in order to earn your target income, she starts with a list of business expenses, the biggest of which will be your own labour. As part of the cost of labour, consider the time you will spend on administration, project management, and the cost of employment. Employment costs are vacation, sick time, and pension plan. The author suggests that the “loaded” salary that includes these expenses is 17%–25% more than a person’s base salary. When you take into account the cost of maintaining a work space, I’ve seen estimates of 40% or more for the markup that a contractor needs to charge above an equivalent in-house rate.

Hourly rate

Mackenzie suggests that an editor who is competent according to the Australian Standards for Editing Practice is worth at least AUD 50 per hour (CAN 53) (this book was written in 2004). She suggests giving a price by the job rather than by the hour, and feels it’s quite appropriate not to reveal your hourly rate to the client (“If he presses you, say primly that your accountant has advised you not to reveal it”). She mentions in passing that hourly rates are not a good predictor of project cost because working speed varies quite a lot.

Work flow

Mackenzie suggests a three-column table—see below—to track your schedule of projects to come, in progress, and due. I think I’m going to give this format a try. I’ve been marking dates to receive and send projects on Google Calendar, but I find that the display gets too cluttered when I try to show which projects are in progress.

Date May	Due in	Working on	Due out
1	Joe Bloggs copy edit, first round
2	Flash Magazine, July issue, editorial	Bloggs copy edit
3		Bloggs copy edit, Flash editorial	Flash editorial
4		Bloggs copy edit

Because many projects are delayed or sometimes cancelled altogether, Mackenzie recommends overbooking slightly. “Bite off a little more than you can chew, and occasionally chew like hell.”

The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells by Ben Bova

“Craftsmanship can be taught, and it is the one area where new writers consistently fall short. In most cases it is simple lack of craftsmanship that prevents a writer from leaving the slushpile. Like a carpenter who has never learned to drive nails straight, writers who have not learned craftsmanship will get nothing but pain for their efforts. That is why I have written this book: to help new writers learn a few things about the craftsmanship that goes into successful stories.”

Not only does Ben Bova have a long list of book credits to his name, he was the editor of Analog and Omni, and he used to read all the manuscript submissions. The whole slush pile. As he says above, most of those manuscripts failed, not because of deficient ideas or bad artistly, but through faults in their basic mechanics.

The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells is a short, to-the-point book that lays out the basics of crafting a good science fiction story. After a short introduction, the book has four sections: character, background, conflict, and plot. Each section has a chapter on theory, a full short story, and a chapter on practical considerations, with reference to the sample story. A final section discusses special considerations for novels.

Is research the key to good science fiction?

The book has some good points about research. How can you write what you know when you’re writing speculative fiction? Research. You find an astronaut and get him to coauthor the book. You move to New Mexico for a while. You spend serious time at the library. Bova suggests you keep a book of notes on plot, character sketches, background and setting, and everything else you have to keep straight.

So much work on research alone, but maybe that’s what it takes. Dune is a great book because Frank Herbert built a detailed background of ecology,* politics, economics, and religion for his story. But books with poorly thought-out backgrounds are flat and uninteresting; their stories don’t ring true. Maybe, to make something great, you have to take the approach of doing as much work as possible.

* Although Dune is perhaps not the best example of good speculative science. For starters, it’s hard to think of a plausible way for sandworms to travel through sand.

Other good books on writing science fiction and fantasy

A couple of other good books on the topic are Characters and Viewpoint and How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Orson Scott Card.

Editing fiction: The author-editor relationship

I attended a workshop recently on fiction editing, taught by Caroline Adderson. One of the best parts was getting her perspective on what makes for good author-editor communication. Here are some things she talked about.

Be enthusiastic

The writer has worked on this book for years. She wants to hear that you like it.

• Say that you like the book.
• Show that you care about the book and are committed to making it a success.
• If you’re given a manuscript to work on that you don’t like, find something positive to say about it.
• Hearing the editor say things like “I’m really excited to be working on this project” means a lot to the writer.

The process of working together

A meet and greet phone call is helpful to establish rapport. Don’t leave the writer in suspense. Tell the writer when you’ll start work, and let her know if there’s a delay so she isn’t left wondering whether you’re working on it yet, and what you think. When you do start work, let the author know and, again, say something positive about the manuscript so far (“I love the first chapter”).

Asking for changes

• Always show respect for the author’s hard work first. Start by talking about what you liked.
• Don’t follow a positive statement with “but.” It will cancel out the positive value of what came before.
• Don’t let your comments take on the tone of telling the writer where she’s going wrong; explain that you had trouble understanding something and ask if she can make it clearer.
• Be very specific. Refer to exact spots in the manuscript and explain clearly what you think could be done differently. It’s even better if you can refer to another spot in the manuscript where the author has done what you’re asking for.
• Making the changes, even with changes tracked, can come across as far more heavy-handed than asking for the change in a comment.

Photo by Qbert88. Some rights reserved.

A good writer wants to write a good book

A good writer cares most about producing a good book, so if you phrase your suggestions as ways to improve the manuscript, not the writer, the writer will find it easier to get on board. When you suggest that material be cut, soften the pain by emphasizing that the material is good, but it’s not right for the manuscript. You can also suggest that the material can be saved and used somewhere else.

Caroline said, “When you have a wonderful editor, you write the book for the editor.”

Related

“Nonviolent editing” and my review of Author & Editor: A Working Guide (a book that Caroline quoted from in the course).

The Publishing Business: From P-books to E-books by Kelvin Smith

Looking for an overview of the publishing industry, hot off the presses? This book is written for the student preparing for a career in publishing. It provides a comprehensive overview, including the main areas of publishing (trade fiction, scientific and technical, educational, etc.), the tasks and jobs involved, and the process of how a publisher acquires material, produces a book, and sells the book. There’s plenty of attention to the economics, marketing, and branding of publishing, balanced with awareness of ethical issues.

The Publishing Business was released last August, and the case studies and discussion of recent developments in e-book rights and marketing are up to date. My favourite thing: the book is a big, attractive softcover with lots of colour pictures and visual interest. I recommend the book to anyone who’s considering working in publishing or simply wants to know more about how books are made.

I got this book as a door prize at an EAC-BC meeting. Iva Cheung, who kindly donated the book, has written a more comprehensive review.

What’s a reasonable e-book price?

One of the most interesting parts of The Publishing Business is a breakdown of publishing costs, which begins to clear up something I’ve been wondering about: loss leaders aside, why are the prices of e-books so close to the prices of paper books? Shouldn’t e-book buyers benefit from the savings in printing and shipping that this medium brings?

Sure. But printing and shipping are a smaller part of publishing costs than I thought. An e-book doesn’t incur the cost of printing, warehousing, distribution, and unsold stock, but it still needs to be written, edited, designed, laid out, and marketed. And even electronic distribution has some costs.

According to The Publishing Business (page 63), marketing, warehousing, distribution, and unsold stock makes up about 30% of a publisher’s costs. The rest? Author’s royalty: 10%; production (editing, design, and printing): 20%; and other overhead (salaries, office, etc.): 30%. Now consider that sellers of paper books typically keep about 45% of the cover price*, and I come up with something like 20% of the cover price as potential savings in e-book production.

That’s not a big difference. The $2.99 e-book may work when it comes after a paper print run that pays the bills, but if e-books are to be the dominant medium, the price has to be higher, or something’s gotta give.

* With e-book sales, the seller may only take about 30%, but then typically the author royalty is higher (The Publishing Business, page 36).

Referring to foreign place names in English

Picture: Google Maps

Among the questions that come up when referring to places in other countries, here’s something I came across recently. When a foreign place name contains a geographical descriptor, like “lake” or “mountain,” should you keep the name as is, or split out the generic descriptor?

I was editing an article that referred to the Wörthersee, in Austria. As it stood, the copy referred to “Lake Wörthersee,” but a reader who speaks a little German might know that See is German for “lake,” and find that wording redundant.

A fellow editor who used to work for a news service in Japan told me that their house style was to replace the Japanese suffix for the geographical entity with the English word: Fujisan would become “Mount Fuji.”

The Chicago Manual of Style recommends leaving out the English term: “the Rio Grande” not “the Rio Grande River.” (Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed., 8.54 “Foreign terms for geographic entities.”)

For the Wörthersee, I chose “Lake Wörther” instead of “the Wörthersee,” since a) it isn’t a very well-known place, so I didn’t think changing the name would cause confusion; and b) the German for “lake” isn’t that widely known. Based on the same considerations, I would leave Rio Grande as is instead of changing it to “the Grande River.”

A similar problem comes up with some Scandinavian place names, where the name contains the definite article as the suffix “-et.” Referring to the city hall in Oslo, you have to choose between “have you seen Rådhuset?” and “have you see the Rådhus?” I’m not sure what the best solution is there.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

I finally got around to reading Fifty Shades of Grey. I thought that when my name finally came to the top of the library’s hold list I’d read the first chapter and put it down with a sneer, but that’s not what happened.

Yes, the writing is clunky and the book lacks polish. There are plenty of little things that don’t ring true (Anastasia doesn’t have a computer; she trips over a clean, well-lit floor; the dancing), and I could have done with a bit less of the inner goddess. But overall I found the book fun. Everyone in the book is nice, including the brooding Mr. Grey. The story is quite upbeat, and it’s easy to read. If you’re in the right mood to fantasize along, you can have a good time.

Photo by jessdamen. Some rights reserved.

A voyage of self-discovery and transformation can be a great story, especially in the erotica genre. But the book failed for me—and I suspect this is at the root of many the complaints about Ana—by not being that. Ana shows bravery when she ventures into Christian’s world. She faces some pretty daunting challenges, and she does a good job in negotiating her boundaries. But instead of realizing that she’s kink-curious and exploring her own interests and needs, she makes it all about the man, and she get stuck in a loop of “I want him so much, but I don’t know if I can give him what he wants.” The story comes off as being about her picking and choosing between different options offered to her instead of being about her taking action to discover who she is and what she wants. The ending is also seriously disappointing. It looks as if the author noticed she was running out of space and cobbled together a weak climax at the expense of making Ana do something that’s both ridiculous and inconsistent with her earlier actions.

The book probably isn’t going to win any awards for the Most Realistic Depiction of Kinky People. The kinky person here is high-functioning but emotionally damaged. Of course that’s necessary to raise the emotional stakes in the story—if Ana were having a relationship with a happy, well-balanced person who happened to like spanking, the conflict wouldn’t be nearly big enough—but it’s still disappointing. The BDSM is rather mild—I was kind of waiting for it to start. Some BDSM-themed books (Sleeping Beauty Trilogy, Story of O) plunge quite quickly into activities that are unappealing or dangerous, but Fifty Shades keeps things tame. Where Anne Rice’s masters hang their slaves up by their wrists all night, Christian Grey smirks and says he aims for pink.

The book combines easy reading, romance, erotic spice, and better writing than your average pulp romance with some kind of genre-busting spark. I hope it will help open the door to distinctive, well-written, entertaining, and well-produced erotica hitting the mainstream.

The basics of libel law in Canada and the new responsible communication defence

On Saturday I attended a Tyee master class: Responsible Journalism in 2012: The Changing Legal Landscape for Journalists, taught by Leo McGrady of McGrady and Company, a firm whose specialties include libel law and intellectual property.

The biggest take-home message? Libel risk is manageable. Don’t be too afraid to write. In the last few years, courts have set precedents in libel law that have shifted the balance toward freedom to publish, and it’s important to use this new freedom from libel chill to build a new culture of freedom of expression.

Why does “libel chill” matter? Don’t people only get sued for libel if they lie?

Simon Singh: fair comment.
Photo by englishpen. Some rights reserved.

I saw this sentiment in a blog comment just now, and I think it’s an important misconception to address. No, you’re not only at risk if you lie. Consider the following situations:

You review a book. You say it’s terrible, that the author doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and that he can’t write for beans. You could get sued. See this case about negative book reviews on Amazon’s website, and this case about a negative academic review.

Or perhaps you find out that a Canadian company is doing business with a supplier in a developing country who treats its employees very badly. You know this because you have done interviews with reputable sources. But if you publish a statement like, “John Doe, who works for an NGO in the country, reports that workers don’t have access to basic safety equipment,” could you prove in a court of law that workers don’t have access to basic safety equipment? If not, you may not feel safe publishing that sentence.

That’s what they mean by “chill.”

What is libel?

Libel refers to defamation in written, printed, broadcasted, or other lasting form.

Defamation is an attack on a person’s character that attributes to the person some form of disgraceful conduct—dishonesty, cruelty, sexual misbehaviour, irresponsibility, and the like—in either personal or professional concerns.

Editing Canadian English, 2nd Ed. 11.67

How to protect yourself when you publish

• Be right. If your statement is true and you can prove it (more about that later), you’re safe. In this case it doesn’t matter if your reporting is malicious, unfair, or unbalanced.
• Be able to show that you’re right: be diligent in your research, and save your documentation.
• If it turns out that you were wrong about something, you can mitigate the damages against you if you take the material down, publish a correction, and apologize. Make sure the apology is honest and sincere: don’t backtrack, don’t make an “attack” apology, and don’t say it was the plaintiff’s fault.

What are the consequences?

Landmark and Elle magazine.
Photo by lgattruth. Some rights reserved.

If you mitigate the damage as described above, by retracting and apologizing, the lawsuit may not happen at all. A typical award for damages is about $70,000, which isn’t really worth suing for. Although the loser may have to pay court fees (something like $120,000), they would typically end up paying only about a quarter of that unless an award for special costs was granted (unusual). If the defendant was very reasonable about mitigating the damage, they might not even have to pay the court costs.

Main legal defences against libel

1. Truth. If your facts are correct and your evidence satisfies the court, then you’re not liable. However, if your statements are difficult to prove, or if you made a mistake and published something that wasn’t true, read on.
2. Fair comment. Remember that a defamatory statement is more or less anything that damages a person’s reputation. Maybe you made statements of opinion that were highly uncomplimentary. For your writing to qualify as fair comment, you need to show that the statement was comment or opinion, that it is your honest opinion, that it’s based on true facts, and that it regards a matter of public interest. If you are proven to be malicious, that defeats this defence.
3. Privilege. In some situations when the communicator and the receiver have an interest and a duty to exchange certain information, that communication may be protected. For example, an employer giving a reference to a future employer is a situation of “qualified privilege.” This defence is lost if the person making the statements is malicious or if the information is communicated beyond the group of people who have an interest in receiving the information. Increasingly, it seems that the public may be the interested party.
4. Responsible publication. This is a relatively new defence that came out of the Grant v. Torstar case (see below). The defendant has to show two things:
   1. The matter is of public interest.
   2. The defendant acted in a responsible way.
   In deciding whether the defendant acted responsibly, a number of factors are considered:
   1. The seriousness of the allegation. More serious allegations require stronger evidence.
   2. The public importance of the matter.
   3. The urgency of the matter.
   4. The reliability of the source.
   5. Whether the plaintiff’s side of the story was sought and accurately reported. How important this is depends on the circumstances, but generally, consulting the person you’re writing about decreases your chances of getting your facts wrong.
   6. Whether the inclusion of the defamatory statement was justifiable.
   7. Whether the statement’s public interest lay in the fact that it was made rather than its truth. This can protect situations like reporting on a libel case, where it would be difficult to avoid repeating the defamatory statement.

Recent changes in Canadian libel law

Grant v. TorStar in 2009 was the case that resulted in the new guidelines for responsible journalism or responsible communication. The Court commented:

The existing common law rules mean, in effect, that the publisher must be certain before publication that it can prove the statement to be true in a court of law, should a suit be filed. Verification of the facts and reliability of the sources may lead a publisher to a reasonable certainty of their truth, but that is different from knowing that one will be able to prove their truth in a court of law, perhaps years later. This, in turn, may have a chilling effect on what is published. Information that is reliable and in the public’s interest to know may never see the light of day.

paragraph 53

Elton John has received damages for libel twice.
Photo by Sarah_Ackerman. Some rights reserved.

Wikipedia summary of Grant v. Torstar

Supreme Court of Canada Grant v. Torstar

Other considerations

Malice

“Actual malice” in a libel case is not personal dislike or even a personal vendetta. It means that the person making the statement had an ulterior motive or a lack of honest belief in the statement.

Repeating a statement

Quoting someone else does not distance you from liability.

Differences between Canadian and U.S. law

Because libel law is different in the U.S., previous publication in the United States does not mean that a statement is safe to publish in Canada. Also, be aware that Canada does not treat public figures differently in libel law, as the U.S. does.

Libel on the internet

Linking to libellous content is generally safe, but if someone tells you the linked content is libellous and you refuse to take the link down, you may be considered to be endorsing the libellous content.

You are responsible for the comments on your blog. You should moderate your comment feeds. Even if a libellous comment slips through, having a moderation process in place will count in your favour.

Web pages are considered to be published globally. Yikes.

Resources and further reading about libel

Articlein the Tyee on the Furlong libel case

Damage Awards for Libel in Canada

Supreme Court of Canada Access to Court Materials

CanLII: free Canadian law on the internet

Quicklaw is a pay research service

Editors’ Association workshop on grammar in Kelowna November 18

The Editors’ Association of Canada, BC branch is offering a workshop on Grammar Essentials for Writers and Editors: A Seminar for the Faint-hearted and the Fearless taught by Barbara Tomlin.

The workshop will be on Sunday, November 18, from 9:30 to 4:30 at the Rotary Centre for the Arts, 421 Cawston Avenue, Kelowna, B.C.

Register by October 26 for early bird pricing (registration closes on November 9).

Banned Books Week

I forgot it was Banned Books Week! Banned Books Week raises awareness of banned or challenged books and to persecution of authors.

Freedom to Read has a page on Censorship in Canada with a 39-page list of banned and challenged books and magazines. Some of the usual suspects: Harry Potter, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Handmaid’s Tale. A couple that surprised me: American Gods—Neil Gaiman, Leonard Maltin’s 2010 Movie Guide.

Most books that are challenged remain available; a challenge just means that someone made an effort to get a library or school to withdraw a book. However, some books and magazines are successfully made unavailable when they are seized at the border. Little Sister’s book shop in Vancouver has been fighting legal battles for years over censorship of books that describe gay and BDSM sexuality.

Read more

Banned Books Week on the American Library Association website.

Read free samples of the ten most challenged books of 2011.

Is that the reading list of a humanities course? No, it’s Banned Books 387 B.C. To 1978 A.D., most of which are available for free on Project Gutenberg.

Excerpt from Joseph Anton, Salman Rushdie’s memoir about living in hiding after he was threatened with death for writing The Satanic Verses.