Disability and writing books

[Zigner]

I'm not an author yet, I've not published anything yet. I'm still writing the books and won't publish them until I know more about the specialty payment bit.

If you write books, you are an author.
If you write books and sell them, you are a self-employed author.

I hope you cook better than you reason.

 

[LdiJ]

I think you are going to need a very good proofreader.

Is your book going to include how to cook year old hotdogs and raymon noodles? Cooking for poor disabled folks. I smell a best seller.

Hey...good and inexpensive to make recipes could very well be a best seller these days. Don't be snarky about the fact that some people have very little food...unless you have been there, you do not know what it is like.

 

[LdiJ]

I lost 30 pounds in 4 months because I had no money and was ashamed to ask for help...and it was 20 pounds I couldn't afford to lose. The first 10 was great. My child ate, I didn't...but then I lost the ego and got food stamps, for a few months until I finally got a job.

One thing that I will state here for posterity, is that food stamps are actually quite generous if you are a smart shopper. People can eat really well and heathy on food stamps if they pay attention to what they are buying. By that I mean that they can get decent cuts of meat/chicken/fish and good produce etc. if they shop smart and actually cook from scratch and not buy for convenience.

 

[I'mTheFather]

I'm not sure which is the bigger sin, snark or condescension? Hm...

 

[Onderzoek]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Rhode Island.

I'm not sure what one this would fall under, tax or SSI. I've been on disability my entire life from the age of 4 for none physical issues. My girlfriend has convinced me to write cook books. I found out the IRS gets reports of my royalty payments. In the past I worked as a stock boy part time as minimum wage and ended up stripped of my benefits with the exception of a whopping 20 bucks. I was only making 100 bucks a week, 400 a month from my job. I'm currently living in a house that I am barely able to pay for. In fact I've been living off of frozen year old hot dogs and ramen noodles for the past few weeks cause my electric bill went up for the summer.

My concern is if I write these books and finish publishing them, I will end up living on the street cause my benefits were stripped from me. Is there a way I can publish these books, collect the royalties without risking loosing everything? I doubt the books will sell at all, but if they take off and I end up making less then what I am getting now a month I will end up in the street. So any advice on how to do this without loosing everything?

Please no find a job comments...tired of them, and according to the state I am not fit to have a job.

Royalties are earned income (I would have guessed unearned income) per https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0500820450

The first $65 earned in a month is excluded. The first $20 of other income is excluded. After that, for every $2, there is a $1 reduction in SSI benefits. If the countable earned income exceeds the SSI benefit in a month, then there is no SSI eligibility for that month. If the income is not too high in the month of receipt, then it reduces SSI two months later.

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0500820520

Examples:
Current federal benefit is $698. I don't know if Rhode Island has a state supplement. Going to assume no.

If the royalty check was $585 in August, after the $65 and $20 and 1/2 exclusion, $250 would be countable and would reduce SSI in October so the $698 would be reduced to $448 in October. Even if the $585 received in August on top of the $698 was long gone. If the royalty check was $1585 in August, after the $65 and $20 and 1/2 exclusion, the countable amount would be $750. $750 exceeds the $698 so there would be no eligibility for August. If a check was received and cashed, it would be considered an overpayment.

This would continue for as many months as there are royalty checks received.

No way out of having it considered countable income. If you don't want to affect the amount of your SSI checks, don't do it. But, since it is earned income, then less than 1/2 of it is countable so you are money ahead if you work.

 

[Onderzoek]

You know, there may be a niche market for a cookbook for people on food stamps. Take an average food stamp budget for a family of four and create recipes and a meal plan that works. Not sure that the target audience could afford the cookbook though.

 

[commentator]

Quote: "My concern is, if I write these books and finish publishing them....."

I want to know how many cookbooks this person has in the works. Because what I am hearing is that encouraged by the longsuffering girlfriend he's pipe dreaming this big idea of writing and publishing cookbooks, and I notice he hasn't yet told us about how many cook books he has ready to submit for publication, how he's going to get them published, he's just worrying about what he's going to do with all this income they're going to bring in. And now he's telling us he's getting further and further behind financially, but still, I haven't heard that he's got cookbooks written and ready or accepted for publication that are going to start bringing in income anytime in the near future.

There are lots of ads in the backs of magazines and on the internet begging you to submit your cookbooks or your children's books or your original poems for publication. They're classic scams. Most people who sell successful cookbooks are the owners of successful restaurants, or people like Paula Deen or Rachel Ray who have lots of public exposure in the market.

Many many years ago when I worked with a Human Services department and certified for foodstamps, there was a very good publication we offered clients about how to make your food stamp dollars go further, recipes, etc. I'm sure that whoever wrote it and sold it to the government did well financially. But unfortunately, most people wouldn't even take it out of the office when it was free, didn't feel that they had time to worry with it, much less use some of their hard-come-by dollars to buy it.

As I've said before, the bookshelves at thrift stores are full of self-published cookbooks.

I would certainly be applying for food stamps if I were in the financial situation that this person describes. I would also be looking far and wide for some sort of part time income to suppliment my SSI, regardless of how it would be looked at. SSI is the classic "fixed income" and is truly limiting. But this cookbook income still all sounds like something that hasn't happened yet and isn't likely to happen anyway.

 

[Whiteraven007]

My sympathies to OP, i feel you. Hope it worked out for you.

 

[Just Blue]

OP hasn't posted in 4 years, OP isn't likely going to see your words of support.