The Author Estate Handbook: Author Level Up, #17

By M.L. Ronn

The definitive guide to estate planning for authors—now available in audiobook and large print!

 

If you died tomorrow, would your books survive you?

 

It's so easy to focus on writing and marketing. You're so busy building a writing business, but you know that if you don't plan on what will happen after your death, everything you're building won't matter.

 

Yet, you probably don't know where to start.

 

This book will help you get your affairs in order, understand estate planning basics, and make a plan so that you can create a legacy that will continue making money for your family long after you're gone.

• Get organized once and for all--quickly and painlessly
• Avoid the top 10 estate-ending mistakes
• Learn how to gather all your affairs in one place
• Discover key talking points to bring up with your estate planning attorney that no one else will tell you about

From passwords to bank accounts to book retailer accounts, this book will hold your hand through the process of getting your ducks in a row.

This book will help you get more organized and help your heirs make more money from your books. It'll give you a fighting chance at preserving the amazing legacy you're already building.

 

V2.0

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Level Up LLC
• Release date: Jan 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885510011

M.L. Ronn

Science fiction and fantasy on the wild side! M.L. Ronn (Michael La Ronn) is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including the Modern Necromancy, The Last Dragon Lord, and Sword Bear Chronicle series. In 2012, a life-threatening illness made him realize that storytelling was his #1 passion. He’s devoted his life to writing ever since, making up whatever story makes him fall out of his chair laughing the hardest. Every day.

Book preview

The Author Estate Handbook

THE AUTHOR ESTATE HANDBOOK

HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR AFFAIRS AND LEAVE A LEGACY

M.L. RONN

Copyright 2022 © M.L. Ronn. All rights reserved.

Published by Author Level Up LLC.

Version 3.0

Cover Design by Pixelstudio.

Covert Art © Violin / Depositphotos.

Editing by BZ Hercules and Audrey Weinbrecht.

Special thank you to the following people on Patreon who supported this book: BB Dee, Matty Dalrymple, Cariad Eccleston, Stephen Frans, Michael Guishard, Jon Howard, Beth Jackson, Megan Mong, S. Chipasula Perry, Lynda Washington, and Etta Welk.

Some links in this book contain affiliate links. If you purchase books and services through these links, I receive a small commission at no cost to you. You are under no obligation to use these links, but thank you if you do!

For more helpful writing tips and advice, subscribe to the Author Level Up YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/authorlevelup.

This book provides an overview of estate planning. The contents should not be taken as legal advice or opinion. While every effort has been made to be accurate, this book should not be relied upon as the sole basis of planning an estate. If you need legal advice, contact a lawyer in your country, state, and/province. It is highly recommended that you use this book as a starting point and that you ultimately seek the counsel of a skilled lawyer, financial advisor, and accountant to build an estate plan that works for you and your family.

CONTENTS

Introduction

The Three Stages of Estate Management

Planning Your Estate

Your Last Will and Testament

Your Living Will and Power of Attorney

Trusts

Other Fundamentals

Organizing Your Estate

Estate Organization Basics

Cataloging Your IP and Physical Property

The Silver Bullets of Doom

Passwords to Your Devices and Apps

Usernames and Passwords to Online Accounts

Two-Factor Authentication

Email

Your Book Files

Bank Accounts

Taxes

Your Domains and Your Websites

Your Accounts with Book Retailers

Scams

Other Estate Organization Items

Physical Mail

Your Business Files

Social Media Accounts

Influencer Platforms

Email Marketing

Miscellaneous Income Streams

Traditionally-Published Works

Coauthors and Collaborations

Your Heirs' Operating Systems

Bookmarks

Freelancers and Virtual Assistants

Copyright Licensing Risks

Posthumous Work

Taking Care of Your Readers

Preparing Everything for Your Heirs

Get My Estate Plan Organizer

Read Next: The Author Heir Handbook

More Books by M.L. Ronn

Meet M.L. Ronn

Appendix A: Action Items

Appendix B: Helpful Resources

INTRODUCTION

Dear Author,

I hate to tell you this, but you have just died. You are now a ghost, hovering around to see what has happened after your passing.

After the ink on your obituary dries, after the funeral is over and your family has gone home to grieve, after your casket is set in the ground or your urn is placed on a shelf, and after the initial flurry of respects and condolences from your friends quiets down to nothing, the world will keep on spinning as if you never existed.

Your loved ones will grieve, but even they too will move on. Your only marks on the world will be the memories your friends and loved ones had of you, how you made them feel, and (the reason you're reading this) your books.

In your twilight solitude as a ghost, you have a lot of time now to reflect on the literary estate you left behind.

What will you see?

If you're reading this, I think you already know the answer.

You probably picked up this book because you have no idea where to start in planning your author estate. The concept of wills, powers of attorney, advance medical directives, and all the other classic estate planning advice are overwhelming enough, but the author part—that makes it unbearable.

If you don't take care of the author part of your estate planning, then you're guaranteeing that your books will die with you.

This book will help you start the process of planning for what will happen to your books after you die. It will give you a fighting chance at ensuring that your books outlive you.

To read this book means to face your mortality, and that's not easy. This is a sensitive subject that may be difficult for you. However, it's painfully necessary. Death is a fact of life, and the sooner you face it, the sooner you will create the author legacy you want.

When you finish this book, you'll have what you need to take the first steps with clarity and confidence.

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MY ESTATE PLANNING STORY

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Many people take a sudden interest in estate planning after witnessing someone die and leave a mess, such as a parent dying without a will.

My story is the opposite.

In June 2021, I lost a grandfather to old age. He was part of the Greatest Generation, and he grew up in the Great Depression. He was extremely frugal and paid cash for everything. He kept an old school ledger and balanced his checkbook weekly. He never used a computer in his life and never had an email account.

Before he passed away, he stressed that he didn't want to be a burden on the family. When he passed, he was true to his word.

He had a will that clearly outlined his wishes (which my family knew well before he died). His estate was settled in just a few months with no squabbles among his children. There were no lawsuits or other nightmarish stories you often hear about estates.

Losing him was tough on the family, but we found peace much faster because his affairs were so well taken care of.

When I think of my grandfather, I remember the time we spent together and how he set such a positive example, but mostly, I remember how kind he was to be so organized.

He didn’t have to be so organized, but he was. So many people take an I’m dead, so who cares? approach to their estate planning (or lack thereof), and it causes so much pain for their loved ones. My grandfather’s approach was, I’m going to be dead, so I need to make sure it is taken care of.

My grandfather didn't draw up his estate plan overnight; it was the result of many decisions he made early and often.

To this day, I'm still in awe of how he did it. My grandfather taught me an important lesson in organization, but most importantly, he taught me how to die. I know it sounds morbid, but I want to die like he did.

When you think about life in the twenty-first century, dying like my grandfather did is a phenomenal challenge. So much of our lives are online, digital, and difficult to corral. It's so much more complex and dynamic due to the Internet and the breakneck pace of technology.

Being an author makes estate planning even harder. In my case, I have over 70 books (and counting), a YouTube channel with over 300 videos, four websites, and many, many other miscellaneous copyrights. At the time of this writing, I control over 1,500 copyrights. I also have a significant digital footprint, with hundreds of accounts that I’ve created with different companies over the years.

I set out to learn how I could create an estate that looked after my family the same way my grandfather did—adjusted for the frenetic twenty-first century, and, you know, all the author stuff.

I decided that it was time to start my author estate planning journey, so I did what most writers do when they want to learn something—I wrote a book about it.

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A LITTLE MORE ABOUT ME

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I have a unique background.

I went to law school (but I’m not an attorney). My legal education is limited and I am not licensed to practice law, but I do have a legal background.

I am also an insurance executive at a global insurance company. I have built a career helping individuals and businesses plan for the future and deal with unexpected disasters, and I have been quite successful at it.

These skills combined with my experience as a prolific author give me a different angle on this topic that I hope will make this book more useful to you.

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WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

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This book is for authors who want to plan their estates. It’s primarily for independent (self-published) authors and authorpreneurs, but traditionally-published authors can benefit from this book as well.

This book may also be helpful for the people that authors designate as their executors and heirs, but only if the author is still alive. This book can help authors and their heirs set expectations and get on the same page. The content in this book is a good conversation starter with your estate attorney.

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DISCLAIMERS

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This book is full of advice, but none of it is legal, financial, or tax advice. No matter what I say (and how strongly I say it), it is just a suggestion.

If there’s one thing I learned on my estate planning journey, it’s just how few resources there are for authors. The estate of an author is radically different from that of a regular person, yet if you search for the topic on the Internet, you won’t find very much. I believe this is because estate planning is lawyer territory, and that scares a lot of people.

But, there are a lot of important elements that are unique to authors that your lawyer may not ask you about. My goal is to merely bring up many of the issues I encountered in my own journey so you’re aware of them. As with any problem, awareness is half the battle. Estate planning is an unbelievably complex topic with many, many layers.

It is up to you to determine the best way to plan your estate. You cannot plan an estate without the help of a skilled attorney, accountant, and financial adviser, period. Use this book as a starting point to seek specific help in your country, state, or province. Don’t use it as a substitute for legal advice.

And speaking of countries, I've tried to make this book as international as possible. Though I am an American, I've been careful to keep the topic at a high level so that it applies to as many non-Americans as possible. I used Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States as the basis for my research. I can’t promise that this book will be one hundred percent accurate for your country, but I at least tried to keep non-Americans in mind as I wrote it.

Again, use this book as a starting point, not as a substitute for legal advice.

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IMPORTANT RULES OF THUMB

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Estate planning is not one-size-fits-all. Everyone’s goals and visions of how they want their author estate to be handled will be different. Season the advice in this book to taste. My goal is simply to get you thinking about this so that you can clarify your own goals and take the first steps.

It’s never too early to start estate planning. I don’t care if you’re in your twenties and healthy. You’re still living on borrowed time. Untimely deaths are especially tragic when you’re young. Young people never think they’re going to die unexpectedly, and they leave behind colossal messes as a result, especially if they have young families.

It’s never too late to start estate planning. The good news is that if you’re alive, you can rectify past mistakes and start now.

Something is better than nothing. If you already have a will, that’s great, but it's only the first step. If you’ve already taken some of the other steps in this book, that’s wonderful, and I commend you. This book will help you take even more steps. That said…

You’ll never be able to plan for everything. Estate planning is a gigantic topic with many parts, and each part has layers. Your heirs will almost certainly run into some kind of problem after you’re gone no matter how well you plan. All you can do is the best you can to eliminate the most obvious stumbling blocks for your heirs.

Simplicity is best for heirs. Running a writing business is complex. You know exactly what needs to be done to publish and sell a book. Your heirs probably do not. Remember that they’re going to be grieving immediately after your death; anything you can do to make things easy for them will be much appreciated. If your heirs are publishing-savvy, more power to them, but I predict that most are not.

Longer term, also remember that your heirs have interests and passions of their own, and, honestly, asking them to inherit a writing business is a tremendous responsibility that they may not entirely understand until you're gone. They may eventually come to see it as a burden. You must think of ways to simplify the management of your estate so that it is not too burdensome for your heirs.

The best practices for running an author business almost always result in increased complexity for your heirs, which works against the previous rule. I