Do self-published writers need business mailbox?

When setting up your authoring business, you will need a physical address for it. Even though most of your work is done in a virtual digital world and that you may only write at a variety of coffee shops, you still need a single location where you can be reached for official purposes.

For most authors, simply using their residential address will be sufficient. A mailbox dedicated solely to your business correspondence is simply an added expense, since you will need to rent a box. The reality is that in the Internet era you’re unlikely to receive much if any business-related mail.

Still, there are a couple of good reasons for having separate mailboxes. Perhaps the best reason is for privacy purposes; you simply may not want customers and clients knowing where you actually reside. In addition, those authors offering services related to their books may prefer to have a more professional, official address than a residential one, though I’m not sure how much of a difference this makes to the average customer.

Be aware that if you incorporate (form an LLC) some states may not allow you to have an address that is a P.O. Box. So, you may need to obtain a mailbox from a private company that gives out a physical address for their box numbers. Private companies also have fewer requirements on you than the U.S. Postal Service when setting up a mailbox.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

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