author expenses

These are not start-up expenses.  They are ordinary business expenses.  The IRS spells out exactly what start-up expenses are, and they are:

Amounts paid or incurred for: (a) creating an active trade or business; or (b) investigating the creation or acquisition of an active trade or business. Start-up costs include amounts paid or incurred in connection with an existing activity engaged in for profit; and for the production of income in anticipation of the activity becoming an active trade or business.

Qualifying costs. A start-up cost is amortizable if it meets both of the following tests.
It is a cost you could deduct if you paid or incurred it to operate an existing active trade or business (in the same field as the one you entered into).

It is a cost you pay or incur before the day your active trade or business begins.

Start-up costs include amounts paid for the following:
An analysis or survey of potential markets, products, labor supply, transportation facilities, etc.

Advertisements for the opening of the business.

Salaries and wages for employees who are being trained and their instructors.

Travel and other necessary costs for securing prospective distributors, suppliers, or customers.

Salaries and fees for executives and consultants, or for similar professional services.

I would be a little (extremely) cautious about writing of $14,000 worth of expenses for a few Hundred $ is Revenue

I have forgotten the exact year, but at one time a tax bill made it necessary to capitalize these expenses.  There was such an uproar that writers and artists were specifically exempted from having to capitalize their expenses or hold them until the final product was sold. (Married to an artist and followed the controversy closely!)

Then it's a quorum! they are not start-ups, they are ordinary expenses that can be written off in the current year!

A Special Tax Rule for Writers
Book authors often face special problems regarding business expenses. You may work on a book - incurring large expenses - years before your receive a contract or any income from which the expenses can be deducted. Does this mean you lose these deductions in the current year? Nope -- not since 1988, when Congress exempted authors and artists from the Uniform Capitalization Rules (26 U.S. Code Section 263A(h)), requiring the matching of expenses with income. What that means is that an author does not have to "capitalize," or accumulate, his project costs to be deducted in a future year, when the income is received. Instead, you are allowed to deduct your project costs in the year they are incurred.
 

essjay - two people do not make a quorum here.  However, with the addition of Peter, I think you are getting close.

Next question - When do they become an "author"? After the first book is published and sold? Up until then are they considered having a creative writing hobby? There are companies out there that will put your "story" into book form. You order as many copies as you like and sell or give away your inventory. Does that make you an "author"?

A bunch of high school friends and I wrote a book just for fun about 20 years ago. We published it and marketed it ourselves. We had no idea that it would become as popular as it did. We sold 16000 copies and then when sales were getting sparse we sold the rights to a university press. Only one of the eight of us went into writing as a profession. I do not consider the remaining 7 authors. Maybe, I should. We are talking about doing it again just for fun.

My point is - that is a lot of expense for a hobby. How do you determine when a hobby becomes a profession especially if it is in the creative field. If the book was a technical manual, you may be able to call yourself an author at the onset of the first book.

I seem to be getting forgetful.  I don't seem to remember ever taking a position on this one.