By Jori Hanna
No matter how you publish your first book, there are going to be more documents for you to keep track of than you might assume. From manuscript drafts to cover files to marketing materials, it will be important for you to be well organized for this book and any future books you write throughout your author career.
As part of my job with Torchflame Books, I coach authors in how they can best market their books. We discuss everything from social media plans to print ads and in-person events. After the first meeting with me, many authors have the same realization: There is a lot to do, and I am going to need help. Many will go hire an assistant at that time or work with professionals to outsource some items such as building a website or running digital ads.
But even when they work on these items without the help of an assistant, I often have authors ask me to resend the marketing materials created by Torchflame Books.
Throughout the publishing process, you will be in touch with many people—cover designers, editors, production managers, and marketing managers. The more organized you can be the better prepared you’ll be to reach your goals.
Organization Tip 1: Choose a place to keep your documents.
If you are planning to work with an assistant, it will be helpful if you keep your documents somewhere with shareable access. Dropbox and Google Drive can be great options for this, as you can create shared folders to keep everything organized for you and your assistant. This ensures you don’t need to search your email inbox every time you’re looking for something such as bookmark designs or promotional graphics to use on social media.
Organization Tip 2: Create folders with helpful labels.
The worst thing you could do is to dump every item you receive from your assistant or publishing house (or any freelancers you work with if you’re publishing on your own) into one large folder. Make things easy for yourself as the process goes on.
I recommend you have the following nesting folders for each of your books to keep everything in one place. You can get more specific or more general as the need arises, but these folders will likely cover all your bases:
- Website Materials
- Author Photos
- Email Leads
- Book Title
- Book Documents
- Marketing Materials
- Printed Materials
- Social Media
- Discounts
- Digital Ads
- BookBub
- Cover and 3D mockups
- Release Schedule and Plan
- Event Photos
- Contracts and Agreements
- Sales History
Organization Tip 3: File new materials immediately after you receive them.
As you receive items from your team, or as you create items yourself using an online service such as Canva or Adobe Express, it will help you to add them to the proper folder immediately.
This way, when it comes time to schedule marketing posts on your social media accounts, you’ll know right where to go to find the graphics that have already been created to give you a starting point. And when you need to reorder bookmarks for your event, they’ll be right where you left them so you won’t need to redesign them every time.
This also ensures that you don’t waste time in the future recreating items you already have, such as graphics featuring a $0.99 limited time offer eBook sale. The things you post online can be reused in the future, especially if you find yourself in a time crunch leading up to a new release or an upcoming family vacation.
Organization Tip 4: Don’t be afraid to create documents of organized lists.
One of the most important things you can do is keep lists or spreadsheets of various things throughout your book launch. This will help you keep track of and follow up with your fans, track the marketing items you’ve tried and see what worked and what didn’t, and easily reference any store links or affiliate links that may benefit you.
Some lists you may want to create:
- Discounted eBook newsletters and their costs for your genre
- Collective author giveaways to grow your email list or online following
- Members of your street team and their contact information
- Influencers you’ve worked with in the past and their contact information
- Direct links to your book at major online retailers
- Variations of your book blurb for use in marketing
- Local stores, and their contact information, who may be interested in selling signed copies
- Bookstore, libraries, and other venues you’ve had events with or who may be interested in hosting you
- Don’t be afraid to get creative with this! Coffee shops and pubs can be great places to hold book signings if the managers are supportive.
The more you think about these items before you have a book to sell, the better prepared you’ll be when the time comes to get your book out to the world.
At Torchflame Books, we care about your success and we will routinely work with you after we contract your book in order to help you meet your goals and sell more books. Please see our submission guidelines to see if we might be a good fit for you and your book.
