It’s January 23rd. And I’m on the verge of publishing two books, which was my goal for January.
My first novel is back from the copy editor and locked, all that’s left is the back cover.
My first nonfiction book is locked, cover/back are done, and it’s ready for me to export the eBook and send the print version off to the printer.
Barring unforeseen circumstances I’ll publish both before the end of the month.
In my efforts to publish books at a high volume, I’m working on creating systems that are easy to replicate in the future — especially when I take some time between them so they aren’t fresh in my mind.
And I’m doing something I wished I’d done on so many endeavors in the past: meticulously documenting my processes.
I’m keeping step-by-step lists of everything that goes into turning manuscripts into published works.
The whole publishing process requires using several apps and websites I don’t use day in and day out. I’m keeping track of everything from the correct bleed dimensions of the covers to the correct import settings on the publisher sites to ISBN numbers. That way, next time I’m publishing another book, I can follow my documentation rather than try to remember how to get various jobs completed.
It takes me about five minutes extra each day to document these processes. I’m estimating the documentation will save me an average of at least an hour per future book — not just from having to re-learn and re-experiment every time, but from procrastinating because I’m uneasy about re-learning and re-experimenting.
See you next week, where I’ll cover these first two book releases.
To see my daily progress, check out the January work Log. To get updates when new posts go live on this blog, subscribe using the form below.