This month it’s time to work on my business plan for the coming year. In the process I discovered something interesting, a barrier to entry into the writing business that I hadn’t considered: the need for a good work flow.
Work flow development isn’t one of the more commonly discussed barriers to entry. But an efficient workflow is something you need as a writer or publisher. Without a solid work flow and some real commitment to the process. You could end up the way a lot of would-be writers do, piddling around on the same project and never really getting anywhere. (I’ve nearly succumbed to that fate and I’ve been working on my work flow since I was 12…)
If you’re going to write and publish or sell your work, you need to do some thinking about you workflow before you start. And you can’t assume that the workflow will be the same from project to project.
For a given kind of project the workflow will probably be similar. But often there are differences between similar projects. If you’re current novel is meant for the YA market and your next one is for an adult market, you may ask different people to read your work. You may work with a different publisher, or editor, or marketing people. All those people have their own ways of doing things and that can affect your work flow.
Problems and changes happen over the course of a long project. Understanding your work flow and how you succeed is a big part of success.
Even bigger differences in work flow occur between different kinds of projects. A video or nonfiction book probably has a different team than your novel does. Your 750 word blog post probably has a different (and much smaller) team than your 50,000 word anything.
For the novel, nonfiction book, or movie, you just about have to have a team (success on your own is unlikely) for a blog post, you can probably do that one on your own in an hour or two. And that’s a different work flow.
And then we get to the big campaign. You know, the one where you’re doing blog posts, videos, press releasees, articles, and excerpts to support the book you’re publishing. Each of those things has its own work flow and you have to coordinate them all into one big, efficient machine if you want your book to hit big!
The good news is things can happen concurrently. If you have the time and the team, you might shoot the videos and take the pictures for that how-to book while you’re writing the text. Your editing team and the cover art team may be able to work at the same time. But if you want your teams working concurrently, you’d best put some thought into the whole flow and process before people start work. Otherwise you may have to stop work in one area because you’re missing elements in another.
The solution is education and planning. Learn what goes into the stuff you want to write, then figure out how those things fit together with the way you work and the resources you have.
Things will still happen. Challenges will arise. But when you think about these things up front, you can reduce the number of problems (and hopefully kill any ‘show stoppers’ before they show up in the first place).
That’s it for this one dear reader. Think and learn about what goes into what you write. Figure out your best plan/estimate of how the work flow will go. And then test it out and keep track of the similarities and differences between your plan and reality.
Over time, with continued learning and planning, you will develop a work flow that works for you and your team.
Good luck with your work flow. If you’ve got any helpful tips and tricks for work flow, I’d love to hear about them!
See you next post.
Forever Mountain Publishing 