Tracking Your Time

There are a lot of reasons to keep track of your time. As I get older, I realize how much I got done in the weeks prior. But as a publisher, it helps me analyze where my company is spending time - and whether or not we are spending our time where it matters.

From 2004-2009, I used massive spreadsheets to help keep myself organized and to help my company track billing. At billing time, I wanted to drive my car into a wall most months. By then, I had three employees and each one of them would unknowingly write a different description of what they were working on. One would enter in Business Cards, the next one Biz Cards and another 2 Sided Bus Cards -- but that doesn't sort very easily to tell me they all spent time doing something with a business card for a client. I tried protocols, but there was inevitably a misspelling here or there and I missed a lot that way too. Billing took me 40-60 hours a month!

Then in January of 2009, I instituted three new things: A task list called Checklist by Task Solutions and its counterpart Task Anyone, which sends notices to individuals to whom I assign tasks. We have sort of outgrown it at this point, and I'm searching for another more flexible solution to it -- but it worked well for me when I had only 100 or so tasks to track. I'll continue to use it until I find something equally user friendly and cost effective for our task lists that are more than 2000 tasks long.

The third item I purchased and put in place was Standard Time. It is a time-clock oriented piece of software that has things compartmentalized by the person assigned to the task, the client and the project on which we are working. Each project is broken down into subcategories and then down to tasks within those categories. For example, a string might look like this:

KELLY W. (Client in purple here)
   Book 1 (Projects in royal blue here)
       Publishing Compliance (Subcategories are in red)
             Purchase ISBN (Tasks are in black)
             Apply for LCCN
             Join IBPA
             Category Research
             Pricing Research
      Design
             Front Cover
             Back Cover/spine
             Interior
     Product Feature development
             Illustrations
             Photography
             Index
             Diagram album
     Marketing/PR
             Press Release
             Sell Sheet
             POP Display
             Book Launch Party
             Facebook Updates
      Distribution and Sales
             Baker & Taylor set up and maint.
             Amazon updates
             Amazon sales
  EBook
      Programming
      Design
      Upload
      Marketing
              Facebook Updates
              Coupons

Each time a person works on something, they are able to specify exactly which thing they are working on simply by clicking a clock-like icon and then selecting the task as the project tree expands from that simple click. Expenses are noted in the same way. For example, let's say someone spends $45 on their company Amex card printing sell sheets. They just expand the tree until they see the sell sheet category under Marketing and PR, and then enter the amount and the payee. When reconciling the Amex bill at the end of the month, I know exactly what the charge was for. And for billing I run reports to tell me by client, project and employee what we worked on how many minutes it took. (You can set parameters to always round up to five minutes, or fifteen minutes, etc.) There is also a feature that lets you link to Quickbooks or bill directly from the program. 

This type of program is quick, inexpensive, and very effective. I researched several and found this one more than served my needs. (The only thing I wish I knew how to do is write my own reports for it; currently I use the pre-existing ones that come with the program with the various filters that allow me to customize them for me.)

Check this out:  Standard Time, and talk to Warren Peacock.

When Publishing, If You Fail To Plan, You Might As Well Plan To Fail

A Few Suggestions for Self Publishing from Tom Becka, Radio Host and President of Orpheum Brothers Press

1. Get your marketing strategy put together. The book means nothing if people don't know about it and know how to buy it.
2. Understand it's a lot more work than you think. Writing the book is only the first part. You've got to edit, re-edit, approve the art work, edit some more, plan your marketing strategy, get into the book stores, proof read, and approve the final edit.
3. Have realistic expectations. Only Harry Potter and the Bible sell millions of copies. Most books are lucky if they sell a couple hundred.
4. Know your market. Who will want to buy your book and how do you reach them?
5. Repeat the previous 4 items until exhausted.

Our response: Yeah, what Tom said! Plus, schedule time for editing, layout, indexing, printing, and all the other production details. But don’t fail to set realistic landmark dates that will allow you time to market before your book is set to publish. Lots of people talk about the writing and publishing of a book, and then they wait to start marketing. Don't do that! Start marketing the minute you settle on a book concept. Talk about it, Twitter about it, blog about it during the writing process to help you build your following. You don't invite someone to dinner after you set a place for them (most of you anyway).

Prepare formal, written marketing and publicity plans ahead of time. For goodness sake, don’t wait until you have books in hand. Are you hoping for critical reviews like Publishers Weekly or Library Journal? Don’t try to send it to them once it’s published. They want your book four months ahead of your publication date. Don’t wait to send your book to Parents Magazine after it’s published either; most magazines want to have books six months in advance. It is possible to get reviews and other publicity, but don’t forget to plan that into the release date of your book.

Plan ahead, plan well, plan realistically. Your investment in planning on the front end will pay off for you many times over.

Lisa Pelto, President
Concierge Marketing
and Publishing Services