J. R. Rainville the Author & J. R. Rainville the Project Manager
Self-Publishing authors wear many different hats. We don’t only write the book, but also produce and market it. Some authors do their own formatting and cover work, others will outsource steps, but in the end, getting the book out there is the author’s job. As an author, I love the process of writing, drafting, revising, and editing a story. I gravitated to writing because I love telling stories. When I made the decision to self-publish, I did so because I had control over the process. But what I came to realize, even more importantly, is that in self-publishing, I am a project manager! My day job is very focused on process improvement, and when I started getting more involved in that aspect through my Lean Black Belt Training, I decided to go all in and take classes in project management! When we think of project management we often think of graphs and charts and budgets and schedules. That is all involved in the discipline of project management. However, it’s also about getting a quality deliverable completed within the timeframe and budget set for the project. When we self-publish, we want to put out a quality book within a good timeframe and within a budget we set. So I am an author, but I’m also a project manager, and my hope is that you can also learn to apply project management practices to an improved self-publishing experience.
Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing
If you decide to self-publish, it’s important to be aware of both the pros and cons of doing so. And if you want to avoid the cons, it’s helpful to have a strategy in place. For me, and possibly for you, that would be applying project management principles.
Project management is a practice, and there is not one specific way that all projects must be managed; rather, it’s a body of knowledge, of best practices that can be applied for project success. It’s descriptive, meaning it can be flexible, rather than prescriptive, which is very rigid and set. Some projects will require complex elements of project management, such as phase gates and matrices, and will have large global teams working on them. Some will have a small team with less complexity in the scheduling and resources. But all projects should involve some key elements. The following are basic project management pieces, and what worked well for me when I went into publishing my second book.
Charter, Scope, and Work Breakdown Structure: The Foundation of your Project
The biggest mistake I made going into publishing Sneakthief was that I didn’t know everything I needed to do up front and just jumped in. There was a lot of learning as I went, which led to delays and costs. The project management practice of creating a charter is an important step for starting a project. A charter outlines the “skeleton” of the project: what it is, what’s involved, and who’s involved. It’s an important document because it lays out what to expect. It also lays out the scope.
Scope is the end result we want in our projects, or, the bookend. Scope tells us how much we’re going to do, and when/where to stop. When self-publishing, it’s important to consider the scope of your project. Will you stop when you finally hit “publish”? Or do you want to include your marketing strategy as part of your publishing scope? Defining scope can also help prevent more and more tasks piling on, until it feels that the project will never get done. A defined scope can keep the project from feeling, as well as getting, overwhelming.
The work breakdown structure (WBS) tells us what needs to be done; it’s a way to break down the tasks and subtasks in the project from the start, so you don’t get caught off guard as the project proceeds. When I started with Sneakthief, I had my MS, and knew it needed to be edited and have a cover; but I didn’t know about ISBN and barcode acquisition, e-book and print layout, cover file sizing… So a lot was coming at me that I was scrambling to work with and figure into my plans. Luckily I’d started my PM coursework around then, and realized how well a WBS would work on my next book! Having a WBS is helpful for gathering resources and developing a budget and schedule. When you know what needs to be done up front, it’s a lot easier to plan for actually doing it!
Another thing to consider when self-publishing is, how long do you want this to take? If you’re like me and a chronic procrastinator with ADHD, you may not have a particular schedule or timeframe that you’re looking toward. However, if you plan to self-publish more books more often, being able to schedule your projects and the phases helps you manage the steps. With the WBS, you can see how tasks depend on one another, which helps with the scheduling. For example, my book cover needed to have the character renders, blurb, ISBN, and barcode completed before it could be done, because those were all components of the cover itself. And the full cover for print versions could not be completed until print version layout was complete, so we’d know how many pages it was for the width of the spine. Understanding the dependencies helped me schedule tasks and my resources, so I knew what was going on when, and with whom.
The WBS also helps with setting a budget. One of the issues I ran into with Sneakthief was not having a budget, or knowing what I needed to spend money on and when. Breaking down my work into related packages helped me understand what my resources were, and what I needed, and then what I was going to need to budget. If you’re just starting out self-publishing, you will want to do a lot of research to consider what is worth spending money on, and how much it will cost, vs. how much you’re willing to pay. Quality management plays a big role in this, so you may want to take a look at my paper on the importance of quality management in self-publishing.
Once you finish your manuscript, it’s tempting to want ot get it out there right away! But taking the time up front to determine your scope, work packages and dependencies, schedule, and budget can help save time and money in the long run by eliminating rework and being aware of risks and resources, as well as ensuring a quality product.
THe “pants” method
When I first decided to self-publish, I knew there were tools out there to help; I also had the benefit of working with amazing people in SKOLION who helped me with my questions. But in all, my method can best be described as the “pants method” of self-publishing, because I was flying by the seat of my pants every step of the way. Writing the book was the easy part; knowing the steps to take, when to take them, and what it would cost were more difficult, and I often found myself scrambling to accomplish steps, and even learning I had steps to accomplish I wasn’t aware of yet, and probably spent way more than I needed to because I hadn’t prepared for some things (like ISBN, Barcode, etc.). Luckily, I was doing my Lean Black Belt focusing on process improvement, and I’d started grad classes in project management around the time I published Sneakthief, and I started realizing how much PM practices made sense. Publishing Sneakthief was a great experience, and I learned a lot from it. When it came time to publish the sequel, Turncoat, I decided to “take off my pants” and use a more structured methodology to publish.
The ProJect Management Method
I learned many lessons from Sneakthief. One of the most important was that I needed to have my metaphorical ducks in a row if I wanted Turncoat to go more smoothly. Completing project documentation early on was a necessity, so I and my SKOLION teammates could plan ahead for tasks and responsibilities. One of my first jobs was to create the work breakdown structure (WBS). That allowed me to group the tasks involved in publishing the book into related categories, which further allowed me to track the progress on those categories, and know what resources I needed.
Because I’m a writer, of course I need a metaphor: With Sneakthief, I threw all the balls in the air and tried to catch them all as they came down–which of course resulted in dropped balls. With Turncoat, once the balls were in the air, I was able to catch some as they landed, and juggle others. I couldn’t have done that if I didn’t know what needed to be done, and how things were related and interdependent on one another.
Creating a budget was also helpful because it meant fewer surprises on the financial front. As a self-publishing author, it was important to know where my money was going, while avoiding unpleasant surprise costs. One task cost more than I anticipated, but it was within the acceptable variances I had built into my budget so I wasn’t worried. Having a schedule was also helpful. I didn’t set a specific release date, more like a general idea of when I wanted the book out. Buthaving a schedule meant I could stay on target to get the book out, and not fall victim to my own procrastination (which can be a pitfall as a self-publishing author!) Having the schedule also meant I could plan for when I was going to spend on costs.
Basing the budget and schedule on the WBS meant that I knew what time and money was going where, and when, and felt more confident with the state of my manuscript and the progress toward publication.
With that, the big question is…
Project management conjures ideas of complicated computer programs, intense schedules, and more charts than you can shake a stick at. In reality, it is a descriptive process, meaning you can use the tools in the way that best suits your project. Project management is a body of knowledge you can draw from to help organize any project to improve the process. The beautiful thing about project management is that you can use only the amount of project management practices and skills that your project needs–you don’t have to everything, only what makes sense for you and your project.
I went into self-publishing Sneakthief without knowing what I was doing. I was fortunate to have a great team of mentors to help me through, and I learned a great deal about the process, and about myself as a self-publishing author. The greatest lesson was that I needed a method to the madness, and I found it in project management practices.
With Turncoat, I was able to break the process into related tasks and map out the dependencies, which allowed me to schedule and plan a budget. I used PM-specific tools because of my schooling, but you can be as formal or informal as you want. The idea is to make the method work for you and your book. These methods carry the benefits of reduced rework, streamlined processes, and fewer unpleasant surprises along the way, so when you finally go to hit that publish button, you can do so with confidence.
- Create your Charter and/or Scope Statement
- Create your Work Breakdown Structure: include specific subtasks. Instead of just “cover”, you can have Cover – Cover Art – ISBN – Blurb – Barcode etc. This keeps you aware of the many elements involved in one part of the process.
- Compile your resources: what will you need to make this happen? This may include human resources, such as editors, designers, and artists; but also material resources like computer programs, paper, printer… list anything you need, and start tentatively assigning the tasks. From there…
- Create your budget: This takes work, but it’s worth the time! Consider what you need to spend money on in the various work packages, and then research costs. Also consider that there are some packages, such as professional editing and cover design, that may be worth more of the budget if you want to have a quality product.
- Create your schedule: when do you want to hit that publish button? And is it realistic, given the work that needs to be completed? One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned by applying this method to my work is that tasks take longer than expected.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate! Connect with those doing work on your book. Communicate your vision and your schedule. Ask for regular status updates and check those alongside your schedule so you can adjust as you go.
Free Excel and Word-Compatible PM Templates
Excel-Compatible WBS Template (this is the one I used!)
Budget Estimation Tool (also Excel-Compatible)
Free, Word-Compatible PM Planning and Tracking Document Templates
J.R. Rainville 