I find my old skills of project management and project sponsorship come in handy occasionally. I don’t have much call on them during the actual writing stage. Find it helpful to have a daily word count target, but that’s all. It’s the period between completion of the manuscript and publication day, that draws on the old skills.
When I was working on Garden Festival Wales (was that really thirty years ago?), I used to make daily lists of my tasks. I prioritised them in terms of what I had to do to get other members of my team working productively. Only then would I work on a report, perhaps, that senior management wanted. Although I’m an Indie writer, I still have a team. I have my editor, Debz, my cover designer, Jaqueline, my publicist, Brian, and my audiobook producer, Simon. The main remaining item to be completed before the publication of Called to Account, is the paperback cover. That’s because the back cover needs the back cover blurb. I decided on 8th November for publication day because the Kirkus review was due back on 3rd October and reviews from Love reading and The Historical Fiction Company around the same time. That would give me time to choose some quotes for the back cover blurb, and for Jaqueline to complete it and get it back to me for publication.
I’ve already had reviews from Kirkus and Love Reading. The Kirkus review is good that I might just make that the back blurb in its entirety. I may as well wait a couple of days for the other one though. While I wait, I’m reviewing the audio files for Fire and Earth. Simon is on holiday until a week today. I want to make sure he has everything he needs to complete it and move onto The Suggested Assassin when he gets back. Between audio files I’m doing a few other things like writing this blog, and preparing a piece for the Crime Writers Association.
Although I’m not using Gantt charts, I am applying rudimentary critical path analysis from my project management days.