Before You Write Your Book, Organize
its Parts - Part 1
Judy Cullins
©2004 All Rights Reserved.
If you are a serious writer who wants to publish
and sell books and informational products, you need to be able to
find all of its parts in a minute or less. Filing only the important
parts of your book will yield fast-writing your book. With the tips
below, you will find any book-related paper within two minutes!
After you decide on your topic, working title, audience,
thesis, and "tell and sell" and before you write a single
page of a chapter, it's best to organize your book, its chapters,
even your promotion how-to's.
Five Hard Copy Filing Tips
1.Stop Piling and Start Filing! Maybe
you're a stacker (horizontal multiple piles), a stuffer (look organized,
but can't find things, a spreader (spread one pile to another place,
then another), a slinger (undecided, you sling into a place behind
closed doors).
For those of you who want a hard copy of your book's
parts, you'll want to leave the bad habits above.
2. Make all important files vertical and
A-Z. To retrieve your book's chapters, place the name "all
chapters" (table of contents) on the flap of your manila folder;
then place each chapter title and number on one manila folder. Here
you will also add other parts of your book such as the introduction,
the hot-selling points such as the "tell and sell," and
your "audience profile." Keep these files alphabetical and
vertical and you can find them fast. You may choose a file such as
a box, filing cabinet or three-ring binder.
3. File each scrap of paper of useful information
on an 81/2 by 11 piece of paper. Give it a category (title) at the
top and file it alphabetically. Whenever you see something, a book
title, a quote, an article that relates to your book, pop it into
the proper file. One may read "useful quotes for chapter one"
or "sample working book titles," or "signature stories
and analogies." When you take different notes on one page, or
allow your scraps of brilliance to get into the horizontal piles,
one of your great ideas will get lost.
4. Write on one side of the paper only
when you want to save useful notes. Again put only one subject at
the top of each page and the correct word on the manila folder to
retrieve quickly. It's far easier to read handwriting on one side
only. Staple and number pages of related parts for easier retrieval.
5. Keep every piece of important paper vertical
and file it in its proper place. The Pareto Time Management
Principle says that only 10% of our papers are important. That means
those related to your book--it's chapters, front matter, back matter
and the all-important promotion-marketing folder. When you give each
paper a special place in your book file you will find it fast and
also write your book fast!
Four Computer File Tips
For those who also want to keep files on your computer,
you need to think Word folders and files within the folders. If you
aren't savvy, hire a high school or technical school tutor or computer
assistant.
1. Put your major topic in a folder.
One client gave her main folder the name of her book. Within that
folder she kept three other main files--the three 3 sections (can
be chapters) of her 70-page book. Now that she has these organized,
she can add new material, as she needs in the proper folder and file.
And, she can find it within a few minutes. When important information
comes your way, immediately file it and add the date to the end of
the file to help you retrieve it fast.
2. Put your unfinished work in a file in
My Documents. We are not always sure what category or chapter
new information will go in. Located right after your folders, these
files are alphabetized, and you can skim right to these files over
the next days or weeks you want to work on it before it's ready to
re-file into your book folder. This works well for ongoing, unedited
work because you can find it fast.
3. Take care to name your files correctly.
In one book I wrote three chapters on how to write articles, subscribe
to ten opt-in ezines out of 400,000 possible ones, and how to submit
them to the ezines and top web sites for the big payoffs of getting
into the top ten search engine placements and getting my web site
listed on over 900 other web sites. All related, but they each needed
a separate file. When you think filing always think specific categories.
4. Save your files with first the name,
then the date you last worked on it. Including the date shows me and
my assistant the latest revision fast for easy retrieval.
Without organizing your files, you will waste a lot
of time looking for the correct one. One figure is over 150 hours
a year time wasted looking for misplaced paper. You will also waste
money because unfinished projects that don't get shared, don't make
you money.
Without organizing your book folders and files, you
will waste a lot of time looking for the correct one. You will waste
money because unfinished projects that don't get shared, don't make
you money.
Judy Cullins: 20-year author, speaker, book coach
Helps entrepreneurs manifest their book and web dreams
eBk: "Write your eBook or Other Book Fast!"
7000 Melody Lane, La Mesa, CA 91942
FREE "The Book Coach Says..." or Business Tip of
the Month www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml
-- mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com
Orders: 866/200-9743 -- Ph: 619/466-0622
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