A Look Behind The Scenes

 By Debra Sennefelder

Writing a book is just one part of an author's job. There's a whole bunch of work that needs to get done in order to promote, market and in some cases, publish the book. I thought today I would share a little behind the scenes and share with you one of my trusty resources that keeps me organized. 

This week I'll be doing an Author Takeover in a Facebook Mystery Group and I had to pull together the posts, images and giveaways. To keep everything organized, I use a work management tool called Asana. 

The top image is from my Asana dashboard. I create boards for various projects and you'll see three examples - Facebook parties, Book Blurbs/Links/Quotes (these are all for my books and makes it easy to copy and paste) and Facebook grougs (create for keeping track during promotions).

The way I prefer to use Asana is to create boards for all my projects. Below is a screenshot of the options you have when you create a new project. I could have chosen to use a List, Timeline or Calendar. I prefer using the board feature because visually it's more appealing to me.

 

When my project board is created, I'll automatically have three columns - To Do, In Progress and Done. It's easy to drag tasks (or cards ) from one column to another. Below is an example of a task/card for my upcoming Takeover event. Every party gets its own column. The top few cards I will keep the pertinent information - date, time, contact person, link to the event. Usually during a party I will publish 10-12 posts and each one gets its own card. I label them simply with the name of the post and the time it will be published. I'll also include the corresponding graphic.

 

 

Below is a detailed screenshot of what I include in the card. For this party, I didn't assign the task or schedule a due date. I will do that when the event is booked months in advance just so I stay on track and don't miss anything. Having the post written out along with the graphic allows me to copy and paste right to the Facebook group.

 

Using Asana has saved me so much time whether it's arranging a Facebook party, keeping track of materials for a blog tour or compiling resources for publishing. 

Now, I'd love to hear what you use to stay organized.

BTW, my Takeover event is March 3rd in Meg's Cozy Corner on Facebook. 

 

 

 

Debra Sennefelder is the author of the Food Blogger Mystery series and the Resale Boutique Mystery series. She lives and writes in Connecticut. When she’s not writing, she enjoys baking, exercising and taking long walks with her Shih-Tzu, Connie. You can keep in touch with Debra through her website, on Facebook and Instagram.