On File Organization
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Apologies in advance for the dry topic. :) But I thought I'd share my thoughts on organizing writing-related computer files, which has helped save me time and keep me from making bad errors.
Making errors through poor file management might sound like a strange thing. But it's very easy to do if you're updating a document, for instance. Not only do you need to update the source document (often Word), but you need to update the epub. You'll need to update the PDF for a printed book. If you share free copies through sites like BookFunnel or ProlificWorks, you'll need to update a mobi file, too. Then maybe you realize after you've downloaded files in all the formats that you meant to update your book list. After you do that, you download the files in all the different formats yet again. Later, maybe years later, when you want to make additional corrections or updates, you might be left wondering where the updated file is or which one was the most current. You could go back to the dashboard for the retail site and download the file from there but it's easier to just have your own files neatly labeled and on your own computer.
It doesn't have to be a complicated system. . . in fact, I think it works better when it's simple.
Inside My Documents, I have a folder for each series. Inside each series folder, I have a folder for each title. Inside each title's folder, I have a sub-folder for covers, and for various formats of the finished book. I also include the book description, the outline, and the final Word doc.
I like to keep my cover files in more than one place so I have a cover folder on the OneDrive cloud app. Inside the main folder is a sub-folder for each series. Inside that is a folder for each title which contains paperback covers, translation covers, hardback covers, audio covers, etc.
The file problem is even worse if you have a lot of books out, which makes having a system even more important. As I write this, I have 45 books out. It makes me feel better knowing that I can easily put my hands on a file without getting confused. Or, perish the thought, accidentally publish an old file when making an update.
This is what works best for me, but I'm curious to know what you've done to make sense of all the files on your computer. Any tips?
Organizing Book Files and Covers:
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