ONE DRAFT MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT IS EASY!
When writing your book, especially if you are writing in a management system like Scrivener, it's easy enough to keep track of your manuscript.
However, once you compile the manuscript and pass it onto a beta reader, or an advance copy reader, or even an editor, suddenly, there are now 'multiple copies' of the same manuscript.
PRE-MARKETING DOCUMENTS AND GRAPHICS:
Then once your manuscript leaves, you should shift over into marketing mode. You will start creating graphics to use in marketing your book, or you will be working on the ebook cover or even the paperback cover.
You'll have original royalty free pictures, and then you'll have various copies of those oncoe you remove a background or two -- you get the picture.
Pretty soon, you have 25 files, some graphics, some blurb files, etc.
Below is a list of the documents you may accumulate just starting after you pass your manuscript on:
- royalty free graphics (for cover)
- templates from kdp (for cover)
- descriptions (written by you)
- blurbs for different websites (written by you)
- graphics or documents by Fiverr
- newsletter graphics
- ebook sale graphics
- ebook release notices
- ebook promotions at bookfunnel
This is just a sampling of how many documents you will begin to accumulate.
The only document that is precious and that needs to be tracked like a hawk is your "present final manuscript".
WHAT IS A PRESENT FINAL MANUSCRIPT?
A present final manuscript is just that. It's the last true final manuscript as of today. You will make changes after you hear back from advance readers and you may make other changes after you hear back from your editor.
My biggest tip is to use a date on final manuscripts. So if you are fearful of throwing out previous final manuscripts -- as most writers are -- you can be sure that a new final with a later date is a more recent final.
GIVE THE FINAL MANUSCRIPT ITS OWN FOLDER
I also put the actual final manuscript that I upload to KDP in it's own folder called FINAL MANUSCRIPT UPLOADED TO KDP. Then I also date the final manuscript inside that folder.
This is an added safeguard so you don't wind up making new changes to an already older manuscript. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience unfortunately.
USE A CONSISTENT FILE NAMING CONVENTION:
I'll share below my naming conventions with a few explanations below:
Most of the above files are self-explanatory with the exception of two or three. The reference to Bookfunnel and SiteOrigin are two websites that I use as a self-published author to market my books. I give away free copies of my new book the six to 8 weeks before publication. I often have a giveaway in them for taking the time to fill out a questionnaire about how they enjoyed it. So that's a different "final manuscript".
The other file that may need some explanation is "TOBEDeleted". I am paranoid about deleting anything before publication. So the old final manuscripts or anything else that I know I don't want or need, I put into the TOBEDeleted file. Once my book is safely published, I then delete everything at that time.