Authorship Made Easy (IEB) – Page 9

When you first signed your contract, your acquisitions editor included placeholder dates—estimates for when you would turn in your table of contents, sample chapter, the first 50% of your materials, and the final 100%.

In working with your editorial team to develop your content, it is natural for these dates to shift somewhat. These shifts are based on your projected date of classroom use, production schedules, the amount of licensing work that will need to be done, and many other factors that impact the amount of time required to develop and produce your specific ebook.

The most important date for you to focus on is the final deadline for submitting 100% of your materials. This deadline is usually based on the estimated date of classroom use or the target date for publication. Every single project requires production time. From submission to publication takes several months and includes time for copyediting, licensing review, production of interactive components, layout, design, cover design, copyediting approval, proof preparation, and final proof approval. Postponing the final deadline for materials submission pushes back every other aspect of the project. It can result in delaying the availability of your ebook.

To help keep things on track, your project editor will schedule interim dates for submitting material. In addition to keeping the project on track, these interim dates prevent the problems that often occur if an author has several months before a submission is required—and waits until the last few weeks to do all the writing.

What can you submit, and how should you plan for this?

STEP ONE: Decide what kind of goal-setting feels most comfortable to you.

• Do you like being given specific dates or deadlines?

• Do you want to have all these dates or deadlines established at the beginning, or would you prefer to set a new date after you accomplish each goal?

• Do you prefer working toward “tasks” rather than toward deadlines?

• Do you like working on small pieces of projects, or do you prefer completing big chunks?

Again, there is no right way to set goals. Be clear with your editorial team about what works best for you.

STEP TWO: Set regular, realistic, reachable goals for writing and submitting materials.

Examples of submission goals include:

• Single chapters

• Groups of chapters

• Sections of the ebook comprised of multiple chapters (if your ebook will be organized into units)

• All the chapter introductions

• All the comprehension questions

• All the learning objectives and outcomes

• Samples of the interactive content types

• All the quick check activities

• All the skill-builder exercises

• Content permissions logs