I'm making some incredible progress.
Yesterday in Part 1 of this series, I started by learning the ins & outs of Microsoft Access by taking a LinkedIn Learning course at 2x speed and working along with the instructor and test driving everything myself.
I built my first database: the book publication database, which had every data point of my book that exists at a book retailer, like:
- Title
- Subtitle
- Series Name and Number
- ASIN
- ISBN
You know, the regular stuff. Every book I publish (and each of your books) has approximately 20-30 relevant data points that you might find yourself using on a regular basis.
I also found a way to add a better unique identifier to each of my books:
Anyway, that's Day 1.
Day 2: Book Production Data
I spent the entire day on a second database which has equal importance: the information on what it took to produce your book.
It's not metadata, but it's important nonetheless. Examples include:
- Cover Designer, contact information, cost, font information if you have it
- Editor(s), contact information, cost
- Interior changes to your ebook, paperback, or even audiobook (ie. fixing typos)
- Copyright registration (if you did it)
- Price changes
- Whenever you create new covers, re-edit, or rebrand the series
Why do I need this? Because I historically refresh my titles every 3-4 years, and I want to make sure that information doesn't get lost. I need it memorialized FOREVER because 10-20 years from now, many of the emails I have probably won't exist, ya know?
Here's how I started.
This database has another unique identifier since the main point is to track PRODUCTION data, not metadata. So anytime I do something that alters the PACKAGING of the book, it gets its own unique entry.
Refresh ID is circled and the packaging elements are arrowed.
These tables share one important element: the Book ID. As I said yesterday, every book has a unique identifier that is also on this database. Therefore I can now LINK them, like so.
Once I got going, the first few entries looked like this. Note the “Elements Refreshed” column.
A Moment on Records
I happen to keep VERY GOOD records on my publishing business. In fact, I still have receipts and emails between me and my designers from 2013 when I was working on my first book. I also have that information stored away from my email server.
I took my first book, How to Be Bad (now known as Magic Souls), and I created 2 entries in the database:
- The first publication information, which included all of my costs, editor and design information.
- The updated cover info, ebook interior info, and book description when I refreshed the book in 2017.
As I was entering this info in (which only took about 5 minutes per, by the way), I realized that I messed something up.
For my ebook and paperback formatting, in the last few years I've moved toward a “versioning” system. If I make any change, even a typo, I update the version on the copyright page (ie. Version 1.0, Version 2.0, etc.). I also keep a log of what changed so I know if I accidentally broke something. This has been very helpful for me.
I realized I didn't have the version in Magic Souls, so I went ahead and updated it, like so:
Personally, I think that's an unobtrusive and elegant way to version your ebooks.
The great thing is, now I can store my version logs in the database, where I used to do this on a text file.
So I created a third entry (which took 2 mins, by the way), and OOOH, LOOK AT THE EASY FORM!!
Also note all the fields on the form elsewhere on the form. If there's nothing to update, then I leave the rest of the forms blank–that way, every entry only contains what actually changed.
Why This Matters
Let's say that I have a book and I want to know what changed in the ebook over time. Imagine my very first book 20 years from now…if I change things every 3-4 years, that's at least 5 changes I'll want to keep track of.
What if I made a change in version 3.0 that broke something? I'd want to know that.
So here's an example of how I can query the database that I built today.
The question I'm asking is: what updates have I made to the interior of my book How to Be Bad/Magic Souls?
And long story short, I can run a query and convert that into a report that looks like this:
BOOM-SHACKA-LACKA!!!
The report needs some sorting, but you get the idea.
This is just the start. Imagine being able to know:
- the production costs of each book you create
- updates to your book description, book cover, interiors, etc.
- and so, so much more.
When I build the royalty database this information will be doubly powerful.
Anyway, that's what I've been working on today.
If you're bored, why not join my fan club? There's lots of cool stuff for my subscribers, including my Writing Craft Playbook, which will help you improve your writing craft.
Click here to jump to Part 3.
