Tuesday, 5 January 2016

Book review - The Author Organizer, by Ella Medler

Brief, concise and very much to the point, this useful little book shows the emerging (or even the established) writer how to set up a filing system that will support a rational and organised approach to book production and marketing.

Although the title suggested to me more of a methodology, the book deals almost exclusively with infrastructure - with setting up and maintaining a file system that will both protect against data loss and facilitate efficient use of an author's resources.

As a veteran of the I.T. industry, this is both a subject close to my heart and one with which I have often worked. A good physical organisation of data supports a far more effective work effort. I have never known this not to be the case.

Although presented to the beginning writer, Medler does not 'talk down' to her readers, and this file system could be used by an author at any stage of his career. It offers a way out of chaos for those whose body of work has grown organically over a number of years, and although due to my own technical background I consider myself fairly well organised in terms of my data structures, I plan to adopt several of the features of Medler's system myself. Just the 'personal' folder on its own will, I believe, save me many hours of tedium.

This series of books is free, I believe, to members of Ella Medler's website, and I certainly plan to be investigating other books in the series to find more hidden gems. I recommend this book whole-heartedly to anyone who has ever spent frustrating minutes (or hours) looking for something in his computer. 

The Author Organizer and the other books in this series can be downloaded free by registered members of Paper Gold Publishing.

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