Adding a New record.

Editorial Manager allows you to track a book from the germ of an idea to a possible product. Conceptually, it is a place to record manuscripts received or ideas that may never make it into reality. It is a point in the system to manage next actions, and any correspondence. Items that are entered into this part of the system will stay here until you manually delete them. 

It also enables you to record the Rights purchased and start entering the royalty schedule.

Pre-Production can only link through to the system when you are ready to move a title from an 'idea' to an actual product that will be managed by the production department. Please bear in mind that even after you 'move' a title from Pre to Book Production, the record will stay in Pre-Production. Again, because this part of the system has been created to store and record information that you may need to access very far down the track. 

To create a new idea that doesn’t exist as a title in Title Manager, click on the Editorial module from the main menu and then on Editorial.

This will take you to the new screen that will have the list of titles that are already in pre-production, or there will be a blank screen if none currently exist.

Click on the Create New button at the top of the screen, marked with an red arrow in the image below:

This will bring up a new screen with data fields that require completing, and if you are using the progressive workflow module, it will ask which type of workflow you wish to use. Further information can be found here: production workflows.

With workflows activated, you will see the following screen (if you do not, then you will just see the create screen and you can ignore this part of the documentation): 

Select the workflow you wish to implement and it will create the necessary steps and approval procedures. You will then need to fill in information as per below. Some of the fields relate to the status and source of the project; the others provide detailed information about the project.

First, choose the Status (& workflow, if configured) of your proposal from the drop-down menu (marked with a red arrow in the image below): is it a draft, under development etc. The drop-down menu will be populated with the statuses you have already set up in the Production Admin > Production Status. The Status fields allows you to track a project through a series of phases and report on each of these. In addition, it can be used to create an automated approval process and to manage workflows. 

If you are working on a reprint, you can choose Copy Existing record. Then click on the looking glass symbol and the list of your existing projects will show up. Choose the one you want to work on:

 

If it is a completely new title, just fill in the blank fields.

Choose the organisation from the drop-down menu.

Full Title: This does not need to be the final title of the work; you can change it later if needed.

Sub title: Like with the title, the sub title doesn’t need to be final; it can be changed later on in the process.

Edition: Choose from the drop-down menu.

Subject: Chose the subject from the drop-down menu. What is the primary subject that this project is about? You can find more information on Subjects on the Title Manager subject page.

Language: This is the primary language of the work. Please note that the system is set up to list English automatically, but that this can be changed with the drop-down menu. 

Synopsis:  Add a brief summary of the book.

Add any Comments you might have and an Author Bio if available.

Receiver / Proposer is the person who raised this project. This will auto fill on creation.

Source: This allows you to filter and report on the different channels that each new title comes through. The options are: Idea, Acquisition, Proposal, Submission or Translation.

Choose from the drop-down menu if your proposal is a part of an existing Series.

Choose from the drop-down menu the particular Imprint that the project belongs too, if your organisation has more than one imprint publisher.

Add your planned Publication date and an internal Project number for reference.

Fill in how many pages the manuscript has in the Ms. Pages field.

Add a description about Target market and comments about any relevant Competition currently on the market.

Upload your Cover Image if you have one; this also doesn’t have to be the final at this stage.

At the bottom of this page, you have more fields to be filled in from a series of tabs as seen below:

 

Choose your Next Action from the drop-down menu, for example: Chase contract, Review manuscript etc. The Next Action section is a single field that enables a quick status update, so you can use it for less formulaic statuses. It works on the basis that it generates a drop-down list from typed-in comments. If the item you are looking for is not in that drop-down list, then you can type in a new Next Action manually by clicking on the blue notes symbol (in the red square on the image below) and typing it in within the field. You can then add an assignee to it. It is separate to the editorial deadlines functionality within the system.

Add the Due date and a member of your team as an Assignee for this action. You can click on the team blue symbol (in the red square in the image below) to choose from the drop-down menu from your existing team, or you can click on the blue notes symbol to type in the name of the new one:

Now you can fill in the information about the Format of your proposal:

Select a Format from the drop-down menu (paperback, e-book, etc). Then allocate whether it is a Co-Edition or not. Fill in the number of Pages, add Height and Weight and any Description of the format of the proposal. Fill in the info about Binding, Cover Details and Paper details.

Choose from the drop-down menu how many colours you want to use, for example is it a full colour cover and text, black 4/1 or you want an extra colour and text black 5/1, or any other combination you might have in mind?

You can add as many rows as you need by clicking on Add another row.

Then you can add the price of your proposal in different currencies as seen below:

Now you can add comments about your Key Selling Points: is it the lowest cost, the highest quality or the first-ever product of its kind etc:

 

Other Assets: Here you can upload additional documents like author questionnaires or any other documentation associated with the title. To remove a document from Other Assets, just tick a box in front of a document you want to remove and then click on the Remove selected button.

Once you have done this, click on Create (or Update if you are editing) at the bottom of the screen and the record will be saved. Please note that depending on whether you have workflows set up for your system or not will determine the subsequent tabs that then come up for the title once you've clicked Create.

You do not need to fill all the fields on initial save.

If you have a decision on whether the project can progress from concept to the next stage, choose from the drop-down menu Approved or Rejected. This should be left blank initially.

Archived: Select this check box if you wish to archive a particular project. This will not delete a project, but will archive it and remove it from the live screen so that you can review it again in the future if you wish.

Once you're done here, you are ready to move onto the next step: adding the contacts associated with a project.