Successful E-mail Management for Writers & Publishers
by Fern Reiss, CEO, PublishingGame.com/Expertizing.com
Lately, a lot of people have been asking me about my e-mail management techniques. With two businesses, several PR clients, dozens of journalists, over 1000 e-mails a day, and no end in sight, how do I get it all done? I'll talk about time management another time, but here's how I manage my e-mail:
- Every morning, I immediately delete all the obvious junk — everything from the Nigerian inquiries to the Viagra ads.
- I whip through my lists (all of which come as digests) to see if there's anything I need to respond to. If not, I delete.
- I then get back to all the journalists looking for quotes, whether from me or from my PR clients. Journalists are always under deadline pressure, so this is the one part of your e-mail onslaught that you shouldn't wait with.
- I file everything else into an e-mail folder. Here are my categories:
* Journalists (I break this folder down further into hot (that's for when Oprah calls), warm (those are the journalists with whom I'm on friendly terms), and cold (those with whom I don't yet have a relationship.) For many authors, just a journalist folder will probably be sufficient.
* Action (Action means I need to do something about it today, or at least this week.)
* Someday (Someday is if I need to do something about it one of these days, but realistically it's not going to happen this week.)
* Waiting for (This folder holds all the e-mail (which I CC to myself) when I've delegated a responsibility to someone else, such as my assistant; or when I've written to someone for more information and am waiting to hear from them (such as a bookstore on whether or not they're going to do a booksigning for a client.)
* Client folders (I have one folder for each of my major clients. All e-mail that pertains to them — unless it's an action I need to take, something I'm waiting for, or relevant to a journalist, is stored in their folder for easy reference.)
* Book folders (I keep one folder labeled for each of my books, so that I can easily slide relevant e-mail in; when I'm ready to update the book, I just go through the folder.)
* Organizations (Likewise, I keep one folder for each organization in which I'm active, or on whose board I sit, so that I can easily track those details.)
* Speaking (I keep one folder for everything related to upcoming speaking gigs — directions, details, to-brings, my Amtrak Acela reservations, etc.)
Every once in a while I need to create a temporary folder for something else — a new project, a party big enough to need to track invitations and RSVPs, a conference I'm planning — but for the most part, this system of folders keeps everything pretty organized.
I'm careful to always keep my inboxes close to empty, and I schedule time each day to go through my Action and Waiting For folders to make sure I'm keeping up with all my responsibilities. (If I notice the same undone item cropping up again and again in my Action folder, sometimes I move it into my Someday folder — which is a great guilt alleviator.)
Sounds simple, but I'm now accomplishing more than double what I was getting done before. I hope it works for some of you, too.
Fern Reiss is the author of The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days (book marketing), The Publishing Game: Find an Agent in 30 Days (finding a literary agent), The Publishing Game: Publish a Book in 30 Days (self-publishing). For more information on Publishing Game books, workshops, and consulting, and on getting your book and business featured in the national media, sign up for the complimentary PublishingGame/Expertizing e-mail newsletter at www.PublishingGame.com/signup.htm.
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