What workflows do publishing teams use?
- Three core workflows: editorial, production, marketing.
- Each has its own owner, deadlines, deliverables.
- The three run in parallel through the second half of the cycle.
- Total cycle: typically 12-18 months from acquisition to publication.
- Most coordination failures happen at handoff points between workflows.
Publishing teams use three core workflows: an editorial workflow (developmental → line → copy → proofread), a production workflow (cover → interior → metadata → upload), and a marketing workflow (comps → ARC list → outreach → launch). Each workflow has its own owner, its own deadlines, and its own deliverables. The three run in parallel through the second half of the book’s life cycle.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Publishing teams that conflate the three workflows or run them sequentially miss launches. Editorial and production overlap (copy edit produces the layout-ready file); production and marketing overlap (the cover drives ARC outreach). Running them in parallel with clear handoffs is the difference between shipping twelve books a year and shipping six.
Chapter ii·What to include
- Editorial workflow: developmental → line → copy → proofread.
- Production workflow: cover → interior layout → metadata → retailer upload.
- Marketing workflow: comps → ARC list → reviewer outreach → launch week.
- Workflow owners: editorial lead, production lead, marketing lead.
- Handoff documents at each transition: copy-edit-to-layout, cover-to-marketing.
- A weekly sync covering all three workflows for every in-flight book.
Chapter iii·Example
A small press’s twelve-month book cycle: editorial runs months 1-6, production runs months 4-9, marketing runs months 6-12. The three overlap in months 4-9, which is where most coordination happens. The press’s weekly sync covers all three workflows for every book; the weekly meeting is where slippage is caught.
WriteLoom holds the editorial, production, and marketing workflows in one workspace — so handoffs happen in the same project, not across tools.
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