When to outsource
By Amanda J. Clay
When you first start out on your publishing journey, you’re going to do all the things. And I mean ALL. THE. THINGS.
Like any entrepreneur or small business owner, the start-up phase is hectic. You are creator, CEO, CFO and office manager. All day, every day.
But as your writing business grows, you might find you’re lucky enough to be in a position to start outsourcing some of the work. And now you have the difficult task of deciding what to delegate to other people or services. This is something you will likely tackle in stages. 
Likely at first, you won’t have the budget to delegate much to anyone. In addition to trying to write the book, you’re also trying to build organic social media, curate a newsletter, and manage your day job and family.
Even so, as I’ve spoken about before, there are a few things I feel should always be outsourced at every stage. Even when you’re just starting out and haven’t sold a thing, you shouldn’t skimp on a quality editor and a good cover (if you’re going Indie). Even if you are pursuing a traditional route, I still recommend working with a good developmental editor in the beginning.
This one might surprise you. In the next stage of your journey, once you’ve made a bit of profit (or whenever you feel comfortable) I recommend outsourcing things in your day-to-day life that take your time away from your writing. This could be things like grocery shopping, cleaning the house and running unnecessary errands. Now, this is assuming you have the luxury to perhaps hire a housekeeper once a month or have groceries delivered every now and again. I fully understand that for some people on a tight budget it just isn’t going to work for them.
But in the early stages of your writing career, time is likely just as valuable as money. More than likely you have a day job, maybe a family to take care of. Some days you can barely find the time to brush your teeth, let alone pen beautiful prose. So if you can carve out an extra few hours by having someone help with the chores? That frees up time and mental headspace for your creative work.
So now that you’re actually making a decent profit, you’re buying yourself an extra steak dinner and a pair of shoes now and again, should you start outsourcing more areas of your actual business? The answer is yes, but what to outsource I think really varies from writer to writer.
The ‘what’ here should be based on what falls within your areas of expertise, the things that give you joy and the things that make getting a cavity drilled sound enticing.
One of the first things many authors want to outsource is social media. Some people live for it, but others would rather have a spinal tap than upload selfies. I do firmly believe that having some sort of social media presence is important, but this might be an area where you pay someone to create and post content on your behalf. There are plenty of virtual assistants who manage social media accounts as well as newsletters.
Personally these are two areas that I don’t mind doing so much and I also feel can’t be outsourced properly. For me, I use a very particular voice in writing my newsletter and crafting my social media and I don’t feel like somebody else could fully capture that. But if you feel differently, that’s entirely OK!
Other areas you might outsource:
- Bookkeeping (probably a good idea at some point for everyone)
- Fan outreach (e.g., coordinating giveaways, vetting emails, mailing books/swag)
- Public relations and marketing*
*This is a tricky one, IMO. There are some incredible marketing and PR firms that can handle large grassroots campaigns, but I think paid ads are something you should do yourself until you make it big. Trust me, this is one area of this business I would outsource in a heartbeat. I absolutely loathe trying to do ads (spinal tap anyone?).
Sadly, it’s the one area I can’t really effectively pay someone else to manage. Monitoring and creating ads is time consuming, specific to your book and genre, and very fickle. It requires a lot of monitoring and tweaking and overall manpower. Most people who offer these services are going to charge far more than the effort is going to be worth for most authors. Now eventually, if you’re making money hand over fist, it might make sense. But it’s gonna take a while, trust me. Until then I recommend taking a good ads course and learning.
There’s another category of outsourcing I like to affectionately call hybrid outsourcing. This is utilizing the many tools and resources that can help you do your job more effectively, most of them incredibly inexpensive. What modern appliances have done for house work, there are now a plethora of editing, formatting and marketing tools that can streamline your publishing process and literally shave hours off of every day (and some can save you money!).
Here’s a list of my absolute favorites.
- For organizing your manuscript: Scrivener
- For editing: ProWriting Aid
- For ad keyword sourcing: Publisher Rocket
- For formatting: Vellum and Atticus
- For sending books to readers (e.g. arcs, newsletter sign ups): BookFunnel
- For research: K-lytics reports
- For a ton of other free author tools: Kindleprenuer
I’d love to know, what are the areas of publishing you absolutely hate? What about the ones you love?
Amanda J. Clay writes gripping mysteries and twisty domestic thrillers with complex, kick-butt female leads designed to keep you up all night, including the twisty Pt. Redwood mystery series. When she’s not staring at a computer screen, she is part of the fabulous team that puts on the San
Francisco Writers Conference. She currently lives in Nashville, TN with her dashing, real-life hero of a husband, who inspires her villains and heroes alike, and their hellion of a daughter.
