If you’re responsible for delivering a chunky editorial project – especially if you’re doing it for the first time – you’ll need a rock-solid plan of action in place. Because creating that big report, getting a new website launched – even developing a sizeable brochure – can quickly become a total nightmare if you gallop in without thoughtful preparation.
These pointers will help you to plan your project – and deliver it with as few bumps in the road as possible.
- Timings
First up, be realistic with your timings. These things always take longer than you think – or hope.
Let’s say you have a 50-ish page report to create and you know you want to launch it in the new year. You have most of the raw content together – so if you start in November, that’ll give you plenty of time, won’t it?
The answer to this is probably not. At least not unless you have a stonkingly robust, proven process in place. And the reality is that you probably don’t.
So here’s what to do. If you have a launch date in mind, find out how long it’ll take all your creatives to do their bit, and work backwards. It wouldn’t be surprising to find out that your 50-page report will take 3+ months to create and deliver once you’ve been through the processes of structuring, writing, reviewing, designing and laying out the document.
Wherever you can, give yourself more time than you think you’ll need.
- Roles and responsibilities
Be clear about who you expect to do what. And of course, the most important role to define is your own. Are you going to be responsible for the final output of this editorial project? Are you going to make sure all stakeholders are engaged and involved? That the document aligns with your organisation’s brand? That it’s accurate? A great read? And that it complies with any relevant regulation?
If all these things are your responsibility, congratulations! You’re the editor of this document.
If you’re not responsible for these things, someone needs to be. So either appoint an editor, or form a steering group and work together to develop the document.
You also need to be clear about the roles of the creative members of the team. Do you expect your copywriters to create the structure of the document? Or simply to rewrite submissions from experts in your business? Are you expecting the person uploading the document – or laying it out – to design elements like graphs and diagrams?
Don’t make assumptions about who’s doing what. Define it.
- Stakeholders
Your stakeholders are all the people who contribute to, and/or sign off on, the contents of your report. Whatever you do, don’t skimp on engaging with these people.
Before writing even starts on your report, you need to understand who your stakeholders are – and how they’re going to be involved. Then you need to communicate with them regularly so that they understand how much time they’ll need and what their responsibilities are.
If you want everything to run smoothly, you can’t – for example – drop a 50-page document on a colleague without warning and ask for their detailed input and feedback. You need to let everyone know what you want them to do, and when.
It’s also important to manage expectations. How do you want your stakeholders to give feedback? What don’t you want them to do?
- Structure
At this point, you’re probably chomping at the bit to get started. And it can be tempting to wade straight into writing or rewriting.
Don’t. Instead, set aside enough time to create a robust structure for your document.
Structure sounds simple. It usually isn’t.
Even in a really straightforward format – like a downloadable PDF or hard copy brochure – you will need to align your brand narrative and the contents of the document.
If you’re launching a new website, you’ll have a whole lot more to consider – on the proposition side, you’ll need to articulate your offer clearly, and on the technical side, you’ll need to include SEO and UX thinking.
If you start with a clear structure – and know from the outset what your hierarchy of information is going to be (ie, how you’re going to order all of your information, and the maximum number of levels of information you’ll include) – the rest of the process will be much easier. And actually, the better the end product will be.
- Editing process
If you’ve never been involved in this kind of project before, it can come as a surprise just how much work is involved at this stage. Without preparation, the wheels can really fall off your project.
Writing is an iterative process. This means your writer is very, very unlikely to get it right first time – especially when you have multiple stakeholders feeding in and tweaking the document as you go along. So instead, you create the document in rounds. You create a first version, get your stakeholders to review it. You build in their amends and create a second version – and get your stakeholders to give feedback again.
If you don’t want this process to degenerate into a total bunfight, you have to manage it very closely.
Work in drafts. Allow your copywriters to create the first version – V1. Then share it with stakeholders to get their input and feedback. Again, managing expectations is key. Let stakeholders know:
- When they’re going to get a draft to review
- How long it could take to review
- What kind of feedback is helpful
- How to feed back
- Make it clear that not all feedback will be actioned
When you have all V1 feedback, consolidate it and pass it on to your copywriter – with clear instructions about what needs to be tweaked. When your writer has done this, you’ll have a V2… which you now need to share with your stakeholders, to get any further feedback and input.
This is really important: Make it clear that if a stakeholder doesn’t feed back in time, they may cause delays to the whole project. What you need to prevent is a stakeholder skipping the first couple of rounds of feedback – and jumping in with fundamental changes, just when you think the whole document is almost finished. If you want to keep stress levels down and goodwill up, do everything you can to avoid an eleventh-hour complete rewrite.
Depending on the size of your project, you may have multiple documents going through rounds of review and amends (chapters of a report, for example) over a period of weeks or months. Project manage these very closely, or you’ll get in a pickle pretty quickly (and have disengaged, grumpy stakeholders to deal with too).
- Finalising the document
When you’re stuck into creating chapters, sub-sections, graphs and diagrams – and you’re managing various rounds of amends and review – it can be easy to think the finishing line comes when you get approval on the last section.
But don’t forget to give yourself time to review the document as a whole. Read through it all, start to finish. Proofread it. Again. Check that style and messaging are consistent. Check that the contents page marries up accurately with what follows. Make sure your links work and your references are correct.
And then, when you’re absolutely sure, you can share it with the world.