The more I take on, the more being organized becomes crucial. Between magazine articles, author interviews, author events, editorial deadlines, and then up and coming projects that are finding their way to the front burner – it’s only too easy to let one or five slip through the cracks. To eliviate this problem, I’ve been checking out some Wikis. Here are some I’m considering, or know about. Tell me what you’re using so I can check it out before giving my money to one of the top two listed here.
JotSpot.com | The free service doesn’t really get you anywhere. The minimum is $9.95/month. But that would be worth it to me since they have a contacts database, phone call management, project planning, and event calendars. And by paying, I might be more inclined to really use it. How Jotspot can help you.
Backpackit.com | I really like the ability to email my to-do list back to me, or someone else. I really don’t like how you can write a note to one of your partners, and they won’t let you copy and paste your text somewhere else. Here are some example pages.
WritersMarket.com | Their submission tracker is great for those who are sending out quite a few submissions. I’m not using this because I need a planner that incorporates all my projects, not just writing ones. I’d like to have one stop shopping for all my organizational needs.
Ok, tell me what you’re using. Any big over all online planners (with option for group access) to rave about? Thanks!
I love Backpack. I’ve been using it for several months, and now I don’t know how I kept track of all my writing and other projects without it. I like that you can make local backups, email and share select pages with other people, and create separate pages for everything. The set-up is very basic, making it flexible enough for a wide variety of project types. And their new-ish addition, Writeboards, allows me now to do most of my writing online–no more carrying around disks or USBs from computer to computer. It’s awesome.
I’m using the Writer’s Market submission tracker, which works out OK except I have to keep remembering to go in and update stuff.
The good thing is that if I start thinking I’m not working hard enough, I go look at my tracker and remind myself of how many irons are in the fire, and that I’m doing fine.
I also like to look at my article that has a stack of “query rejected” annotations, because it also has a “query accepted” note, and I remember that persistence paid off and someone finally DID like it. 🙂
Good info everybody, thanks!
And I’ve been corrected. Apparently you can cut and paste in Backpackit. I’ll have to check it out again and see if that was a fluke for me this morning.
Any Jotspot lovers out there?
Another vote for BackPack – I love that you can attach/associate docs, photos and other files to each story or project page (with the $5/mo paid version), make individual checklists for each, collaborate if necessary via their writeboard feature, and share only the pages you need to without giving someone else access to the whole “binder”.
We’ve got Backpack sites for the house building, the wedding, story projects, everything.. 🙂