Over the course of my career, I’ve penned eight books with traditional publishers. In each case, my editor or primary contact never shared a project plan with me. When I asked to see one, I heard crickets. After a while, I stopped asking.

Now, if that individual were only working with a single author on a single project, juggling all of the balls required to successfully publish a book might be possible. For a dozen or more books, however, doing so is an exercise in futility. As I’ve learned over the last quarter-century, mental project management doesn’t work in general—and certainly not at scale.

The Racket Difference

When I founded Racket, I committed to using best-of-breed tools to shepherd authors through the writing and publishing processes. Although imperfect, Notion can easily manage projects and produce simple, effective, and visually appealing timeline views like this one:

Does Notion (affiliate link) guarantee that any project hits its goals?

How to Format Your Manuscript Like a Pro

Of course not. No tool will. If a salesperson or a vendor’s website claims otherwise, run.

Mental project management doesn’t work in general—and certainly not at scale.

Think of the presence of a contemporary project-management tool as a hygiene factor: Using Monday.com, Notion, Asana, or its ilk won’t ensure desired outcomes, but failing to use one will certainly yield disastrous results. Ask your publisher what tool you’ll be using to track milestones, tasks, status, and the like. If the answer is nothing, don’t be shocked if things ultimately break bad.