5 Tips For The Perfect Publishing Process

1. Keep things simple

One of the most important factors in workflow configuration? Simplicity. People can’t be expected to memorize intricate processes involving dozens of steps and endless decision points. A straightforward workflow will always be easier to understand, use, and improve. 

A great workflow configuration is simple and intuitive. When you remove any unnecessary complexity, you end up with a process that can be pushed through quickly without needless delays or errors. Remember, if you’re having trouble explaining your workflow clearly and concisely, then it’s too complex.

2. Standardize workflows

The more variance in configuration you have across different projects, the harder it is to maintain agility. Decreasing workflow variance increases your ability to pivot or scale as needed. Standardizing processes across your organization helps reduce friction and makes it easier to share resources.

But there are other advantages too. When everyone works within a familiar framework, training new team members is simpler, transitions are smoother, and improvements can be implemented organization-wide with minimal disruption. 

3. Take a phased approach

Breaking down your workflow into distinct phases improves efficiency and reduces the need for back-and-forth collaboration. Keeping these phases distinct helps maintain focus and reduces the potential for errors. The phases we’ve identified are:

• Topic expert phase: This is where content creation happens, usually between a subject-matter expert and a specialist editor. The focus is on content building.
• Technical editing phase: During this phase, content is refined according to language and style guidelines without altering the meaning of the original work.
• Distribution phase: At this stage, the content is ready to be published across various channels, whether online or in print.

4. Avoid cycling backwards

Within a single phase, limited feedback loops may be necessary – such as between a specialist editor and the original author – but these should be kept to a minimum. The fewer times content needs to be revised before moving to the next stage, the better.

Allowing content to cycle back to previous phases is a major efficiency killer. For example, if the technical editing phase allows content to be returned to the topic expert phase, it disrupts the flow and drastically reduces efficiency.

5. Implement automations

Technical editing and distribution are prime candidates for automation. With advancements in AI, new possibilities are emerging even within the topic expert phase. Tasks such as generating summaries, enhancing titles, adding metadata, and even translating documents can now be handled by AI with remarkable accuracy.

Automation doesn’t just reduce workloads it also allows you to focus on higher-value tasks rather than repetitive, manual, low-value ones. Eliminating these repetitive tasks can save you substantial amounts of time and money.

Join the PublishOne community today

It’s easy to optimize your publishing processes inside PublishOne. 

By keeping workflows simple, standardizing where possible, organizing processes into distinct phases, eliminating unnecessary cycling back, and embedding automations, you can significantly enhance efficiency and quality. Start implementing these tips today and discover how much more efficient your process can be.

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