Write Again

I've recently started using Write Again to manage all business aspects of my writing career. I write a lot. Keeping track of where I send each piece, whether its accepted or rejected, and whether or not I've been paid for it is a chore, but it's a chore that is necessary. Write Again makes it easy.

I've looked at quite a bit of submission-tracking software. I compared several such programs side by side. Two programs stood at the top of the heap, and of those two, I chose Write Again as the product I use and recommend.

Why Write Again?

Write Again features the best interface of the lot. Entering information is easy, viewing the information is even easier. It's all there at a glance and can be sorted through using a wide range of filtering criteria.

From the main menu in Write Again you can select between the Projects Manager, Markets/Contact Manager, or the Submissions Manager. You can also access the Time Planner, Submission Status Reports, Market Viability Reports, the Finance Manager, or Settings from this menu. Write Again allows you the option of choosing any of these modules as your startup screen, but I keep mine set to open on the main menu.

The Projects Manager module of Write Again allows you to enter all the important information about your manuscripts, poems, screenplays, etc. The information is entered under the project details tab and then it appears to the right, laid out in a neat table, with each project marked with an icon to show its status. An overview tab that lets you view individual project details in a tree structure. You can view all sorts of information (task tracking, financial data, and bibliographical data) about projects by clicking on various tabs. You can also view your projects all at once or sort by completed or unfinished. An available button allows you to quickly see which projects are not under consideration elsewhere and available for submission.

The Markets/Contact Manager is where you enter the information about markets you've submitted work to or markets you are considering. Write Again allows you to enter detailed information about these markets and organizes the information neatly under various tabs. The details you can can enter include guidelines, contact information, genre information, etc. You can enter addresses, both physical and Internet, and you can even link to a web sites guidelines from within this module. You can also view financial data for individual markets here, making it easy to see what pieces you've been paid for.

The Submissions Manager is the module that lets you quickly select a project to submit and a market to submit it to. All of the project and market information you enter into Write Again is available in this module, making it as easy as a couple of mouse clicks to submit a project. The available button is also present in this module, which allows you to pull up a list of projects not yet under consideration elsewhere and available for submission. This feature lets you view either all available projects or only unpublished available projects.

With the Submission Status Report module you can track projects by market or by title and view the status of your projects all at once or filtered by waiting, rejected, or accepted. You can also access two special graphs from this module that let you see the percentage of your submission by either genre or status. The creator of Write Again says he initially implemented the graphs as a gimmick, and that may well be the case, but it paid off. The visual overview provided by these graphs is helpful for getting an overview of what is and isn't working for you market-wise. Using the two graphs together, you can get a basic idea about which genres are making money for you and which ones are a bust.

The Market Viablity Reports module offers various bits of information. Here you can see which projects you've never used, which markets you've never used, and which work that has never been accepted.

The Finance Manager module lets you keep track of all payment and expense information. The information can be exported as a .csv file so it can be opened in any spreadsheet software. The finance manager allows you to keep detailed notes about income/expense entries, and there's a graph here that gives you a visual representation of your earnings.

As an added bonus, Write Again allows you to set and manage tasks extensively. I call this feature an added bonus because it isn't a feature I would consider essential to this type of software. The Time Planner module in Write Again isn't some cheap little addition to the program just to make it more attractive to users. It's a well thought out feature that could damn near be a product itself.

Time Planner lets you set deadlines not only for when the project is due, but also for the various tasks that need to be accomplished in order to get the project finished and submitted. You can view all your projects and their deadlines at a glance, you can view the overall progress of various tasks by percent, and you can color code each task for easy identification. A drop down list lets you pick from a long list of tasks (first draft, final draft, check punctuation, fact checking, etc) that can be customized to individual work habits. This particular module is a surprising and wonderful addition to Write Again.

Before I wrap up, I want to mention the Settings module in Write Again. It deserves mention because Write Again allows users control over almost every aspect of the software. One of the things I look for when I review a product is how much it can be customized to suit individuals. Write Again is second to none in this category. All lists can be customized, modules can be turned on or off, you choose which icons youu want to use for identifying project status, you can set warnings and highlight projects older than a specified number of days, you can even decide which modules the program opens with and how long you want to display the splash screen.

Write Again was designed to make you happy. I recommend it for managing every aspect of your writing career.

Write Again was designed by Tom Dullemond and is distributed by Asmoday Enterprises. Go to the Write Again web site and download a copy for a trial run. There are three versions available: Professional, Standard, and Light. The professional edition, which is the edition I reviewed here, is $49.95 and well worth the cost. The standard edition is $34.95 and the light edition is free. I recommend you purchase the professional edition. Your career is worth the investment.

This is no-bullshit software you'll find yourself using again and again.

If you'd like, you can read an interview with Tom Dullemond here.