Organize and Save Data

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

“Don’t forget your business cards.” It’s common advice for writers going to conferences. For many years I’ve been going to different conferences, meeting new people and exchanging business cards with them. I’ve learned to ask some editors early during the event bccause often they have brought a limited number of cards and I’m able to snag one of those few cards. Other editors and faculty have forgotten to bring any cards. For these professionals, often I pull out my notebook and write down their name, email and phone number plus other information such as their company. I’ve given the other person my information but I’ve also received their information and it is a real exchange rather than one way from me. 

There is great value in exchanging cards with others during the event. Creating your business cards and carrying them with you is a good first step. In this article, I want to give you some additional information to make those cards valuable and useful to you. If you only collect the cards and do nothing else, then the information piles into your desk and you can’t use it.

From attending different events through the years, I’ve got piles of these business cards. I show a couple of those stacks in the image with this article. Recently I returned home from the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. During the event, I exchanged business cards with authors and also collected their one-sheets about their books. For a number of authors who gave me parts of their books, I entered their email and other data from their material into my computer. Then I reached out to them and requested their submission. From a number of them I received responses. For several of them, I’ve already processed their submission and even sent a contract offer from my publication board.

It’s been several weeks since the conference and I had a stack of business cards that I had not processed. Last week I added the information to the address book in my computer and I reached out to each of them via email. My email reminded them of our connection at the conference and gave several free writing resources such as subscribing to this blog. Also I gave them some detailed information about Morgan James Publishing and encouraged their submission. Finally some of these people had profiles on LinkedIn. I found their profiles and sent them a request to connect on LinkedIn. 

Because this data is in my address book and LinkedIn, I can easily follow-up and reconnect with them. Some of my opportunity to reconnect is based on what information they included on their business card. Some authors only had their email while others included their phone number, mailing address and even the homepage of their website. As I created their entry in my address book, I added as much of this information as I could gather. Through the years, I’ve tried card scanners and other tools but often I return to the old fashion one: type it into my computer. 

The organization and capture of this author data is important. Your need for this information might be years in the future. You want to organize it in a way which you can easily access. If you have the information in your address book, you can search using the location or other details. It’s impossible to do such a search if it is still tucked into your desk in a stack of cards.

Because you have captured the business card data, you never know when you might need it. Here’s a couple of specific examples from my work. When I’m writing a new book, I will create a list of possible people to write endorsements or blurbs for the book. A number of the people on my list, I have not contacted in many years. LinkedIn is the first place I turn. Many people in the publishing community change jobs and locations but take their LinkedIn account with them. The email or other contact information will still work even if they have changed companies.

When I was writing my biography of Billy Graham, I thought Luis Palau would be a well-known person to write the foreword for my book. I’d written a biography about Luis Palau but that book was published years ago and I had not reconnected in some time. I looked in my address book for Luis and in the notes found the cell phone number for his son, Kevin Palau, who I had never met or spoken with. Most people do not change their cell phone numbers. I called it and immediately was connected and worked out the foreword for my book.  These connections are important but only valuable if you save the information or data in a way you can easily access it. 

Also my address book came in handy for my work on the Billy Graham audiobook. From listening to audiobooks, I know sometimes the audiobook will have something different from a simple reading of the text. The most iconic song that I know related to Billy Graham is the hymn Just As I Am played at the end of a crusade when people walk forward. With a simple Google search, I found a version of The Gaithers singing this hymn. I clipped out a few seconds of the recording but I needed permission to use it. Years earlier I worked for Howard Books and met Gloria Gaither. We exchanged business cards. I sent a simple email, telling her about my biography, sending my audio clip and asked for royalty-free permission. Within 24 hours, I received the permission. 

If you listen to this audio sample, you will hear each chapter begins with a few seconds of the hymn and it is scattered throughout the audiobook. It would not have happened if I had not exchanged busines cards, then saved the data in a format I could easily use. 

If you don’t have the data in a way to access it, you can’t reconnect. How are you organizing and using the connection data from your business cards? Let me know in the comments below and I look forward to learning from you. 

Tweetable:

After attending a conference, this prolific author and editor organizes then uses the business card data. Read the stories and details here.  (ClickToTweet)

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During my years in publishing, I’ve reviewed thousands of submissions and spoken with many authors about their plans and dreams for their book. I’ve found many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. From my experience, many aspects of the details of publishing are outside of anything an author can control. I wrote 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS to give authors practical help. You can get decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of bonuses.

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