How to Bring an Author PA into Your Self-Publishing Business
Congratulations!
You’ve made the daunting decision to bring an author personal assistant (PA) onto your team!
(You can read about how to know when it’s time to hire an author PA and how to go about doing so here.)
But now what?!
This post focuses on how to prepare you and your bookish business for a successful transition!
Soon, you’ll wonder how you ever functioned without your new supportive side character, and you’ll work together to get your books into the hands of your readers!
Preparing Your Self-Publishing Business to Bring on an Author PA
1. Invest in a Contract
While most people come from a place of honesty and integrity, this is your hard-won business, and it deserves protection (just like in a mafia romance, right? 😂)
While contracts generally contain boilerplate language, please consider the following:
Purpose of contract
Name of parties
Effective date
Make sure deliverables are spelled out
Outline what is considered confidential
Intellectual property rights - client usually owns any copy or images created
Payment terms (fees, costs, expenses, etc.)
What you’ll need to give your author PA access to in order for them to do their work
Termination provision (by either party and what happens afterwards)
Indemnification clause
The Creative Law Shop specializes in providing legal templates and educational resources for creative entrepreneurs.
Regardless of where you get your contract, please be sure to have your attorney ensure it’s sound, especially since laws vary by state, province and country.
2. Money Matters
You likely have an accountant, so before bringing on your author PA, please make sure they are aware that you’re hiring an independent contractor, and these expenses are tracked accordingly.
When it comes to money, this is where having a contract between you and your PA is helpful in outlining how you will be invoiced and how and with what frequency your PA will be paid.
To that end, Toggl, a time tracking and reporting software, has a free plan for up to 5 users, so your PA can track and invoice you for their time worked.
In addition to conversations with your attorney and your accountant, you might find this free resource helpful in considering all that is involved in bringing someone into your fold:
You might also find the post, Looking to Hire an Author Personal Assistant? Here’s What You Need to Know helpful, or take a moment to check out my Author PA Services to see if we might be a good fit!
3. Consider a Password Sharing Software
Your author PA will be privy to confidential information, which likely includes access to your password protected information and software.
Fortunately, password keeping and sharing software is available. 1Password and Keeper are two options for consideration.
Not only will it give you peace of mind, it can help you avoid frustrating and time wasting login issues. Plus, as passwords are updated, it’s shared across those who have access to their own relevant passwords.
4. Provide Training
Although training your author PA will be time-consuming, this investment up front will pay dividends!
Imagine being able to focus on your writing, while your PA takes all of the tasks that were previously taking you away from your area of genius!
Before your PA joins your team, be sure to make a plan for how you will train them on each task. Depending on the level of complexity, you may wish to train one skill a week, for example.
During this time, be sure to be available for any questions via your predetermined method of communication. You may even wish to set up a time for a daily chat.
For more complex tasks, consider walking them through via Facetime or another live video platform. That way, any hiccups can be addressed in real time.
Creating tutorials is another great way to help your PA become independent fast!
Depending on the complexity of the task, you can either provide written instructions, or you can use Loom (their free starter package allows you to record 25 videos of up to 5 minutes in duration) to record your screen.
These tutorials can then serve as a reference library to help guide your PA through various processes as they are encountered.
TIP: Once your PA is comfortable with a task that doesn’t already have a tutorial, you can ask them to create written instructions or a screen recording to add to the reference library. That way, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel or to train a new person on the task. They can just reference the guide!
5. Share Your Vision
Along with training on the technical aspects of your self-publishing business, you will want to share your vision with your author PA. This way, your PA can truly be your supportive side character and help
bring your vision to life! 🎉
Regardless of their experience and areas of expertise, you PA needs to become familiar with your author brand, vibe and the way you want your books and business to be presented to the world.
Your PA has likely chosen to work in the bookish industry because they share your passion and want to help you succeed!
Setting clear expectations is critical, so your PA knows what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Your PA must understand you and your author platform in order to do the best job possible. ❤️
6. Share Your Voice
Depending on what your author PA will be doing, you will want to share with them how you want them to address various parties and issues.
Perhaps your “voice” is more casual and friendly in DMs and more formal when addressing a reader’s receipt of a damaged book, for example.
Try to think through the various scenarios your PA will encounter and maybe even draft a “response bank” from which your PA can draw. This can be part of your reference library, further ensuring your vision and your voice remain consistent!
Also, you may wish to set up a shared Google Drive or Dropbox, so any templates, photos, spreadsheets, calendars, etc. can be accessed and edited.
Having a shared calendar can also help ensure you both know what’s coming up and can plan accordingly.
Being an indie author can feel overwhelming and isolating, but please know you don’t have to go it alone!
Not sure you’re ready to hire a PA, let’s chat and plot next steps together!
Your supportive side character,
Lisa
Please note that I am not an attorney nor an accountant, so please take the information in this post as helpful guidance, rather than substitution for legal or financial advice. Please consult with your attorney and accountant beforehand to ensure all bases have been covered before bringing on your author PA.