I'm an author who writes a novel a year, published in 15+ countries, and I also do some film writing. I'm looking for a tool that will allow me to set up projects that my part-time assistant and I can both access from our two Macs, to update tasks, organize book writing& research/screenwriting/marketing and administrative projects, complete tasks and projects, and manage my calendar and my assistant's calendar. Given the sales focus on Daylite (which I have just started to explore) I'm wondering if Daylite is a) a good match or b) overkill for what I'm trying to do.

I would love to hear thoughts from anyone else who's self-employed but has an assistant, or has used Daylite to manage creative projects, on the best way to use Daylite for this kind of work and interaction. Thank you in advance!

JTW,

I use DL for similar purposes: writing (fiction and nonfiction) and running a copywriting and business communications SOHO. I've found it works quite well for:
1. Tracking major phases of book development, e.g. I have a pipeline that I use for novels (research, outline/synoposis, first draft, review/notes, first revision, second draft, first reading, second revision, final reading, final revision, submission)
2. For short fiction/nonfiction, I use it to track submissions and correspondences from publications/editors.
3. Sources, publishers, and editors are all in my contact base, and it is easy to link correspondence, files (working, contracts, royalty statements), etc. Note: Using keywords, I can link specific correspondence to specific revisions.
4. For marketing, I maintain lists of local media (for reviews, appearances), reading groups/clubs (traditional/online), readers I've corresponded with, etc., and use activity sets for direct mailings of publicity material, etc. Note: Smart lists are great for sorting all of these audiences at a glance.
5. For SOHO, I use DL to track projects, related communications, opportunities, maintain prospect lists, etc., everything DL was designed for.
6. Right now I use Billings for invoicing, but hope MC more fully integrates the two products.
7. I don't have an assistant so I can't speak to the multiuser question, but a great many of the forum participants are using DL on multiuser platforms. I would guess that the calendar might present some problems for multiusers just because of the way it handles multiple appointments in weekly view. And I don't know how it works if you are here and your assistant is in another location.
8.Using HUDs and smart lists, it is fairly easy to keep up-to-date on next tasks, which can be viewed by project, contact (your assistant), and user.
9. DL is not without its shortcomings as noted in some of the forum posts, but at the moment it's the most comprehensive of contact and information managers that I've tried, and we are all looking forward to future DL versions and what they may bring.
10. I understand that DL and Parliant's Phone Valet play nicely together, which is something I'm looking forward to trying out for my SOHO.

Hope some of this helps.

JP

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JRP,