Onboarding Import: Introduction

The first step towards experiencing the ease of using PubGizmo is probably the least fun: prepping for import your press’s data, including the titles, contacts (authors, translators, literary agents, etc.), editions, contracts, and optionally, previous sales numbers. While you could manually enter everything, importing will be faster, less work, and more accurate, especially if your dataset is large.

Get Your Data into Spreadsheets

PubGizmo imports your data from spreadsheets, which you may already use to manage your data. Most software will export to Excel or tab- or comma-delimited formats, which we can also work from. We have templates to get you started organizing everything in the correct format and columns:

1. Google Sheets: we prefer working directly in Google Sheets, because you can share them with us, and we can test import these. If there are minor issues, we make the edits on the sheets themselves, and try again. Less back-and-forth than option 2, emailing Excel sheets. Google Sheets are free. How to create a set of sheets to work from: Open the template here, then go File > Make a Copy to create your own document on Google Drive to work from.
2. Microsoft Excel: you can also work directly in Excel, and email us the sheets. Use the link above to the Google Sheet, and when you have it open, select File > Download > Microsoft Excel (.xlxs). This will save a copy in your Downloads folder, which you can then open in Excel.

What Version Are You Using?

When you submit your sheets, please indicate the version. The set of sheets you create using the link above download today are Version 1.9.

Prepare Five Google/Excel Sheets

1. Titles
2. Editions
3. Organizations
4. Contacts (people)
5. Contracts

Need Help?

You can email us at any time for help with formatting your sheets. Share your work with us at any time in the process (by using the share function in Google Sheets, or emailing your Excel files) so we can ensure you’re going in the right direction.

Rules for All All Sheets

1. Maintain the column order
2. Fill each cell only relevant, specified data only, i.e., do not add notes or unspecified info into any cell; what you are putting in the sheets is exactly what will end up in PubGizmo. If you have any questions or comments to add, email us.
3. Try to use date format YYYY-DD-MM (Google Sheets/Excel may reformat these to match your computer’s format settings – this is okay)
4. Be relentlessly consistent with all spelling and capitalization

Because computers are literal, data used to match information on different sheets must exactly match. For example, the Title column on the Editions sheet must perfectly match the title as it appears on the Titles sheet, or the import process will throw a fit when it doesn't find an exact match for that title from the Titles sheet. You will see the words MATCH WARNING in the documentation for each sheet to indicate that the data you enter here must perfectly match the data entered on another sheet.

Adding Data in Future

We recommend that you import all your existing data in one go, before you start using PubGizmo – it's easier, and will save you time down the road. But we recognize that isn't always possible or practical. You have a couple of options if you need to urgently get some data aboard to start producing royalty statements.

Add Data in PubGizmo

Nothing you enter in the sheets cannot be entered and edited manually inside PubGizmo. In fact, once you're aboard, and you've started using PubGizmo, you'll populate it with new data directly, by adding and editing records. For example, when your press publishes a new title, you'll add it in the Titles module.

Partial Import

If you have bulk data to import, e.g., for expediency you did not get all your data into the initial Google Sheets/Excel import, you can create a new set of sheets and populate them per the current instructions (on this page; make sure you use the latest steps and import sheets, as these continuously evolve) as you did your initial sheets. Just let us know that you intend to do this, and send us a link to your Google Sheets as you go, or once the sheets are ready for import.