Your one-person publishing studio diagnostic. Print it, fill it in, find out where you stand. Or, make your AI do it. Just duplicate this to your own Notion, grab the link, give it to your fave AI. You can also download it as a PDF here and hand it that.
Note: I did an entire YouTube live on this topic earlier this year. Watch it here.
From Ink & Code with Author Kimberly Gordon | Ginsu Steak Knife 🔪 | Pairs with: Year of the Automated Author (coming soon)
Before we audit, let's define what we're actually looking for. Automation is anything that reduces:
Automation can be AI-assisted, tool-based (Zapier, Make, schedulers), or process automation (templates, checklists, repeatable workflows). It doesn't have to be fancy. A checklist is automation. A template is automation. If it keeps you from reinventing the wheel every Tuesday, it counts.
For each of the 9 Author Studio Stack categories below, answer the four audit questions honestly. "My brain" and "I don't do this" are valid answers. This isn't a test. It's a mirror.
Time needed: ~20 minutes (more if you start having revelations)
| Question | Your Answer |
|---|---|
| What tool(s) do you use? | |
| How long does it take per project? | |
| What does it cost? (subscription, time, opportunity) | |
| Could AI do part of this? (Yes / No / Partially) |
Notes / observations: