A to Z of Writing: Coauthoring
A few of my author friends and I have decided to join forces in a blogging challenge. Our A to Z of Writing posts will shine a light on various aspects of being an author. This week, we're focusing on the letter C. Please make sure to check out the other blogs. Click here for a list of all blog posts per letter.
Adite Banerjie | Paromita Goswami | Preethi Venugopala | Reet Singh | Ruchi Singh | Saiswaroopa Iyer | Sudesna Ghosh
C for Coauthoring As some of you may know, so far I’ve coauthored six books with bestselling author Mike Wells. Coauthoring – writing a novel together with another author – was a totally new experience for me, thrilling and challenging all at once. To be honest, I was a bit – read, very – scared before embarking on this journey, but I’m glad I did so because it was a lot of fun too, and I learned many valuable things.
So what are the risks involved in coauthoring? There are a few, depending on how exactly you go about it. Some famous authors ask a less famous author to work with them. In the end, the latter is more a ghostwriter than a true coauthor. The lesser known authors might not receive a share of the royalties, their name might not be mentioned, or their style is overwritten to match the usual tune of the popular author’s books. Some might also end up doing almost all the work without hardly receiving anything in return. That’s not the way it should be, and luckily not at all how things turned out for me.
And what are the advantages of coauthoring? You should be able to expand your readership, venture into other sub-genres or genres, release more books faster and thus keep your readers entertained, hone your writing skills, and achieve more sales/higher royalties.
How to avoid the obvious pitfalls? The best way to go out this is to really (virtually) ‘sit down’ and talk about every single detail. You have to agree onwhose name is mentioned on the cover (usually the famous author’s or initiating author’s name is shown more prominently)who uploads the book (the author whose idea it was / project it is, but both profiles are linked to the result)who writes what, and how, and how fasta deadlinewhether both authors write separately and come together at the end or whether both work simultaneously and collaborate activelywho earns what share of the royalties who promotes the book, and how marketing is best handled; ideally both are involved, though not necessarily to the same extent or in the same way If you take care of all this, and – most importantly – if you agree on the story itself, then there isn’t much in the way of coauthoring successfully.
There are various famous examples of coauthored books (such as James Patterson or Laurelin Paige), and there’s a ton of advice to be found on the internet. Personally, I am excited about the outcome of my stint with coauthoring, and I want to do it again. “Forbidden”, the romantic thriller series I coauthored with Mike Wells, is available for download here (Book 1 is free): http://www.devikafernando.com/forbidden.html
Adite Banerjie | Paromita Goswami | Preethi Venugopala | Reet Singh | Ruchi Singh | Saiswaroopa Iyer | Sudesna Ghosh
C for Coauthoring As some of you may know, so far I’ve coauthored six books with bestselling author Mike Wells. Coauthoring – writing a novel together with another author – was a totally new experience for me, thrilling and challenging all at once. To be honest, I was a bit – read, very – scared before embarking on this journey, but I’m glad I did so because it was a lot of fun too, and I learned many valuable things.So what are the risks involved in coauthoring? There are a few, depending on how exactly you go about it. Some famous authors ask a less famous author to work with them. In the end, the latter is more a ghostwriter than a true coauthor. The lesser known authors might not receive a share of the royalties, their name might not be mentioned, or their style is overwritten to match the usual tune of the popular author’s books. Some might also end up doing almost all the work without hardly receiving anything in return. That’s not the way it should be, and luckily not at all how things turned out for me.
And what are the advantages of coauthoring? You should be able to expand your readership, venture into other sub-genres or genres, release more books faster and thus keep your readers entertained, hone your writing skills, and achieve more sales/higher royalties.
How to avoid the obvious pitfalls? The best way to go out this is to really (virtually) ‘sit down’ and talk about every single detail. You have to agree onwhose name is mentioned on the cover (usually the famous author’s or initiating author’s name is shown more prominently)who uploads the book (the author whose idea it was / project it is, but both profiles are linked to the result)who writes what, and how, and how fasta deadlinewhether both authors write separately and come together at the end or whether both work simultaneously and collaborate activelywho earns what share of the royalties who promotes the book, and how marketing is best handled; ideally both are involved, though not necessarily to the same extent or in the same way If you take care of all this, and – most importantly – if you agree on the story itself, then there isn’t much in the way of coauthoring successfully.
There are various famous examples of coauthored books (such as James Patterson or Laurelin Paige), and there’s a ton of advice to be found on the internet. Personally, I am excited about the outcome of my stint with coauthoring, and I want to do it again. “Forbidden”, the romantic thriller series I coauthored with Mike Wells, is available for download here (Book 1 is free): http://www.devikafernando.com/forbidden.html
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