Question about book with two authors

[Sheila]

I just co-wrote a book and it's now ready for beta readers. Of course one of our concerns is making sure it does not obviously have two distinct voices. My idea was to have betas read the book without telling them there are two authors, then asking if they could tell. My co-author thinks maybe that's too sneaky. I would love to hear opinions.

Also any advice on writing query letters for a book with two authors would be greatly appreciated.

[The Ribbon Marker]

Hi Sheila,

First, I would say it would depend on the style and type of the book. If you have a book with multiple POV, then it might actually be a good thing to have distinct voices for each character. If the book is from one character's perspective, then that might be a problem.

I think it is a bit of a two way street here. If your "blind" betas don't pick up on there being two distinct voices, then that's probably a good thing. On the other hand, if the betas are aware that there are two authors, then they may really keep an eye out for it and they may be a better judge on what critical readers might sense later on. You may even want to do a mixture of both.

As a beta reader myself, I find it easier to give author truly helpful feedback if I am aware of their concerns, because then I can really focus my attention on either saying "yes, you were right to worry for X reasons," or "no, it's not a problem for Y reasons."

Maybe you could tell me a little more about the book, so I could give you a more concrete answer.

[Sheila]

It is a chick lit/fantasy from a single POV. We really don't want it to be obvious that there are two different writers.

[April]

The Ribbon Marker wrote: "Hi Sheila,

First, I would say it would depend on the style and type of the book. If you have a book with multiple POV, then it might actually be a good thing to have distinct voices for each chara..."

I second the advice of The Ribbon Maker. Spot on!

[Nicole]

For the query letter, here's a blog post by a literary agent addressing that: http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2...