Are you planning on co-authoring a book? While co-authoring isn’t an easy task, it also comes with its own advantages. Co-authoring can keep you motivated, you have someone to share ideas with, and you could both possibly benefit from each other’s fanbase. To successfully co-author a book, we’ve provided a few tips below we believe will help make the process go smoother.
Let’s get started!
Map Out Your Creative Vision For The Book
It’s important that you and your co-author are on the same creative page. If you’re both on different pages with your vision for the book, you’re already starting off on the wrong foot. You should discuss certain things from the very beginning of the process, like the genre of the book, the tone you want to convey, your target audience, what point of view you want the book to be, etc. You should begin plotting a beginning, middle, and end for the book in the beginning stages of working together. This ensures that you both are happy with the direction the book will go in before you dive deep into the process.
Discuss The Workload For You And Your Co-author
The last thing you want is for you or your co-author to be stuck handling a majority of the tasks and carry most of the workload throughout the process. Make sure you talk about the writing process, who should write which chapters, and who will edit certain chapters. Make sure the workload is equal.
Discuss Royalties
While talking money is never a comfortable subject, it’s necessary. It should also be discussed at the beginning of the process. If you’re planning on equally splitting the workload between the two of you, the royalties should be equally split too. If one person is taking on more tasks than the other, they should get more in the long run. The number of tasks and how much time is being spent on each task assigned should be taken into consideration.
Set Deadlines
Whether you’re on a time crunch or you want to get the book done in a timely manner, setting a deadline for both you and your co-author is ideal. A deadline will keep you both on track so you don’t unintentionally spend countless months or even years working on this project. However, you also won’t want to set a deadline that isn’t attainable. Make sure that the deadline is realistic for both of you and your schedules.
Utilize Online Tools
There are online tools or apps that will keep you and your co-author on track, like Trello or Monday.com. These tools allow you to set your deadlines or milestones and keep track of the other person’s progress. You could also use programs like Google Docs, where you can share documents and read each other’s work if you feel stuck, need help editing, or just need a second pair of eyes looking over your work. Another online tool you can use to effectively communicate is either through email, or if you want instant messaging for quicker communication, you can use Slack.
Remain Flexible
When you’re co-authoring, it’s important to keep in mind that your opinion isn’t the only one that matters. Be open to hearing them out. If your co-author has changes or ideas, you should keep an open mind and be willing to change or add things.
Ensure Tone Consistency Throughout
If one person is writing chapters 1-20 and the other person is writing chapters 20-40, it’s important you both are on the same page with the tone of the book. The last thing you want is for the reader to feel like they are almost reading a completely different book when the writing switches to the other co-author. Consistency is key, and something you should strive for. Adapting each other’s tone and voice is essential when working together.
Develop A Strong Marketing Strategy
When it comes to promoting a book, every author has a different strategy or way of doing things. Some authors prefer to promote their books by going to local book events, some authors just stick to using social media, and some authors use their website and email marketing. Some authors use all of the above tactics. Ensuring that you and your co-author are on the same page with the route you want to go is vital.
If you want to use social media, Book Brush is a tool you’ll want to use. Book Brush is a tool specifically for authors to use to create top-notch graphics to promote their books. You can create a number of different graphics, like ads, book covers, bookmarks, book quotes, email headers, Amazon A+ stacked images, book trailers, and many more! The options are practically endless, and you and your co-author will both be happy with the results.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, when planned and done correctly, co-authoring a book could be enjoyable and an overall great experience. The tips we’ve listed above could help you and your co-author have a successful collaboration.
When it comes time to create your book cover or promote your book, don’t forget to tell your co-author about us and check out what all you and your co-author can do with the help of Book Brush!
