- Wanna write a book with a friend,
colleague or coworker?
You might wanna think again.
Collaborations can be incredible,
you know, two brains better than one and all that.
But I've seen coauthor situations go wrong
more than I've seen them go great.
If you're considering writing with someone else,
this video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey there, I'm Julie the Book Broad from Book Launchers.
We're your professional self-publishing team
helping you write, publish, and promote
a nonfiction book that grows your brand,
builds your business, and makes you money.
Our superpower is caring more about you and your book
than any other company as we support you to succeed.
And the best part, you keep all rights and royalties
and have full control.
"Alone we can do so little.
"Together we can do so much."
Helen Keller said that, and I'm with you Helen Keller,
except maybe when you write your book (laughs).
I think you might wanna write your book alone
and then get the team around you
to do so much more.
Seriously, writing with a coauthor
may seem like you're sharing the workload,
and in a few rare cases you are.
But if you haven't figured out a bunch of details
before you start working together,
you're setting yourself up for a lot of problems.
Before you commit to a project,
sit down and discuss the following things
with your potential coauthor.
Make sure you're on the same page
before you put words on a page (laughs).
Number one, expenses.
Writing a great book is going to take money.
First, you're going to have to agree
on what professionals you wanna bring into this project,
and what the budget is.
Then you need to agree on who is paying for what
and really define what is an acceptable expense.
That's gonna be fairly straightforward
when it comes to things like editors,
cover designers, publishing consultants.
You'll probably split those costs.
Where I see this getting funky
is when you get to marketing your book.
If one person benefits more from the book,
for example, if one person is a paid speaker
or the book leads into a funnel for their business,
so a book sale could mean a new client,
not just five or six dollars in royalties,
they're probably more inclined to invest heavily
in book marketing.
If both authors aren't on the same page
about who pays for what,
and how much money will be invested
into paid promotions, ads, marketing, and PR for the book,
you could find yourself feeling a little bitter
towards each other.
Number two, decision making.
Let me paint a picture for you here.
The cover design comes back
and you feel very strongly
there's a winning cover design there,
but your coauthor hates all the designs.
She's demanding a complete redo.
But you truly love one and think it fits perfectly.
Think it won't happen?
We see covers all the time,
and about 10% of the time we're stunned
at what some of our clients insist
should be the cover (laughs).
The decision-making process
is fairly straightforward for us,
so I'll share it in case it helps you.
Number one, we explain why we think the cover
might not be the best choice.
Number two, we show the client the cover
in a lineup of the top 20 in the category
that they'll be competing with.
And show one of our top picks
so they can visually see the difference.
Then, number three, we let the client decide.
It's their book after all.
Knowing that (laughs),
how are you going to settle disputes?
This can be as big as the title of the book,
as little as the word choice in a chapter,
but you're going to want a process
to handle this before you're faced
with a big decision like a cover.
Personally, I like rock, paper, scissors to solve things.
- One, two, three.
- You won! (confetti pops)
- Number three, who is the face for marketing?
(laughs)
Book marketing is largely author marketing,
so who is gonna do the media interviews?
If you both want them, you must realize
that you'll be unlikely to do them
at the same time and you're gonna need
different pitches for each person.
Sound complicated?
It's a pain in the butt.
It can be done, but some outlets
will have both of you on their show,
but more commonly, the pitch is gonna be
a hook about the author, and the author's personal story
with a quick shout-out to the book,
so they're gonna be done separately,
and one of you might get a lot more media
than the other.
Number four, goals.
Why are you writing this book?
What's the benefit to the ideal reader
in reading this book?
What impact are you hoping to have
on the life of your reader?
As result, what action do you want them to take?
Perhaps, you want them to connect with you
via newsletter to take the journey further.
Maybe you want them to bring you
to their company for a workshop or a keynote talk.
Or possibly you're hoping they tell other people
about your book so you can create a movement
and get your message spread widely.
That all might sound great, but now imagine
your coauthor is focused on ROI
and wants to sell X-number of copies of the book
to get their money back.
They have expertise and they want people to know
that they have that expertise,
and they wanna be compensated for it.
You're not united in your purpose
so (exhales) you might not even be united
in the impact you want your book to have.
That can be a challenge,
so you wanna try to get alignment on that
before you start.
Number five, who is responsible for what?
Are you writing one chapter, and the other person
writes the next?
I've seen this work.
But think about the experience that creates for your reader.
It can be really jarring (laughs),
hearing two different voices
so it has to be done really, really well.
Or maybe one person's writing the first draft
and the other is adding on top.
What happens if one of these people
is going insanely slow?
Talk about this before you start working on your book.
Number six, ownership.
This seems straightforward on the surface,
but think about are you creating an LLC, a partnership,
or how are you gonna hold this book?
And who's handling payouts from the book royalties
and where are they going?
Sit down and discuss these things.
Make sure you've covered expectations, deadlines,
responsibilities, ownership, and you haven't
just talked about it, you've written it down
and laid it out with clarity.
Henry Ford said this well.
"Coming together is a beginning.
"Staying together is progress.
"And working together is success."
Coauthor projects can be very successful,
but many end in divorce, and often before the book
ever sees print.
I don't want that to happen to you,
so please have a clear discussion
with your potential writing partner before you begin.
Have you ever written with a coauthor?
How'd it go?
Let's chat about it in the comments below.
And when you comment the day a video is released,
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That way, we can keep hanging out
because it's been an absolute pleasure to be with you today.
In fact, I'd love to spend more time with you.
Maybe you'd like to learn about the four ways
to start a chapter so it's not boring
or perhaps you wanna watch the video YouTube thinks
you'll enjoy the most.
Those are here and here!
Go ahead, click one of them so we can keep hanging out.
I'll get the coffee ready, see ya there.
(upbeat music)