Two authors for a novel?

I've known at least a few people on AW who co-author books.

Before you venture into publishing, though, you should work out terms of this partnership so there's no misunderstanding. Being friends working on a project together is all good, but when contracts and money and rights are concerned, it's probably to good to be business-like.

As far as how it works -- it depends on the people involved. Some prefer to write different chapters. Some prefer to write everything together. Some prefer to have different roles: say one would focus on plot and characters, and another on prose and dialogue, etc. The idea is to draw from the strengths of both writers. As with any partnership, the details depend on the parties involved.

I agree with Ray who is way more experienced in the writing biz than I am.

Lear's Daughters is written by Marjorie Kellogg and William Rossow. It's a novel in two parts and they each wrote a part. It's science fiction and a very good story.

Sorcery and Cecelia and sequels are co-authored.

But. Here's a word of warning. A lot of working co-authorships happen after ach author has written a publishable book, so they know they won't hold ach other back. What will you do if your friend's chapters don't seem very good to you? Or if your friend says that they don' t like your characterization, or the way you write your sentences, 40000 words in? I've seen friendships ruined over this sort of thing, and th books left forever unfinished.

Co-authorship is more work than single authorship, not less.

The best partnership would be one in which the parties involved complement each other and get their ego out of the way. The worst would be if they compete with each other (in skills, talent, etc.) in every aspect and let their ego get in the way. And as with any partnership, need to work out the kinks and smooth out the disagreement and conflicts and compromises. Or expect a divorce.

There's a distinction between writers who always work(ed) as a team - a present example, in the horror genre, are L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims - and ad hoc collaborations between writers who normally work solo.

I've co-authored short stories, some up to novelette length, not an entire novel. When it works it's great: rather like taking a holiday from your own themes and preoccupations. It can be like playing with someone else's head a bit, so an element of trust is essential. And the result is often unlike anything one of you could produce on your own, though you can recognise both of yourselves in it.

I've often found I collaborate best with writers who are quite different to me. I know I'm more character-led than plot-led, and I've collaborated successfully twice with another writer (who is on AW) who by his own admission is as plot-driven as you can get. He's a lot stronger on making sure the storyline hangs together logically, and I do better with character shading and nuance. The result, so far, are two good novelettes - though one of them we haven't managed to sell yet!

Gryphon's Eyrie is a fantasy romance co-written in alternate chapters. Its structure is similar to a romantic roleplay, one author writing the hero and one the heroine.

I have personally tried several times to start a co-writing project because I really enjoy it, but I've been limited to trying to work over the internet with people I am not already friends with, and the collaboration has always fallen apart for one reason or another. Usually the problem is that we have different taste, wanting the story to go different directions and disliking what the other is pleased with just having written. In one case I thought the original description of the other person's main character was okay, but found him to be kind of repulsive the way the writer implemented him. And in one case we actually did have the same taste and wrote three chapters but got to a point where neither of us knew what should happen in the plot next, and we didn't have the team-discipline to work through that, but instead let ourselves be distracted by other things in our lives and let the project drop.

Sure

Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

I remember an interview on how they started working together, and I think it was something like what you have in mind.

mscelina and I are working on a co-authored trilogy.

It's got its bumpy spots. But it's worth it.

Make sure any disagreements are talked over without rancor.

Collaborations can be great, but they can also ruin friendships. I've had a few of each, projects of various lengths. It's unlikely that authors can just write alternate chapters, never touching each other's words) and the result will read smoothly.

Make sure you work out all the potential issues you can first. I had one a few years ago and it blew up on me because I didn't do this.

Identify and state the workload of the actual hard part, the writing. Make sure it's fair for both of you.

Set a timeline for finishing the novel and hold each other accountable for that (otherwise what could happen is that you want to make progress on the book, but partner hasn't gotten around yet to writing the chapter you're waiting on).

State the workload for submitting queries (i.e., he researches 20 agents and submits to them; you research 20 agents and submit to them)

Come up with a deciding factor for when the book is done.

Have a next book planned, as well as a solo project in the works (if things blow up on you, you have a book to fall back on that's yours).

Keep a written record of the "transactions" that happen between you two.

Stephen King and Peter Straub have written a few novels together and have a solid set of rules for it that they pretty much ignore once they get going. If those two monsters can set aside egos and produce quality works anybody else should be able to.

I'm working on two different collaborations. In both instances, we made an outline together, using EtherPad (which is a real-time collaborating online pad). We can see each other writing and one or the other can actually fix typos and such as we're going along.

One we made loose, and the other we ended up breaking down chapter by chapter. We're still playing around with the loose one; the detailed one we assigned chapters by subject matter--in the end we both want a chance to play with all of the characters. I'll let you know how the loose, my protagonist and your protagonist outline does by comparison.

I recently completed a collaboration with an author where we combined our joint talents in romance and suspense. I did the male POV, she did the female POV. The book (Veil of Deception) was intended to present both gender POVs as an experiment for each of us. Both Candace and I were extremely pleased with the result and will collaborate again. I wasn't sure at first how it would work, given how personal writing is (especially in the bedroom), but the combination of our skills did result is a much better product then alone.

There were three critical elements to our success:

1. Both authors had to be open to suggestive changes to their passages and believe the other author is seeing something they weren't.

2. Only one person can be on top. That person lays out the outline, derives the original idea, suggests the character attributes, and completes several leader chapters from their characters POV. This was critical so the other author can visualize where the story is going. The next novel we will switch roles.

3. Finally, you have to agree up front on a hierarchy of suggested changes. For example, we used three types of changes: 1. Shop stoppers (one of us doesn't want to put our name on it with that there), 2. I strongly encourage this change because I really don't like it, and 3. No big deal, just consider it.

We each were allowed 2 show stoppers for the novel.

The process worked much better than I envisioned (being it was a guy/girl mix) but I think that was because we really wanted it to work and respected the other persons views. We also both learned a lot about the opposite gender POV that will carry over into our solo projects, so much in fact we started a blog to discuss gender differences and the role it plays in creating realistic fiction (RomancesSuspenseNovels.com)

Get everything involvng your partnership in writing, first.

Including rights, and the right to make derivative works.

I usually work in collaboration with my wife, and it's worked well, but I've seen this end in tears too many times for others.

I have a friend who co-wrote a novel which is currently being posted. Go for it! What have you to lose? Nothing!


Alex C
Author of The devils place

Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer have co-written several books. Jennifer writes the female POV and Bob writes the male POV. Works for them. the books are big hits. my mom is reading Agnes and the Hit Man and for her it's laugh out loud funny. lol Good luck.

My best friend and I plan to co-author a book at some point, but we both agreed we haven't developed enough as writers to pull off the work we envision. I figure give it 10 years before we're ready.