@Old Hack, enlighten me. What qualifies one to write a book? If you read my post you would have realized I clearly said I'm a first time writer. What are you missing?
Tiger, others have already answered your question but I'll have a crack at it too. I warn you that it's not going to be easy reading for you: but you have asked, and I think you're keen to learn and listen, so I'm going to be blunt now and try to show you why I'm so very concerned about this, and why I have so many doubts about you writing this book.
A first-time writer is almost certainly going to struggle with writing a readable book in a month. Especially one which requires a lot of research and discussion with another person, as does the one you've described. I've written several books this way: they take time to get right, even though I know what I'm doing and am a reasonably experienced writer (nearly thirty years, and more than thirty books, so far).
When I read your comments in this thread I see quite a few statements which suggest to me that you don't actually understand the size of the task ahead of you, and that you don't know enough about writing to do the work justice.
For example:
I'm a first time writer and would much appreciate advise as how to structure a freelance book writing agreement between myself (author) and the subject (who is also the client).
That paragraph is not elegant or easy to read. You have a homophone substitution. You use over-complex and inaccurate terms.
I will be writing a book for him about his field of expertise by interviewing him and doing extensive research. He will self publish it. At least initially.
More wordy and clunky text. A suggestion that your client is intending to look for a trade publishing deal after having self published the book, which is unlikely to work.
I'm not confident we have a very unique or commercially viable work or subject (sort of a parody work in the genre), so I am asking to be paid a flat fee with revenue sharing.
Any form of comedy is incredibly difficult to get right. Parody is particularly difficult. And if you're paid a flat fee, that's it: no "revenue sharing" (by which I assume you mean royalties). Once again you've demonstrated a lack of knowledge about publishing.
Also, he doesn't really know what he wants in terms of an outline so I will have to research the subject and generate it as well as largely drive the entire process.
More clumsy, confusing writing; more misuse of words (you're going to generate your subject? what?); and a very casual approach to something that I know is going to be a huge amount of work.
I'd love some advise on what type of agreement I such generate for this project...
a.) a writing collaboration with a section for the "advance" or flat fee
-or-
b.) freelance writing for hire contract with a profit sharing section
An advance is a lot different to a flat fee, but you're suggesting here that they're the same thing.
If you do work for hire you don't get a share of the profits.
The agreements involved are usually called contracts.
And your punctuation is lacking.
I have boiler plate templates for both contracts.
Where did you find those boiler-plate contracts? Are they from a publisher? If so, they'll favour the publisher and you'll need to substantially rework them. To do that you'll need a specialist lawyer with experience in dealing in publishing.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the best and most appropriate contract to base the agreement?
We can't tell you this. You need a lawyer for this.
2. Is it achievable to customize the contract without a lawyer? If not what is the most cost effective route to pursue in contract preparation?
More clunky phrasing. More casual assumptions. More evidence that you don't know what you're doing here, and are hugely out of your depth. And yes, you will need a lawyer and the most cost-effective route does not necessarily mean finding the cheapest one.
3. Also, is there any book writing planning template, process or reference I can use to guide the process? I feel he wants to be involved in every last detail since we've never done this before and I'd prefer to guide the process and minimize redundancies to streamline the work process.
All this depends on the book you're writing, and who you're writing it with or for. We can't tell you where to find a template for your book because you're the one writing it, not us; and if you don't even know how to structure the book or write your own outline, how are you going to write the book itself?
4. Should I send out a book writing proposal to get us on the same page? If so does anyone have a proposal template or know where i can find one?
Who are you planning to send your proposal to? If you don't have an outline or proposal for this book already, how do you know how much work it will take for you to write the book? Do you even know how long the book is going to be? And if you don't have a proposal or an outline, how are you going to produce a contract for the work involved?
Any other advise to prevent the pitfalls of being first time writer collaborating with a micromanager
are greatly encouraged.
Again, that homophone substitution. You need to work on that. You also have a missing word or two in that two-line paragraph. This does not fill me with confidence about the book you're going to write.
That's one of your posts here dealt with. I'll not deal with the others in such detail: instead I'll pick out the points which worry me the most.
Yes, he's a bit 'less of clues' being new to the process and I think he wants me to walk him through the process, which is painful and time killing. I want to avoid this... He's a fr-olleague (half friend, half colleague)
Those made-up words are coy and artificial and inelegant and wrong. They pull your reader out of your text and stop them dead in their tracks. This is not what you want to achieve, as a writer, and their presence in your writing here is a big clue to me that your writing isn't yet up to par. Not for a whole book. And if you only have a month to learn to write more effectively, you don't have enough time. Not nearly enough. Not if you want to write an effective, readable, interesting book.
Pain per dollar must work out in profitably for me.
That doesn't make sense.
I agree with the flat fee point. With no outline or clear briefing from him, loads of research required and an extremely tight deadline (one month) on a 200-300 page book, can you give me an estimate as what to charge for the project?
You don't count books in pages, you count them in words. How long do you envision this book to be? Is it going to be a picture book, with just a few words per page? Is it going to be a novel, with perhaps 250 words to each page? Or how about a textbook with 3-400 words a page?
p.s. Any good reference or link for a "How to interview subjects" I can review.
You don't know how to interview your subject? You have even more to learn than I thought. This is a really big issue. And a really big problem.
My objective is project management controls and setting the right price for the project. Favorable pain per dollar relationship.
Shouldn't your objective be writing a good book?
Perhaps a flat fee capped with-in a time period or a price per hour is the way forward to manage it?
Perhaps. And perhaps you also need to learn how to write a smooth, readable sentence, and to spell "within".
@
Gillhoughly, i will be asking for credit in same size lettering to build my folio.
You need to work on your writing still, for both clarity and smoothness.
The font-size used on the jacket of the book, if and when it's eventually published, is a very minor point here; and a self-published ghost-written memoir isn't going to impress anyone in publishing unless it sells tens--perhaps hundreds--of thousands of copies, which is very unlikely: most self published books sell fewer than 200 copies. This book isn't going to "build [your] folio" unless your objective is to continue to ghost-write self published books.
So wouldn't this be a freelance work-for-hire contract as opposed to ghost writer?
Not necessarily.
@Jeffo, I've used a consulting phase other than for information gathering.
Jargon. I don't know what that means.
Is there any reference you share with me online as to how to structure the meeting and a checklist of pertinent questions to ask?
More clumsy writing, this time with missing words and clunky construction.
Also what would you charge and approximately how much time would you allocate to the consulting phase?
What "consulting phase"? I don't know what you mean.
As also mentioned I am a first time writer but 12 year advertising vet. I understand and respect there are skill set differences between the two forms. Hence, the use of the forum and the questions to achieve the "what's what."
Working in advertising is not the same as writing books.
Writing isn't something you can learn how to do by asking a few questions at AbsoluteWrite, marvellous though this place is.
You are so far away from having the skills you need to write this book.
###
Tigerman, I'm really sorry to be so very blunt. I really don't intend to upset or offend you: I just wanted to show you the things I'm picking up in your comments, in order to help you understand why I don't think you're prepared to take on this project. I wouldn't have gone into such detail had you not asked me to explain.
You are vastly underprepared to write this book. You are not yet a good writer; you've never written a book before; you don't know how to write an outline or proposal for the book; you don't know where to go to get a good contract; you don't know how to interview your subject; you don't have nearly enough time to do all this, even if you were a good writer already; and so on and so forth.
I hope this is a help. I hope I've not hurt your feelings. And I hope you don't end up in a nasty mess if you do decide to go ahead with writing this book. I fear you will, but I really hope you won't.
Welcome to AW! You're among friends, relax and have a coffee and cookies. We're here to watch your back.
