How to Write a Book with Somebody Else
When You Need a Collaborator, an Expert, a Developmental Editor, or Even a Ghostwriter
You’re ready to write your book, but you need to pull in some expertise — or even a ghostwriter. Collaborating on the writing of a book can take many forms. I’ll discuss the most common:
Coauthorship
When two or more people collaborate to write a book, they are each considered a coauthor. The authorship relationship should be spelled out in writing in a legal document because inevitably something will go sideways.
Decide who is the first author (Pat Smith and Chris Brown) and not necessarily in alphabetical order. The editorial challenge here is that with two authors, no one can write and use first person. In other words, they can’t say, “When I was in graduate school, I took a course in psychology,” because the reader doesn’t know who the I speaker is. This is a huge editorial decision, and, as an editor, I find myself untangling these types of arrangements a lot.
Usually, there is a main author — the person who wrote most of the book. In that case, we often end up dropping the second name or going to a with arrangement (see next section). If the book is truly a collaboration, like Talia Wagner and Allen Wagner in Married Roommates…
