How do you write a book with one or more people?

1. 78

   LisaKoskiposted 11 years ago

   How do you write a book with one or more people?
   
   A family member and her friend asked me to write a book with them and so far there is no plan or organization so nothing is really happening. Part of the difficulty is that we live hours away from eachother so our only contact is via email. What is the best way to write a book with another writer or two?

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2. 82

   tmbridgelandposted 11 years ago

   Most modern word processing programs allow different authors to work on the same document. You can make each writer have her own parts a different color, for example, or if one writes and another edits, they can be different color fonts.
   I think one person is usually the lead author, and does most of the actual writing, then the others fill in and make corrections. Try not to get to ego-involved as this could easily turn into hurt feelings.

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3. 67

   Cardiaposted 11 years ago

   Maybe you could sort amongst yourselves who would be responsible for what sections? Allot portions of the book or story out, and perhaps give little goals, like 'lets see if we can write the first chapter in a month's time'. That way, time won't run away from you. Then you could also send the different portions between each other for editing and reading. Things like Google Hangouts, Skype and Oovoo meetings would be great as well.
   
   You can also use the application DropBox, which was made for collab projects among people who are not necessarily able to see each other in real life frequently. It's free, and very easy to use. I used it on a collab project last year, and it was great.

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4. 60

   PeggyLouposted 11 years ago

   Lots of good suggestions here. I write a lot of material with others, and sometimes to get things started I will write an outline and put it out to the others. I suggest that they can "react" to it, and that it is just a few ideas for them to consider. I find that people who aren't writers don't know where to start when they think about writing something, but they have a lot of ideas if you can prime the pump. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

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5. 62

   Puspanjaleeposted 11 years ago

   I have already written two books with co-authors and for me it was an wonderful expereince. Though we were together during the first book, the second one was written while we were atleast 200 km apart from each other. The second book was on Geography on United States of America and you can imagine how stressful someone who is working on a huge country like USA. We were in constant touch through phone ans e-mails. First, you should prepare the content and planning of the book. Then according to your expertise, divide the chapters amonh you and your co-authors and start writing. The main benifit of having co-authors is that you are in constant alert and scrutiny. Best of luck with that!!

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