Unlock the Power of Collaborative Book Writing!

In this episode, Brad and Dixie delve into the advantages of co-authoring a book with another expert. From sharing the workload to boosting credibility, discover how partnerships can lead to a better book. They share personal experiences, tips for choosing the right co-authors, and potential pitfalls to watch out for. Whether you're an aspiring author or a seasoned expert, this episode sheds light on how collaboration can elevate your publishing journey. Tune in and learn the secrets to successful co-authoring!

The Expert’s Journey podcast is dedicated to empowering authors, content creators, experts and professional speakers worldwide.

Join hosts Brad Hauck, author of AI Powered Profits: Use AI to Automate & Accelerate Your Business in 90 Days, and Dixie Carlton, author of Start With the Draft: How to Easily Plan and Write a Non-Fiction Book, as they share practical insights to elevate your speaking career.

Each episode delivers actionable strategies to grow your audience, sharpen your skills, and increase your impact through speaking, publishing, and smart marketing.

Whether you're looking to boost your influence or explore new ways to share your expertise, The Expert’s Journey gives you the tools and direction to succeed.

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Experts Journeys podcast, where we delve into the strategy and insights to help you excel in your field. We're the hosts, Brad and Dixie. And in today's episode, we're exploring the advantages of collaborating with another expert on them. From sharing the workload to enhanced credibility, we'll uncover how partnerships can lead to a better book. Whether you're an aspiring author or a grizzled expert, this effort will give you some points to think about on the power of collaboration. Good morning, Vixie. Good morning, Brad. You just walked to mind a very old Ernest Hemingway sitting on a beach with a cigarette in his hand, puffing away as he's typing, grizzled and old. That's one of the descriptive words like grizzled, and there's a lovely word, to say the least. That's because it's cold breath. Yeah. One thing about writing is you do get the opportunity to use some fantastic words to describe people's places and things as Yes. You do that neat. Very interesting. So today, I'm working in collaboration with other authors, and I suppose I've worked on a couple of collaborative books along the way. One most recently for the Global Speakers Summit, and we did one with I'm gonna speak as there, put together one. That was pretty cool. And I've worked on another one in the past where I submitted some stuff on leadership and another one on digital marketing way, way back. Always interesting to do those mixed projects, and I know a lot of people have actually launched their careers from collaborating book. That was the first time they ever written a book. There's a lot to be said for them. I have to say that my second ever book was a big collaborative book way back twenty two years ago when that sort of thing was really first beginning and getting traction. And I I authored a book which was designed to help educate those of us who were in the program on what it was all about, what the book publishing journey was gonna be about. We got our names alongside of big names such as Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Tracy, Bob Proctor. So it was a brilliant process for learning everything about what we were supposed to be doing. And since then, I've gone on to pioneer, I think, five or six additional books since then. So I've cut my teeth a little bit in the early days on project managing those kind of book collaboration projects. So I've learned a little bit, and I've also unless I say that tongue in cheek, but I've also worked with a number of coauthors where it's just been two or three of them working on a book. And there is a big difference. But like you, I know of many people who have, started out their whole publishing journey with, an opportunity to put a chapter into someone's book. And that's been a really good opportunity for them because it's given them a taste of what it's like to be an author. And there are some really good reasons why I encourage people to do that. But I think that what I need to say in this episode about this particular topic is that there are many pitfalls and it's like walking through a swamp where you know there's alligators, but you're just not quite sure when they're going to turn up. And you have to be very careful how you proceed with a collaborative project. So why might someone want to do a joint book project, like volunteer to do one? I don't wanna say laziness, but it does mean that you don't have to write a whole bunch of chapters yourself. You only have to write one. So you may only need to write 3,000 words or a little bit more or a little bit less than that to be in a book that, if it's well put together, is going to be a good credible way of you getting your content or at least a taste of it out to the marketplace for other people to read it. And you can use it as a book that tells people that you are an author. If the book performs well, then having your name alongside other great people who have also written books in the past and oftentimes great names are worth having your name aside associated with. So it's a very good easy entry into the publishing and the authorship journey. So that's the reason why most people go into it. Yeah. I suppose the question that brings to mind is, like, how do you choose who to work with? Because if you choose the wrong person, as we all know in business, bad business partners are bad. So who you know, how do you choose your coauthors? It can be every bit as bad as getting a divorce. So you start out on that fabulous honeymoon phase and everything's wonderful, and then someone slips up and it's all over. It's a really good question, though. How do you choose someone? So let's look at it first from the perspective of if you're asked to contribute to a book where someone else is project managing it, and all you are asked to do is to be part of it and contribute something, in that instance, find someone who knows what they're doing, that they're going to put your name into a highly credible branded, sophisticated product that you can be proud to be associated with. And I've known a number of people who have come to me and said, I started out with this, and now I'm really worried because the book just doesn't look like it's going to be any good. It's not got the credibility. I think I'm paying too much to be in it. And I I don't have necessarily great value associated with putting my brand into that particular other company's brand, or I don't want to have my name alongside of someone who I know is not necessarily someone I would want to do business with. So you have to do all your due diligence right at the start. Is this the first book that someone has collaboratively produced? Do you have a say in who else is in it if you're the name who is being put there as being the celebrity author or one of the noted names to go on it, you have to know that you're not going to be used nefariously Yeah. Put a lot of some chunky people. Yes. To associate your brain with other people that you wouldn't normally want to be associated with. So you do have to do your due due diligence. But if you've got someone who is doing the good quality book and they've got a history of doing that, they know what they're doing. Let's say a publishing company or someone like myself is putting something together like that and you know it's going to be good quality and that the other contributors will be good quality authors, then definitely go into that. And there's a bonus if you're going to be able to learn some more about your own abilities to put together a chapter, if there's some coaching associated with that or some level of learning, that's a really good opportunity to explore fully. Yeah. If if you're going to work with someone on a one on one or just one or two other authors into a book, then you need to make sure that you've got good quality project management lined up. So not necessarily the two of you to do the book together, unless one of you is very experienced at that. But you also want to make sure that the person that you are going to write with is on the same page as you, that you would enter into this a business opportunity and that you have the foresight ideally to get some legal advice right at the beginning on what happens with your own independent and joint intellectual property. Who owns the copyright? How do you want to treat things like not a lot of people know this, but a book is actually available, or can be protected by copyright for seventy years after the death of the author. So do you want this other person that you're writing with or other people that you're writing with to have their grandchildren fighting over your content together if they all decide that you don't like each other for some reason later, fifty years down the track? So you've got to make sure that you've got some good i's dotted and t's crossed in terms of your agreement about what you're doing and why you're doing it and what happens after the book is done. So there's a pretty never really know if it's gonna be a hit or not, do you? It could come out and go ballistic and be worth millions and millions of dollars. That that can happen, and and you just don't know if that will happen. Exactly. Imagine, for example, if Napoleon Hill or Dale Carnegie, both of whom many years since passed away, that they both wrote books that are still in the top bestseller lists today. They both wrote those books as individuals, Napoleon Hill's and can grow rich and Dale Carnegie, how to make friends and influence people. Both of those books were books that were popular to start with, and they have continued to be very popular. But imagine if they had coauthors with either of those books. And years down the line, those coauthors' children or grandchildren, for some reason, didn't have something clear in the estate management of their intellectual property. That's a problem. So you never know when your book is going to become wildly successful, and you do have to plan as though it might be right from the start. So there's obviously special arrangements you can put in place, special agreements. Obviously, lawyers' contracts are available, I suspect. Do you keep that sort of thing as a publisher? Do you have a a a template that you use for that? I always recommend that people go and have the agreement that we put together for them or with them checked by a lawyer. Some people choose not to, of course, we can't make them. Positive experience that I've had over the years, and I've done several books now collaboratively very successfully, and I have had a couple of interesting divorce cases scenario where people have jointly written a book and then right at the publishing point, which is stuff that's been published, they've fallen out or they haven't agreed on something. With the benefit of all my experience, I have put together some good agreements. A lawyer might not call them a contract, but I, as I say, would always encourage them to go and get that formalized if they wish to, if they have any doubts whatsoever. Sometimes you'll get husbands and wives to write books together very successfully, and Ellen and Barbara Case are a great example of that. Happy Married for thirty odd years have written a number of great books together, and they work collaboratively brilliantly together, as I understand. But imagine if they didn't. So you always want to make sure that you've covered yourself. And, yes, a good publisher will have their ability to guide you in in that development of your agreements, but nothing beats just still going and just getting something checked by a lawyer if you're concerned. Yeah. Look. It's it's an interesting area, the divorce thing, if we're gonna get on that track. I had a a friend recently tell me that they've had to go back and rewrite sessions of their book because there was stories that their partner didn't want in the book anymore. So they literally had to rewrite whole sessions of their book because of the divorce. And I was like, okay. It's interesting and makes sense. But you never know what could happen down the track. I suppose maybe why I always say to write my own books. But as I said, I have done some collaborative stuff, but it's all good. You've got to accept that sort of stuff can happen. But it's like anything with intellectual property rights. There's levels to it. If everything goes good, it's all good. If anything goes bad, it gets real bad. Real quick. You get a really good lawyer. Yeah. So you just need to be aware of it, I think, more than anything. I think it comes down to values and also knowing each other. You and I are doing this podcast, but we've been working together on multiple things for years. And we know each other's work style. We know each other's content. We know how to have a a good conversation if something's not quite right or if we want to air something. So we've had that behind us for for many years. But I think when you are choosing someone to become involved with an intellectual property arrangement, you want to know that you have shared values. You want to know that you've got an I a shared vision for the outcome and for the reason why you're doing what you're doing. And not skipping past those is the most important part. Yeah. I think, athlete. It is just one of those things. It's better forewarned than to find out afterwards. Right. Because you never know when things are gonna go wrong, and they could always go wrong. How is it different to co author a book versus doing it alone? What is it that really makes it difficult from the author's perspective or good from an author's perspective? And we've looked at some of the bits like you don't have to do all the writing yourself, obviously. Having to work with other people can be interesting sometimes. Interesting is a subjective word. Absolutely. It's different in that if you are authoring the book yourself, you are the only one who has to be satisfied, or, and to some degree, your publisher and editors. You're the only one who has to be satisfied with the content. You only have to do one style of the content, the writing. You may or may not have diagrams and images that goes with your content. If you are doing the same kind of book with two people, you have to find a point where your individual voices are still evident. And I'm working on one at the moment with a couple of clients where one writes a little bit more academically in their style, and one writes a little bit more trades direct in their style. But we've managed to figure out how they both talk about the similar topics. And in many instances, their content has crossed over, but the style that we've gone through with how to get their content developed together has helped them to both see where they can both contribute at an equal level without that being a problem. So You could you could almost do that professor in the tradie conversation sort of thing almost, couldn't you? Yeah. And, look, we did one book a few years ago where we had, a medical professional and a layperson, and potentially, the layperson was writing letters in her style of bringing out the questions, and the medical person was answering those Yeah. At her style. And that was a really good way of of giving the content out in a non academic and academic level of information, and that worked really well. But one of the key things to making it work, I think, is having someone who can project manage it where that person, and whether it's an editor or a publisher like myself, someone or a good project manager who can actually get the best out of both parties and get them talking together without allowing either of them to go off on tangents. Because when you've got people who want to write something and they write differently, they will go off on tangents. Person will have one point of view about something. One person will have a different point of view about something. You need to find someone who can sit very diplomatically on the fence right down the middle and make sure that they're both still constantly leaning against the fence, not wandering off into their own paddocks. You almost need, like, a a judge and a third writer, I feel. Let's tell you, a judge that makes a decision to, okay, settle down. This is the way that we're gonna go with this because I can see both your points, but let's go down here. But then I feel you almost need that third writer who does the little joins Right. And joins this conversation to that conversation and so on, and so they weave the book together, not just chapter sort of thing. There's a lot of weaving. And that's what I do. And I I guess when I'm working in that sort of way, I'm the weaver and the person who helps to meld the information, make sure that everybody is still sticking to the original planned agreement about what content would be written, how it would be developed, which kind of things would be specifically protected as far as intellectual property for each person. And sometimes you do need to protect the individual's property intellectual property within the one content package or book. So there are ways of making sure that you have someone who is really adept at managing the personalities as well as maintaining the big picture to be the project manager. Yeah. It does take it's like hurting Yeah. At times. I love that one. Look. It did yeah. It really would take some skill to keep everybody on the same page. Easy when you're trying to manage yourself. Quite frankly, it's hard enough when you're trying to manage yourself, but trying to manage two different trains of thought requires a specific skill level. And I I suppose with your experience, you've been there. You've done that. And it does get easier with the more practice you've had because that's what you do. So I get that it works for you. But from an author's perspective, obviously, when you write a book by yourself, you're on your own and you're nodding your way through, it's your style, it's your voice, it's your thinking, all of that. What would someone hope to get out of doing a project like a joint project when it's gonna require all that extra work and all that extra energy? By the time this podcast episode is aired, we will have launched a new book project for one of the speakers' associations, the VSAI. And we'll be doing 15 chapters approximately in that book, which will have 15 separate authors all writing their best content across a predetermined level of or or selection of topics for a business book. What's gonna be great for them is that all 15 of those authors, as well as us and the PSAI, will all be promoting that book to a much wider market. So you'll get value, each of the people involved in something like that. And this is fairly typical of why people go into a collaborative book. Yeah. People will all have the benefit of each other's social media and marketing capabilities to help promote the book to a wider market. So the book will go out to such a wide market that every single author is exposing themselves to all of the people at the reach collectively of those 15 or 16 people. But you can get your marketing message and your brand and your content as a sample of it out to a much wider market. And that is the is the key reason why people would want to go into something like that. But, again, you have to have at the very beginning someone who's project managing it and planning right at the beginning how that book is going to be marketed, to whom it's going to be marketed, what are the core fundamental pieces within the book that is going to make it valuable to that market, and then sticking to the plan. Excellent. So you're talking about the VSAI, which is the Virtual Speakers Association International. It's Now for anyone who doesn't know who the heck is, that's for speakers who live in any country around the world, whether they have a speaking organization like Professional Speakers Australia or National Speakers to join, and they can become part of a speaking organization that's truly worldwide international. And they meet virtually and sometimes in person too, but a great organization. I will say I am a member, and, just so everybody understands who we're talking about there, because I'd hate for speakers to be sitting in a country listening to the podcast and not realizing there is a a speaking association available that they can join even if there's not a national one. Yes. That's a good point. And the Global Speakers Federation, which is the overarching umbrella association for all of the country associations, and this why sits under there as well as a separate chapter. And several people I know are members of both a country association and the VSNI, depending on on your reasons why they might wish to be. When an association or a large company or any kind of association could potentially put together a collaborative book with a dozen or so of its members and actually reach a much wider market, whether you're in plumbing, trades of other kinds, in the beauty industry. Imagine a book by the beauty industry that's got, chapters from hairdressers, cosmetic surgeons, beauticians, aestheticians, nail technicians, whatever, just coming out to the broad market of women who want to know more about how to maximize their glamour look. Right, and they'll, like, bring us back to the start. I was talking about the one that we did for the Global Speakers Summit, and that's a perfect example of an association having a book for their conference, their summit, and anyone who's running a conference could do that with the speakers. Yep. It doesn't have to be large as far as the the amount of pages in the book. If everyone contributes to one chapter about a specific topic and tied into the conference theme Mhmm. You can actually produce that relatively quickly and have an ad in the front saying brought to you by the conference organizers or whatever. So it does bring up a great opportunity for marketing as well for a conference. It's not just something an author could do. It's something you can suggest to conferences, or if you want to run your own workshops or your own conferences and retreats, you might like to do one. Again, it doesn't have to be printed either, does it? We can go to the virtual book. Absolutely. Yeah. And to have everybody that's attending an event like a conference, to have an a sample of what everybody's who's the speakers, content that they then get to take away and read on the plane on the way home on their Kindle or or their tablets. How else can you be ensure that the conference content and the theme actually goes a lot further than just the end of the last drinks on the last day. Exactly. And you could just set up a a lead capture form with put your mail address in, and we'll send you the PDF of it. They can download it, read it on the plane back home. It's a great thing to grow your list if you are running a conference. So there there are certainly some opportunities there as well as for the speakers and for authors, but also for conference organizers. Yeah. And I'd rather have something like that in my grad bags and a whole bunch of extra pings and a couple of extra drink bottles. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Having some nice information, I always do a plain read on the way home. I've done that plenty of times from conferences. So, Dixie, that's awesome. Some really good information to think about there about collaborating with other people to produce a book. It's not something that everybody does, and it may not be something that anyone does during their time as a speaker or an expert, but it's certainly something that they should consider because there's some great value there. You can tie your name to some other great people as well, and sometimes the sum of many is greater than the whole, as they say. Your own knowledge takes you so far, but bringing that whole group of people together can really maybe boost it up just to another level and put you in a different kind of realm when it comes to your speaking business, your expert business. Absolutely. Yeah. Nice. It's something that a lot of people don't necessarily think about as being such a viable opportunity, but it really is and worth exploring for sure. Okay. Yeah. Do you like this episode? Please subscribe and share. And if you need help on writing a book, see Dixie at indieexpertspublishing.com. If you want help with AI or online marketing, book a chat with me at misterwebmarketing.com. We appreciate you tuning in, and we look forward to having you with us again in the next episode. Talk to you soon. Thanks, everyone. See you, Brad.