Decide the type + length of book
Do you want a paperback, hardback, ebook, or all three? It can also be a downloadable PDF that readers have to purchase from a website of your choice. The length of your book will have a lot to do with this. A book that’s 25 pages could very well help me more than a book of 250 pages. Page count doesn’t dictate how good/helpful the book is. Remember that, then decide about how long you all want your book to be by comparing it to another already published book.
Point out the target audience
Who you’re writing to determines how you’ll talk to them. I was hired for a strategy session between two co-authors and discovered that they had different assumptions for who their readers were. One of the authors wanted to write to all businesswomen. The other wanted to write to black businesswomen women. Who’s your audience?
Delegate who will write what
And also be open to this changing the further along you get in the idea or the actual book-writing. Are y’all splitting chapters or is one person starting the chapter and the other person finishing it? Are you splitting the book into two parts and each writer gets their own part?
Deadline for the book to be published
When do you want the book to be in your hand? Now count back about five months. This is when the writing needs to be finished. It’ll take anywhere from 4-6 months on average to get it edited, formatted, designed, etc. Make sure this date is feasible for all co-authors.
Communicate your writing/creating style
Do you like to do a little bit everyday or do you like to schedule a day or two out of the month and really go in? Do you prefer to write it up then go back and type it in? Do you “brain dump” at first then go back and clean it up? Co-authors should communicate this with one another for clarity.
Schedule regular check-ins
This is a big one. Regular check-ins help make sure that the vision is still aligned, the deadline still works, and if any issues need to be sorted out. If your deadline is months away, then maybe you meet once or twice a month. After that, you might start meeting about once a week. This serves as accountability and helps dissolve communication breakdowns.
Determine how fees + payments will be split
You’ll need to pay for editing, design, formatting, printing, shipping, and more. Are you covering these costs 50/50? What about the payments once they start rolling in? Are those split 50/50 too? If one author is strapped for cash, then an option could be the other author paying the upfront costs then collecting all payments until the debt is relieved. This is where contracts come in handy to keep the relationship in a feel-good, fair place.
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