How do I co-author a book?
November 17, 2015 5:13 AM Subscribe
How do I co-author a book? How do I make a contract with the other author?
I have been asked by a fellow faculty member (community college level) to co-author a textbook in the sciences. This other faculty, call her “Sophie”, has been in contact with a few publishers who want her to write a book and have them publish it in an interactive e-book format. It is planned to be a better/cheaper option for a few of our existing courses – available through a “subscription” for students. Sophie wants me to join the team, and we’re trying to figure out how to create an agreement between us.
Have you co-authored a text book before? How did you work out the share of ownership, profit, workload, etc.? Did you write a contract yourselves, or did you get a lawyer involved? I’m brand new to even the idea of this, so I don’t know what things might “come up”. What are some things you wish you knew before partnering with someone like this? Have you encountered any pitfalls I should be aware of?
For us, we have just started talking about this, but we don’t really want to hire an attorney. Is it sensible to write our own agreement and sign it? If so, what things should we consider?
[Note: I know the days of making a substantial return as a textbook author are basically over, and I’m not planning to make much on this project. I’m excited to work on it because it will be “the resource we want” and something pretty different from what’s out there now, but we want to do it wisely and without regret.]
Thanks, hivemind!
I have been asked by a fellow faculty member (community college level) to co-author a textbook in the sciences. This other faculty, call her “Sophie”, has been in contact with a few publishers who want her to write a book and have them publish it in an interactive e-book format. It is planned to be a better/cheaper option for a few of our existing courses – available through a “subscription” for students. Sophie wants me to join the team, and we’re trying to figure out how to create an agreement between us.
Have you co-authored a text book before? How did you work out the share of ownership, profit, workload, etc.? Did you write a contract yourselves, or did you get a lawyer involved? I’m brand new to even the idea of this, so I don’t know what things might “come up”. What are some things you wish you knew before partnering with someone like this? Have you encountered any pitfalls I should be aware of?
For us, we have just started talking about this, but we don’t really want to hire an attorney. Is it sensible to write our own agreement and sign it? If so, what things should we consider?
[Note: I know the days of making a substantial return as a textbook author are basically over, and I’m not planning to make much on this project. I’m excited to work on it because it will be “the resource we want” and something pretty different from what’s out there now, but we want to do it wisely and without regret.]
Thanks, hivemind!
Go through the list of staff in your department and see who has co-authored a book, then ask them what they did.
posted by biffa at 5:30 AM on November 17, 2015
posted by biffa at 5:30 AM on November 17, 2015
Based on friends' experiences writing textbooks, I'd give serious thought to if this is worth your time. For many fields, the textbook market is already bloated and the work involved in promoting it is a pain. (A lot of people I know spend too much time at conferences doing promotion.)
Co-authoring, I usually say, is like dating. It is better to collaborate on something small with someone, like a conference paper, rather than a big project like an NSF grant. I have some collaborators where we have a great working relationship and others, not-so-much. This is especially true when people are busy - with families, with teaching, other research goals - and commitment to the project may not be the highest priority. I'd say this is even more the case if this is a colleague that you have to see regularly. Little things can be so annoying. Delegating tasks is essential.
If you've never collaborated with this person, I'd suggest not doing a textbook together.
posted by k8t at 9:12 AM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Co-authoring, I usually say, is like dating. It is better to collaborate on something small with someone, like a conference paper, rather than a big project like an NSF grant. I have some collaborators where we have a great working relationship and others, not-so-much. This is especially true when people are busy - with families, with teaching, other research goals - and commitment to the project may not be the highest priority. I'd say this is even more the case if this is a colleague that you have to see regularly. Little things can be so annoying. Delegating tasks is essential.
If you've never collaborated with this person, I'd suggest not doing a textbook together.
posted by k8t at 9:12 AM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
I haven't coauthored a textbook, but when I've coauthored other work, I've just stuck to the contract from the publisher and everything has worked out fine. I think the biggest considerations are those mentioned above of whether you think you work well with this person, how you both handle stress/communication/etc.
posted by rainbowbrite at 12:22 PM on November 17, 2015
posted by rainbowbrite at 12:22 PM on November 17, 2015
The publisher should give you a contract. Source: was publisher
posted by misanthropicsarah at 3:59 PM on November 17, 2015
posted by misanthropicsarah at 3:59 PM on November 17, 2015
I did research and overall editing on a robotics dissertation with a doctoral candidate who rewrote huge swaths of the paper each night while I was editing and fact-checking it. The final work was more than 70 pages, but I spent more hours on the final product than the actual author did writing and defending it.
In the end, he would only pay half my billed hourly rate for the project because his wife got involved and said they couldn't afford to pay me as much as I billed them for on the final dissertation.
This resulted in a significant delay in getting it published, and more than half my time was wasted. I strongly suggest you both meet with the publisher and ask for their standard boilerplate contract for coauthored works. Review it and see if it's amenable to you both; if so, sign.
I strongly urge you not to draft a contract between yourselves that isn't legally binding or might successfully be disputed by the publisher. Good luck!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 4:02 PM on November 17, 2015
In the end, he would only pay half my billed hourly rate for the project because his wife got involved and said they couldn't afford to pay me as much as I billed them for on the final dissertation.
This resulted in a significant delay in getting it published, and more than half my time was wasted. I strongly suggest you both meet with the publisher and ask for their standard boilerplate contract for coauthored works. Review it and see if it's amenable to you both; if so, sign.
I strongly urge you not to draft a contract between yourselves that isn't legally binding or might successfully be disputed by the publisher. Good luck!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 4:02 PM on November 17, 2015
« Older Help me make a collage of photos and send it off... | What do I need to know before going in for major... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Not a text book, per se, but I am coauthoring a scholarly/academic book that will likely be used in some classrooms. The full manuscript is with our publisher now for review.
How did you work out the share of ownership, profit, workload, etc.?
We split profit and ownership 50-50. We divided up the workload based on our strengths. This resulted in a slightly uneven workload, but it was mostly fair.
Did you write a contract yourselves, or did you get a lawyer involved?
Neither. The publisher gave us a contract that split profit and ownership 50-50. We both read it, approved of it, and signed it. Maybe we should have used a lawyer; I don't know. But we're using an extremely prominent, prestigious publisher, so TBH we weren't too fussed.
What are some things you wish you knew before partnering with someone like this? Have you encountered any pitfalls I should be aware of?
Honestly, I wish I had known more about my coauthor's writing style and his ability to handle stress. He is very verbose, and as a result we have far exceeded our word limit and will have to make some extremely deep cuts in the coming months. And he apparently does not deal well with stress; last time we met in person, about a week before the manuscript was submitted, he was very tense and a result quite nasty to me. (I was stressed and tense, too, but put on my happy face and planned to have a big glass of wine when I got home.)
If I had known then what I know now I likely would not have accepted the project at all. It is no longer fulfilling for me and I'm not even sure the boost to my CV is worth it. So I guess my biggest piece of advice is to take a long critical look at your potential coauthor and decide how you will feel a year or more from now if things are getting stressful.
posted by schroedingersgirl at 5:30 AM on November 17, 2015