How a T-shaped writer/editor collaborates with a T-shaped author

Most experienced businesspeople have a T-shaped knowledge and skill profile. Here’s how that looks:

For a writer and editor like me, the deep part is knowledge of what works in business writing and business book publishing. The broad part includes the topics I’ve ghostwritten or edited books about, including AI, marketing, PR, social media, management, innovation, technology adoption, statistics, and so on. I’d never call myself an expert on these topics, but I know enough to understand what’s going on when I talk to an actual expert.

As an author or expert, you have your own deep knowledge of whatever your topic is. My knowledge of those topics will pale next to yours. But unless you’ve been working on business books for 16 years as I have, I probably know more about writing and publishing than you do.

When two T’s interact

The process of working together with an expert ghostwriter, editor, or writing coach on a book is a process of mutual learning.

I will be in total learning mode when it comes to your topic of expertise. I will have enough knowledge to comprehend what you’re saying, but a lot of what you know will be new to me. This is ideal for an editor, because I pay attention to what’s it’s like to acquire this new knowledge and add it to my baseline on your topic. Put simply, you may have The Curse of Knowledge, which interferes with your ability to put yourself in the shoes of a reader who’s less knowledgeable than you. But I lack that curse, and that’s an asset to the team. Luckily, I love learning about nearly anything, so this is an enjoyable part of the process for me.

You will be learning mode when it comes to books and publishing. Even if you’ve written a book or two, there’s always more to learn. It’s a confusing and counterintuitive world. But having experienced so many book projects across a wide variety of author types and publishing models, I can teach you about the elements of publishing and writing that are most relevant for your book. I don’t normally charge for this educational process. Instead, it contributes to the trust between the client and me and thus pays off for the whole project.

I don’t hide my ignorance on your topic. I’m not going to be saying “Oh, yeah, attribution models” to a marketing expert, even if I know a little bit about them. I’m going to be saying “How would you explain attribution models to a marketer who’s unfamiliar with them?” It doesn’t help the project for me to feign deep knowledge that’s in the shallow top of my T-shaped profile.

Similarly, you shouldn’t go forward pretending you’re an expert on publishing. If you were, you wouldn’t need my help. I don’t care what you tell your friends, but when you interact with me, I expect a lot of questions (and a certain amount of incredulity) about what happens with manuscripts and books. The smarter you become about that, the better your project will go, so you’ll probably be doing a fair amount of learning and listening.

Mutual learning is rewarding

This process in which each of us imparts our expertise to the other is one of the most fulfilling elements of experts working with other experts. It’s two people getting smarter as they create something powerful together. What could be more interesting than that?

It only works when you know what you’re smart about what you’re ignorant about. Lots of us are used to “faking it” regarding knowledge and skills in business situations, because revealing gaps in our knowledge makes us vulnerable. There’s going to be none of that pretending in our relationship.

I know what I don’t know. And hopefully, you know what you don’t know, too. That’s a solid foundation for a beautiful collaboration.