Some insights about writers collaborating with idea people

When two or more people collaborate on a book, there’s often a primary writer and a primary idea person. There are lots of ways that collaboration can work, but it pays to think about it before you get started, and adjust it while you’re working together. And it’s also important to for all the collaborators to get joy out of working together.

I’ve done this seven times now. I cowrote three books where I was the primary writer but shared the ideation work with others. I also ghostwrote four books where I did nearly all the writing and clients generated nearly all the ideas. I’m now ghostwriting/collaborating on a fifth book like this.

Writers don’t just write; everyone contributes to ideas

It’s very helpful to have one person, the professional writer or experienced author, taking charge of the structure and text of a book manuscript. This writer likely knows more about planning, narrative, research, case study development, and organization of text in a book, as well as how to deal with publishers and agents. Whether this person is a paid ghostwriter or a coauthor, their experience is going to have a major impact on how well the book is constructed and written.

It’s easy to think of them as a sort of stenographer — a professional writer turning the primary idea person’s ideas into a published work. But this rarely how things go. The idea person’s ideas usually don’t match up neatly to how a book needs to be organized. It is in the colloquy between the writing expert and the idea person that the ideas become a publishable narrative.

If the writing expert has a real facility with ideas, they often influence the idea person’s ideas in a far more collaborative way. The ideas in the end result are developed together and are more powerful than what either person could create alone.

Looking back at my book projects, there were a variety of ways I contributed to ideas. Here is how the writing and idea collaboration went on each of those successive book projects (first three coauthored, the rest ghostwritten):

1. (Coauthor). My coauthor provided the most powerful and fundamental ideas, but I contributed many original ideas as well.
2. (Coauthor). My coauthor and I divided the book up — I wrote half, and he wrote half. I was responsible for the ideas in my half. But I also influenced the ideas in his half.
3. (Coauthor; two other authors). My coauthors and I conceived the ideas together and tried to weave them together into a whole.
4. (Ghostwriter, two client coauthors). My clients defined the ideas and framework of the book, and I did the writing and suggested some additional ideas.
5. (Ghostwriter, one client author). My client offered some vague concepts, but I had to create most of the ideas myself as well as doing all the research and writing the whole book.
6. (Ghostwriter, two client authors). My clients supplied the skeletal ideas in raw form, but I had to do significant research to develop them into book chapters.
7. (Ghostwriter, one client author). My client had clear ideas of what the book should cover, but I had to develop those ideas further and do original research to back them up.
8. (Ghostwriter and coauthor, current project). We are developing the ideas and research together based on the client’s extensive collection of existing ideas.

Here are a few insights I’ve discovered after all of these projects:

• An idea collaborator is far more valuable than just a “writing expert.” Whether you’re working with a coauthor or hiring a ghostwriter, expect your collaborating writer to influence your ideas. Conversely, if you’re the writer on a project, you must ensure that your contributions to the ideas serve the idea person’s vision — in the end, it’s mostly their book, not yours.
• As a writer, you need enough subject knowledge to contribute meaningfully to the ideas. I’ve had to become at least something of an expert on social media, mobile applications, digital marketing, AI, customer experience, agile development, statistics, and entrepreneurship. I had enough knowledge to participate credibly in all of those areas based on my background as a former startup executive, technology analyst, and data/statistical analyst. I could not meaningfully contribute to a book on politics, history, manufacturing, landscaping, psychology, or philosophy; those are just too far out of my expertise. Versatility is great, but specialization also adds value.
• Planning pays off. In all of these projects, we had a plan ahead of time about what we expected to accomplish and how the work would be divided up. In every one, I met in person with my collaborators, either at the start of the project or throughout. The plan often has to shift based on what happens in the project, but you’re still way better off with a plan that everyone agrees on ahead of time.
• There are many ways ideas develop. Sometimes it’s in a brainstorming session. Sometimes it’s a Zoom call where you download and contribute to your collaborator’s ideas. And sometimes it’s through feedback on chapter drafts. Just remain aware that ideas continue to evolve throughout the process; that’s not a problem, it’s progress.
• Idea people who think writers can write their book without demanding a lot of their time are living in a dream world. Shared idea development requires a lot of the idea person’s time.

Working on ideas and writing about them is a wonderful way to make a living. I have a real zest for this stuff, and it shows. If you’re looking for a collaborator, it pays to make sure they are enthusiastic about your ideas and making them even better. Bored writers make terrible partners.