Writing your book with a partner, or several partners, could be dream come true. It can dramatically reduce the time it takes to write the book, it can give you motivation, and it can allow you to focus on what you do best, but if you don't do it right, you can destroy the project, destroy friendships and destroy an other wise excellent idea.



Here are the ways to make it work effortlessly for everyone involved.

To begin with, have a blue print of exactly what will be in the book. Not just the information and the ideas, but the chapter the chapter by chapter progress of the story (if it is a novel) or the presentation of information (if it is non-fiction).

In fact, this might be the very first thing you and your partners do when you decide to collaborate on a book.

Determine what will be in it, where the story will go, what information will be presented, and when. The more work you book into the book at this stage, the less work and frustration you'll find later on.

While we're on the topic of partners, you want to work with people who are familiar to you. You'll know in advance that some people are very aggressive in their work patterns, while others are more, well, lazy. It helps everyone if you can avoid those who will constantly be tardy with their work. Creating a book is difficult enough without having to hound one or two individuals about getting their work done.

Once you've got the blue print of the book sketched out, and you know who will be partnering with you, it's time to decide who will write which chapters. With a non-fiction book, the ideal is to have each create the chapter that reflects their specialty. You really don't want them writing about something they know nothing about.

With a novel, it's a little less imperative. As long as everyone knows what the story will be about, and what will happen in the end, all that a partner has to do is know what will happen in his or her chapter (or series of chapters) and where they have to end up, so the story can continue with the next writer.

Make sure you impose strict deadlines for every writer (including yourself). There are no exceptions. The creation of the first chapter from each partner must be sent to you by a specific date. This way you'll know exactly when the book will be finished.

By the way, make sure everyone agrees to these deadlines and signs their name to an agreement saying they'll do it. If they fail to meet the deadlines, they'll simply be dropped from the team and their contribution to the book will not be recognized.

Once all the chapters are written, hey presto, you've got a book. And it will be a book higher in quality than you would have imagined. And it will be finished far faster than you ever thought possible as well. Next step, the editor.

Your book, even though written by several, must read like it was written by one author. And an editor can usually take care of that. If you're doing it yourself, then make some rules for your writers right from the beginning: No sentence longer than 11 words, no paragraph longer than seven lines, write in the past tense always.

If you're writing a novel, provide information about the characters to everyone. The protagonist is blond, 40, muscular, but walks with a limp because of an injured left leg. That sort of thing.

With a little help from your friends, your book can be created in record time!