We have several projects in which we are open to working with Co-authors. They range from Suspense/thriller, to Sci-Fi. It is obvious that a successful collaboration between multiple creative personalities requires a tricky balance of common goals and freedom of expression. To achieve both, it is important that everyone involved work within the context of a specified framework, where expectations and responsibilities are clearly established.
Essentially, the purpose of our Co-author program is to allow us to produce a larger volume of work than we can produce in-house. We have more ideas than we could ever hope to produce in one lifetime, so we need help developing those ideas into finished works.
Because we are providing the ideas for the stories, we approach these projects in a very specific way, and it is important that the agreements we establish with a co-author are thoughtful and deliberate. Please read below about how we approach entering into a collaborative relationship with a talented writer.
Experienced Authors Vs. first-time authors:
We are open to collaboration with both established and first-time authors, but we approach the two differently. With an established author, we place more emphasis on your past body of work, and less on determining whether you have the ability to tell a story.
We will ask you a few questions, such as:
- How many books have you completed?
- What is your publishing experience?
- Are there any short works that you have finished, such as articles, blog posts, short stories you would like to share with us?
- How much time can you set aside for uninterrupted writing on our project each week?
- How many words can you typically produce for our project in a day, or week?
- Lastly, feel free to tell us of any specific education, experience or credentials you feel has prepared you for success as an author.
We will also ask you to present any questions you may have for us, concerning the creative process, the timeline for the project, the written agreements, and the compensation.
At the end of the question and answer phase, if we are all interested in moving forward, We will ask that you do a small writing project. With an established author, the exercise is as much about letting you sample how we present an outline as it is about you demonstrating your ability to tell the tale. Regardless of experience level, we must be able to work well together, or the project is going to bog down.
A sample writing project would involve you producing a small amount of text, 1,500 words approximately, working from an outline we provide. You will get an idea of the level of detail we provide in our outlines, and you have the opportunity to show us how you would take the outline and develop it into a draft version in a relatively short amount of time. If the exploratory stage of the process goes well, if we like what we see, and you think working with us sounds interesting, we will approach you about co-writing a title with us.
We will provide the idea for the story, including a scene-by-scene outline. We will provide character sketches for the major characters, a target page count, and your job will be to develop each of the scenes, just as you did in your writing demonstration. You will be responsible for taking the detailed outline we provide and developing it into the first draft of the book.
You will submit your writing as you complete each section, and be paid according to our agreement with you. We will review the sections as they come in, and may give some feedback. Once you have produced all of the scenes in the outline, your part of the project is complete. You are responsible for producing the first draft of the book. One of the members of our team will then begin going through the story, refining it, and bringing it up to second draft quality. We will do multiple drafts before we have a completed book, but once the book is complete, we will publish it, listing you as a co-author.
If the process has been enjoyable and productive for all parties concerned, we may offer you an opportunity to co-write a second book, but even if that doesn’t happen, you will be listed as a co-author on the book you helped produce, and you will have been paid for your work, according to the agreement we negotiated.
If you are interested in hearing about how co-authors are compensated, you can read about that on our Author Compensation page.
If this sounds like something you would like to explore, feel free to contact us by e-mail, at information@multivalentpress.com with the words “Co-author Query” as the subject line. Be sure to tell us in the body of the email that you are an established author, with one or more projects previously published. We look forward to hearing from you.