Self-publishing can sometimes feel like a lonely journey. Without external deadlines or a support team, writers may procrastinate or even burn out. A collaboration, however, injects a vital dose of motivation and accountability. Knowing another person is relying on your contribution can provide that impetus to stay on track, meet deadlines, and push through creative blocks.
Collaboration can take many forms, from co-writing a book or contributing to an anthology to running joint promotions or simply sharing resources. If you’re considering working with another author, these do’s and don’ts can help you make your partnership useful rather than complicated.
1. Do know what you want from the collaboration
Before approaching another author, decide what you’re actually trying to achieve. The clearer your goal is, the easier it is to find the right collaborator.
Audience sharing is one of the strongest reasons for authors to collaborate. When authors with compatible readerships promote each other, both gain exposure to readers who already buy similar books. Common author cross-promotion strategies include:
- newsletter swaps
- social media promotions with shared marketing costs
- joint giveaways or shared launch campaigns
- book bundles
- podcast appearances or guest posts
- anthology promotions
These partnerships allow indie authors to reach an established, relevant audience rather than constantly trying to attract readers from scratch. Collaborative efforts lead to a synergistic effect where the combined reach is greater than the sum of individual efforts. This is crucial for breaking through the noise in crowded markets. But a co-author needs a very different level of compatibility from someone you’re partnering with for a one-time newsletter swap. So, treat every collaboration with the intensity it deserves, not more, not less.
2. Don’t choose a collaborator just because you like their books
Liking someone’s writing is a good start, but it doesn’t guarantee that you can work well together. Before committing to anything substantial like co-authoring, look at how the other author works. Consider their publishing history, reliability, communication style, audience, and professional reputation. Discuss your working pace, creative preferences, deadlines, revision process, and expectations before starting the manuscript.
For a marketing partnership, their readership should overlap with yours enough to make the promotion worthwhile.
3. Do look for complementary strengths
A good collaboration doesn’t require both authors to be good at exactly the same things. One author may be stronger at plotting while another writes excellent dialogue. One may understand Amazon advertising while another has built a strong newsletter. One may enjoy organizing the project while another prefers concentrating on the creative work. Those differences are useful.
Collaboration also reduces the number of tasks each author has to outsource. Authors may be able to share knowledge, contacts, promotional resources, or production expenses. The goal isn’t simply to divide the workload. It’s to combine strengths in a way that makes the project better or more efficient.
4. Don’t assume collaboration automatically saves money
Pooling resources can reduce expenses, but it can also introduce new costs. Before starting, decide:
- which expenses will be shared
- what percentage each person will pay
- who can approve new expenses
- whether expenses are deducted before royalties are divided
For example, agreeing to split profits 50/50 is not enough if one author expects advertising costs to be reimbursed first and the other doesn’t. Small ambiguities around money can become large disagreements later.
5. Do consider anthologies as a lower-commitment collaboration
Anthologies allow several authors to contribute short stories, essays, or novellas to a collection built around a theme. For authors new to collaboration, anthologies are a useful starting point because the commitment is smaller than co-authoring full books.
Anthologies also provide a chance to enter a new niche, opportunities to build relationships with other writers, and shared promotional activity around one release. If you want to participate, watch for anthology submission calls from authors, publishers, genre groups, and writing communities. You can also organize your own if you have the time and experience to manage the project.
6. Don’t promote books that aren’t a good fit for your audience
Before agreeing to a promotion, ask whether your readers are genuinely likely to enjoy the other author’s work. If your subscribers follow you for lighthearted romance, repeatedly recommending violent horror novels could reduce trust rather than increase engagement.
That doesn’t mean collaborating authors need to write highly similar books. In fact, some distinction is useful. But there should be enough overlap that the recommendation makes sense to readers.
7. Do put serious collaborations in writing
For co-authoring, royalty sharing, or any project involving meaningful money or copyright, use a written agreement. At minimum, a co-authoring agreement should address:
Copyright ownership: Who owns the work and in what proportions.
Royalty splits: Exactly how revenue will be divided.
Expenses: Who pays production and marketing costs.
Decision-making: How creative and business decisions will be made.
Publishing and distribution: Who controls publishing accounts and manages distribution.
Credits and attribution: How each author will appear on covers, retailer listings, and marketing materials.
Withdrawal or termination (highly important): What happens if one author wants to leave the project.
Dispute resolution: How serious disagreements will be handled.
The agreement exists so that both parties understand the arrangement before there is anything worth arguing about. Because a conversation such as “We’ll just split everything equally” leaves a surprising number of questions unanswered. Does “everything” mean gross revenue or profit after expenses? Who owns translation rights? Can either author publish a sequel? What happens if one author stops promoting the book? Can one author sell their share of the rights? What happens if the authors disagree about changing the cover or price?
For a small newsletter swap, a formal contract is probably excessive. A written email confirming what each person has agreed to do may be enough. For a jointly owned book, a proper agreement is far safer (and more professional) than relying on memory and verbal agreements.
8. Don’t treat co-authoring like an informal writing exercise
Co-authoring is one of the most involved forms of author collaboration. Before committing to it, decide how exactly the work will be divided.
Who develops the outline?
Who writes which chapters?
Who makes final creative decisions?
Who handles revisions?
Who communicates with the editor?
Who uploads the book?
Who manages advertising?
Who controls the publishing accounts?
Who receives the royalties before they are distributed?
You may divide chapters, write alternate characters, separate plotting from drafting, or work together on every section. Any of those approaches can work. What usually doesn’t work is leaving the arrangement undefined and assuming both authors have the same expectations.
9. Do define responsibilities before work begins
Collaboration is much easier when everyone knows what they are responsible for. For a co-authored book, this may include outlining, drafting, different levels of editing, formatting, publishing, and reader communication.
For a marketing partnership, responsibilities might be much simpler: Author A sends the newsletter on Tuesday; author B promotes the giveaway on Friday; both authors provide graphics and book links before the campaign starts.
A shared document or project management tool can make these responsibilities visible to everyone involved.
10. Don’t leave deadlines vague
“Whenever you have time” works until one author expects the manuscript next week and the other expects to finish it next month. Agree on realistic deadlines before the collaboration begins. For larger projects, create milestones rather than relying on a single final deadline. Milestones make delays visible early enough to do something about them.
Good collaboration also depends heavily on communication. If you’re falling behind, say so. If you disagree with a creative decision, discuss it. Problems are generally easier to resolve when they first appear. Problems that remain unspoken may surface later when deadlines, money, or publishing decisions make them much harder to ignore. Regular check-ins can help, particularly with co-authored books and long-term partnerships.
However, the amount of communication should match the project. You don’t necessarily need daily meetings or long email threads for a newsletter swap. But a co-authored series requires more frequent discussions about plot, deadlines, editing, marketing, and finances. So, agree on a communication method and frequency that works for everyone rather than creating unnecessary administration.
11. Do start small when working with someone new
If you’re interested in collaborating with another author, try something smaller first. You could:
- exchange newsletter mentions
- run a joint giveaway
- appear on each other’s podcasts
- contribute to the same anthology
- organize a small promotional campaign
A limited project gives both authors a chance to see how well they communicate, meet deadlines, and handle disagreements. If the collaboration works well, you can always take on something larger later.
12. Don’t ignore how the partnership could end
Most authors spend plenty of time discussing how a collaboration will begin and almost none discussing how it might end. That’s a mistake.
People change genres. Publishing priorities change. Someone may stop writing altogether. One author may want to continue a series while the other doesn’t. For long-term collaborations, decide in advance what happens if:
- one author wants to leave
- one author stops contributing
- the book goes out of print
- one author wants to publish a sequel
- one author wants to sell their rights
- the partnership ends after a disagreement
Planning for these situations while everyone is getting along is much easier than negotiating them during a dispute.
13. Do use author communities to find collaborators
Potential collaborators are often already present in the writing communities you participate in. Places to look include:
- genre-specific author groups
- writing forums
- social media communities and local writing groups
- publishing conferences or workshops
- author newsletters
- professional writing organizations
Build relationships before making a large proposal. Engage with another author’s work, understand what they publish, and approach them with a specific idea rather than a vague “request to collaborate.”
A good proposal should make clear both what you want and what the other author gains from participating.
14. Don’t approach collaboration as a one-sided favor
Successful author partnerships create value for everyone involved. If you ask another author with a large mailing list to promote your debut novel, what are you offering in return? You may have a smaller audience but excellent design skills, advertising experience, podcast access, event contacts, or another useful resource. The contributions don’t always need to be identical. They should, however, feel fair.
The purpose of author collaboration isn’t simply to have another person involved. A worthwhile partnership accomplishes something that would be harder to achieve alone. Done well, collaboration can give indie authors something self-publishing often lacks: not just a bigger audience, but a capable partner who has a genuine stake in making the project succeed.
Co-authoring brings together different strengths, but it can also leave a manuscript with uneven tone, inconsistent pacing, conflicting character details, or sections that simply don’t feel like they belong together.
At Falcon Edits, we help co-authors turn separately written sections into a cohesive manuscript through developmental editing, copyediting, proofreading, and custom style consistency checks.
Get a Free Editing Sample. See what professional editing can do for your book.
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