Today’s guest post is by Keri Wyatt Kent who is the author or coauthor of 25 books. Her company, A Powerful Story, provides collaborative writing, editing, and assisted self-publishing services. Her latest collaborative project, Live Like a Guide Dog, was recently released with Tyndale House Publishers. She writes a free weekly newsletter on writing and publishing at keriwyattkent.substack.com; or visit her website at www.keriwyattkent.com.

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A collaborative writer, sometimes called a coauthor, is a skilled writer who helps a person organize, write, and complete their book. If you’ve got ideas or a compelling story but aren’t sure how to turn it into a book, or if you like to write but know you need help organizing ideas or writing clearly, you might consider working with a collaborative writer.

If you’re a strong writer who’s good at interviewing, summarizing, and organizing other people’s ideas, and capturing other people’s voices, you might consider working as a collaborative writer.

In collaborative writing partnerships, typically one person has the idea or compelling story they want to turn into a book. The collaborative writer (and that’s me in this case) has the writing experience to help an author develop a clear narrative arc, compelling writing, and a strong “hook” for the book (and for each chapter).

For example, I just released my thirteenth collaborative title, Live Like a Guide Dog: true stories from a blind man and his dogs about being brave, overcoming adversity, and moving forward in faith. The ideas and stories in the book are from my coauthor, Michael Hingson. My job was to interview him, ask good questions to draw out the details of his story, help him organize the ideas, do additional research, and write a draft for him to revise and respond to.

Sometimes, a coauthor can be someone who shares your expertise and writes the book with you. Often, this happens when two experts work together to write a book. Think Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, who wrote many books (including the perennial bestseller Boundaries) together (and also each wrote other books on their own).

More often, though, someone with a great idea (or a compelling story), but not much writing and publishing experience, will find the way to get their book finished is to work with a collaborative writer. Many people start writing a book, but then they get stuck. They might lack motivation, find writing difficult, or just not know how to navigate the journey from idea to published book.

How is ghostwriting different from collaborative writing? A ghostwriter does all the writing and research. They typically begin by interviewing the author, then they take the author’s idea and run with it. They conduct all the research and write the book on behalf of the author. They also, as the name implies, remain invisible, like a ghost. They don’t have their name on the book or get credit for writing. (Some even sign a nondisclosure agreement saying they won’t reveal that they wrote your book for you.) They typically charge a lot more than a collaborative writer, because they do more of the work.

Typically, a collaborative project follows this path:

• Collaborator and author brainstorm together to create the outline and develop a clear hook.
• Collaborator interviews the author to pull out their ideas and thoughts on the topics in the outline. Collaborators often also interview other sources or research by reading other books. I’ve also done collaborative projects where I used the author’s sermon transcripts as a content source.
• Collaborator writes a draft of the book (or sometimes a chapter or two at a time). As we wrote Live Like a Guide Dog, I sometimes asked Michael to write a section of a chapter, then together we figured out where it fit best in the flow of the book.
• The author edits, adds missing information, clarifies, even rewrites my draft or adds content.
• The author and collaborator discuss details and make revisions as needed.
• Collaborator polishes the final draft.

Collaborative writing can help authors who need a partner to complete their book. It can be a rewarding opportunity for strong writers.