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Collaborating can open your brand and your mind (Part 2 of 2)ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Published: July 19, 2011  Kay B. Day
I recently began to collaborate on a major project, and it’s been a real eye-opener. I started by sharing my ideas in an essay so that my co-author could see my overall goals for the project even as he and I agreed the project would be flexible.
As the project has proceeded, I’ve learned that collaboration can actually be fun, even inspiring. Some of the lessons may be useful to you: |
• Personalities do matter and every writer has an ego. Be kind to one another even when you disagree because if you lapse into anger, you’ll spend more time resolving feelings and less time bringing the project closer to the finish line.
• Do set deadlines even though you may need to stretch them. Without deadlines you will not work as consistently, in my opinion.
• Periodic brainstorming will be beneficial. A work of art is a journey, so don’t hesitate to close a minor path in the interest of the greater avenue. It’s okay to change things up—that’s part of the writing process anyway.
• Keep each other posted simply to avoid duplication. Exchanging emails periodically is a noninvasive, convenient way to do that.
• Consider using video and still shots for research and interviews. That way you can share them and you may even spur new ideas in the process.
• Be sure you are in agreement on matters like intellectual property rights, royalty sharing and all other financial aspects of your project. Better to do this early than late.
• Above all, listen to one another. Learning is reciprocal.
I mentioned the videos and still shots for another reason. That content will be very useful to you in getting the word out about your book or project. Setting up your own blog or video channel is simple these days, and editing video is now as easy as editing a photo. Simple edit programs are available to most of us, and visual content will help you with search engine referrals. Be sure to tag your videos and still shots with keywords relevant to your content—many visitors to my websites get there from visual content searches. Visual content also encourages your potential reader or book buyer to hang around and learn more about your project.
I mentioned in Part I of my column about collaboration that I learned a great deal by analyzing how author Victor DiGenti (Matanzas Bay) fit my two-stanza poem into his narrative, weaving it in parts throughout his mystery.
I’ve also learned a lot by working with my co-author on a nonfiction project. His background is different from my own; his life experiences are different. As we exchanged ideas, his input influenced my own ideas and helped me to expand and refine them.
I also said in the first part of this essay I never envisioned collaborating with anyone. At this point in my career, I have now collaborated with a novelist and to a deeper degree, a nonfiction writer. Technology has made this process far easier than it might have been a decade ago.
What I’m really looking forward to is having a co-author share the challenge of marketing and promoting the book. This time, as I stand in a bookstore in some strange city, I can at least take comfort in knowing I have an active ally who has an equally vested interest in the book that is our dual labor of art and expression.
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Florida journalist Kay B. Day has won awards for poetry, nonfiction and fiction. The author of two books, she has written for The Christian Science Monitor , United Press International, The Florida Times-Union and Sky News. To learn more about Kay Day, see www.kayday.com. To read Kay's other Web Savvy columns about writing for the Web, click here.
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