Publishing E-Books For Dummies

Partnering with Another Writer to Sell E-Books Together

For some e-book authors, partnering with other writers makes great business sense. By combining your strengths with someone else’s, you can make much faster progress in writing, publishing, and marketing your e-book.

This arrangement works well in a couple of situations:

You’re an excellent writer, but you lack knowledge about the subject matter. Work with someone who’s an expert in the field but who has little time or inclination to write a book on his or her own.

You write well and are knowledgeable about the subject matter, but you have no online platform. Partner with someone who maintains a large blog or newsletter list (with perhaps tens of thousands of subscribers) to produce an e-book — you do most of the work, and the other person’s name helps sell your collaboration.

Don’t assume that a partnership requires much less work than writing an e-book on your own. It may well more work — though the rewards are often correspondingly greater. Clarify up front how the process will work, particularly the royalty split (50-50 or otherwise), writing and publication time scales, and division of responsibilities.

Choose a partner whom you already know well, perhaps someone you’ve worked with in the past. Pick a reliable ...