Hi Todd,

Glad you’re looking at your next book. I’m anxiously awaiting the debut of Dragon’s Blood. I notice you, your mum and several other well known authors co-write books together fairly often these days. Is this a trend? I would think there are both pros and cons to that on many levels. How do these writers decide when or whether to do so? Do both authors often have the same publisher and would characters shared between authors be a problem publishing-wise.

Thanks,

David

David,

I don’t think collaborations are a trend. I think that sometimes it’s a great solution to demand — David Weber’s collaboration with Eric Flint on “Crown of Slaves” is possibly a good example of this. Collaborations can be very interesting for authors, as it was when David Gerrold (“The Trouble with Tribbles”) and Larry Niven got together to write “The Flying Sorcerers” back in 1971.

I suspect — but don’t know — that the origins of both books were slightly different. My guess is that Eric Flint suggested following on with characters that David Weber had created in his “Honorverse” and David was interested enough to collaborate. I think in the case of “The Flying Sorcerers”, David Gerrold and Larry Niven just wanted to collaborate together.

I don’t think there’s an issue with different publishers as in a collaboration the “writer” of the work is the the two collaborators. So it’s entirely possible for two collaborators to find a third publisher beyond the two different publishers they might normally be associated with for their independent work.

There are two dangers to collaborating, however. One is the appearance of “share-cropping” where a big-name author seems to merely lend their name to a lesser work. This can cause readers to turn away not just from the big-name author’s collaborations but also from all of the author’s works. The second danger is overloading the marktet. There can just too many books by big-name author and collaborators, leaving readers confused and somewhat dazed.

For writers, collaborating can be a great experience because it allows them to see another writer’s way of approaching and handling problems.

Cheers,
Todd