Lean Publishing Tip of the Day: Finding Co-Authors
Finding a co-author often happens organically: two friends or people who work in the same industry start talking, a book idea comes up, and they commit to writing it together. But you can actually reach out to people you've never met to propose a book project.
Writing a book is often thought of as a lonely, isolated process.
That doesn't have to be the case, though.
Inviting other people to work with you on your book is a great way to improve your productivity, increase your book's scope and quality, and increase your readership - and have fun and make new lifelong friends and colleagues at the same time.
How To Find Co-Authors For A Book Project
Finding a co-author often happens organically: two friends or people who work in the same industry start talking, a book idea comes up, and they commit to writing it together.
But you can actually reach out to people you've never met to propose a book project.
On Leanpub, we make it easy to send an invitation to another Leanpub user, to invite them to co-author a book with you.
So, one way to find a potential co-author is to search Leanpub for books on the topic you want to write about, and find other Leanpub authors to collaborate with that way.
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Searching Other Online Platforms
Another way to find co-authors for a proposed book project is to search other online platforms, for example course-based or educational-content platforms.
LinkedIn is also a great place to look - people are there to grow their professional networks and are easily discoverable based on their interests and writing, such as newsletters.
Don't Be Shy, But Be Professional
It's a common observation made by self-help gurus, but the biggest impediment most of us have to advancing our professional interests is often our self-imposed limitations.
So, don't be shy when you're looking for co-authors: find the most influential people writing in your area, the ones you'd most love to work with, and just ask.
The "just ask" part is the hardest though, if you're reaching out to someone you don't know, or whom you only have met at a conference or interacted with once or twice on social media.
Make your co-author invitation professional - show that you've done your homework, not just on your book topic, but also on your potential co-author.
Provide details of what you're looking to write about, how long you want the book to be, your proposed publishing schedule if you're publishing your book serially on Leanpub, your working title, and your target market.
Don't provide too many details though - you're reaching out to work with them as a co-author, remember, so you're going to genuinely want their input.
Propose an initial call on Zoom to see if they're interested and you can work together.
If you're writing on Leanpub, you'll want to make sure you have the book set up and the co-author invitation ready, so you can show them how you'll actually be writing together.
You can find walkthrough tutorials for all of our writing modes here.
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