Thread: Co Authors ?

Clive cussler with Jack du Brul, James Patterson and an endless amount of co-authors ? And no doubt many other's.

Why do these guys and other famous authors write books with lesser known authors ? Am i being cynical in thinking that it maybe money ? James Patterson publishes about three books a year all with lesser known authors !!

I have read the early books by James Patterson and i loved them but his later books with these other authors are not as good in my humble opinion. So what i don't understand is why, why write with someone else ? The only reason i can think of is money, unless i'm suppose to believe that these guys do it out of the goodness of their heart to give the little guy a leg up so to speak.

What do you think ?

I have no problem with co-authorship. And without knowing these authors personally, I'm not going to venture a guess as to what their motivation might be.

I'm not an author, but have written a few cowrites with other people on othere forums. I will do it again one day.
Do a cowrite with me blues. Ha ha

You are a crackpot .... lol ..... Ok you spell it, i,ll write it

Originally Posted by MaggieMoo

I'm not an author, but have written a few cowrites with other people on othere forums. I will do it again one day.
Do a cowrite with me blues. Ha ha

Originally Posted by Bluesman

You are a crackpot .... lol ..... Ok you spell it, i,ll write it

Ha ha... Why not, who wants to be normal anyway? Ha ha

Big name writers become a brand. If you can have unknown authors writing the works with at least some involvement from the big name, then you can sell more new books over a shorter period of time than if the big name author was writing them all himself.

Thx for this Steerpike , i guess also it gives exposure to the lesser known author , i,m reading the Clive cussler book "the silent sea" co writtien by Jack du brul. I looked up this Jack du brul and found he has some books out that are very well rated so i suppose he will get a spin off in sales with his part in "the silent night".

But i still think it is a watering down of what you get from the original author and also what i don't get is that if i was an author, i would be selfish in wanting what i had written to be mine and mine alone. The money part of it i understand but what happened to art for arts sakes? lol

Originally Posted by Steerpike

Big name writers become a brand. If you can have unknown authors writing the works with at least some involvement from the big name, then you can sell more new books over a shorter period of time than if the big name author was writing them all himself.

The one with Robert Ludlum, for example, regarding the Covert One series. He has a lot of co-authors like Gayle Lynds and Patrick Larkin. As far as I know, Robert Ludlum only owns the series and the originally plot. But of course, he can't actually co-write, since he died 2001.

co-writing can be a lot of fun and I love the idea.
I think all of us have got to have a go because it trains you to think as a team, it allows youto learn from each other, it also gives you confidence and even maybe learn new words, styles and also get to know new things about you you never knew you had.

Perhaps there's a competitive element to it. Perhaps co-authorship can push someone into trying hard to excell. I thought The Mistress of the Empire by Janny Wurtz and Raymond E. Fiest was brilliant. Maybe Fiest thought JW would help with the feminine angle.

One of my favourite books of all time was a co-write between Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, both of whom I really like on their own. It was called 'Good Omens' and was a beautiful combination of Gaiman's dark imagination and Pratchett's joyously silly, and extremely human, characters. I still don't know how they did it, exactly, apparently there were only three hours every day when they were both awake, but I'd say far from watering each other down, they actually elevated one another's writing.

I haven't read the authors you are referring to, but I'm guessing that writing- like anything- because a job to pay the rent like any other after a while. Perhaps a co-author is a great way for a more established writer to inject some fresh ideas, energy and enthusiasm into his work.

There's a great quote by Hunter S. Thompson which goes, "I've always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. I suspect it's a bit like f*cking — which is fun only for amateurs. Old whores don't do much giggling."

Originally Posted by Nacian

co-writing can be a lot of fun and I love the idea.
I think all of us have got to have a go because it trains you to think as a team, it allows youto learn from each other, it also gives you confidence and even maybe learn new words, styles and also get to know new things about you you never knew you had.

I see a new writing challenge in there somewhere

Originally Posted by BabaYaga

I see a new writing challenge in there somewhere

good point BabaYaga...any ideas?

I wouldn't touch it with a 40' pole. Some years ago an ex-WFer, MikeC, a published author, said the same thing.

Patterson is more a brand name. He probably simply can't be bothered filling in the details.

In the old days, a lot of series & author names used to be publisher owner entities, and they were all co-authored; even with 4 or 5 different authors writing under the one name. So it's nothing new.