What I learned from co-authoring a book

I want to share a few reflections on how co-writing a book has been a powerful experience for me.

Marcel Bogers and I sent a book manuscript to the publisher recently and our work will be released in a few months time. (No spoilers about the actual book here: I want to stay on message!)

Marcel Bogers (left) and I went for a walk with my family in Grib forest when we had finished the manuscript

This is my first book, and a lot of my previous writing in a professional context has been as a journalist. I have many positive experiences with the collective researching, drafting and writing of journalistic articles and stories. But here, most writing, even nowadays, is as a sole author.

Efficient, and in control

The way I see it, being the sole author of any piece of writing, including a non-fiction guide like ours, has its advantages:

Writing is more efficient, as you don’t have to coordinate with anyone else. You can simply work sequentially: now I work on this chapter, now I work on that.
It is written in one tone of voice, and this means that you can spend a lot less time revising to unify this voice once it has been drafted.
As sole author you have complete control over the structure, topics, format, and expression.

But co-authoring a book has advantages too. And this was brought home to me the last six months working with Marcel. Collaborating on a book is not just a 1 + 1 = 2 situation. The sum is greater than the parts.

Something new in the world

Having two authors adds something fundamentally different.

Here are the specific advantages that I have thought about in the actual book-writing process:

Natality. With two authors, there is a higher chance that something new comes into the world. The discussion in itself leads to new thought emerging that would not have appeared in one of the authors. This reminds me of the concept of ‘natality’ in Hannah Arendt, where being human in a shared space means bringing something fundamentally new into the world.
Darlings. In journalism school, you are taught to ‘kill your darlings’. You fall in love with your own ‘cute’ turns of phrase, and you need someone else to take them out. In this work process, I have had many darlings killed!
Network. In this type of non-fiction work, you’ll be looking for wide variety of interview sources with insight, experience, or authority. A co-author doesn’t just add volume—they add variety. I have come into proximity with people I wouldn’t normally approach from different disciplines, countries, and platforms.
Momentum. Writing a book takes time and you go through bumps and troughs. As co-authors we could take turns to pick up the slack.
Blind spots. You bring different assumptions, biases and intellectual traditions to the table. My co-author has shone a light on my own blind spots and made me more self-aware of where I need to learn more.
Division of labour. One of you can be good with sources and interviews, another can be good with references and structure. And the funny thing is: you only find out along the way. In this way, we ended up specializing, while at the same time learning from each other.
Learning. It deserves another mention. When you write a book with someone else, you don’t just learn more about the topic — you are exposed to practical shortcuts, processes and technological tricks. I got better by working with someone else.

Another way of being human

In one way, I suppose, co-authoring a book is just another way of being human. After all, nearly everything new in the world is the result of a collective endeavour. But writing a book with someone else makes this visible in a way that solo work rarely does.

If you have any thoughts yourself on the subject feel free to write them in the comments below!