Wow, two in one week. People are going to start thinking that I’m writing more here than I am on my book.

They may be right. And yes, I spelled the title of this entry incorrectly. Or, having read some collaborations lately which, well, left a lot to be desired…

I was asked the other day by some high school students who wanted to be writers about how to go about securing collaborations. I had no clue, since I agreed to do a collab with Travis S. Taylor after we got into a huge verbal brawl about who is better, the Tennessee Titans or the Indianapolis Colts (the Colts, of course).  I would recommend not fighting with any author you may want to write with. Not all of them have a good sense of humor.

But it bothered me, the question (not  the football one). How does an aspiring author get together with a established author? Well, since I really wanted to know, I posted the question to New York Times bestselling author John Ringo. John, for those who don’t know, does a lot of collaborations with new authors and I figured that if anyone knew, he would.

His response was twofold. First, usually either the publisher or the senior writer (i.e., established writer) ask the newbie if they want to write a collaboration. I’m not certain whether or not the plot of the project is a joint idea or one of them comes up with it. I should have asked, come to think of it.

Secondly, very rarely will the newbie have a pitch that sells the senior writer or publisher into letting them get their foot into the door. This doesn’t happen randomly, however. Usually the senior writer or the publisher has had business with the newbie in the past or is at least friends with them.

But that begs the question… if you could collaborate with someone, who would you collaborate with?