Management of Multi-author Indie Collaborations
presented by Sarra Cannon and Marquita Valentine
RWA 2014 (tape 19-007)
My three take-aways from this presentation are:
One – Increase Your Visibility by Working with Other Authors
- the biggest problem for the modern writer is visibility
- you can increase your visibility by working with others and there are many ways to do that
Two – Boxed Sets
- it’s better to have at least two books published before you put one in a box set with other writers
- network to find other writers interested in a project
- you need to agree on two things: 1 – the goal and 2 – your marketing plan
- usually a multi-author box set is up for one to three months
- usually sells for 99 cents
- you need to have one person in charge who takes care of the accounting (and you may want to involve an accountant)
Three – Other Formats to Consider:
- Co-writing – co-writing stories with another writer helps increase your output and therefore your visibility
- Exchanges – put another author’s blurbs/excerpts at the back of your books / reviews etc.
- Multi-author themed promotions – some authors don’t want to go the box set route because of the complex accounting, so working on a themed promotion works better for them (e.g., Christmas – everyone publishes a novella with a Christmas theme, brand them with cover design and cross-market, do blog tours etc., author page on Amazon for the event)
- Author Collaborative – I’ve heard this called a “brain trust” elsewhere. It’s a group of people you can bounce ideas off of, share experiences with etc. and cross-promote.
What do you think? Have you tried some of these practices? Did they work? Love to hear from you.
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My Doggy Problem

Courtesy of Wikipedia
In my last post I asked for help naming my heroine’s dog. What would a lady spy call her labradoodle? Between responses on my blog and the Guppie loop I now have a list of 24 names to choose from! I can’t thank you guys enough. Here’s the list so far: Hoover, Giles, Herbert, Maxwell, Dossier,Slick, Cassanova, Double O, Retha, Sunnie, Nova, Revere, Magellan, Jello, Choco, Artemis, Glock (or another pistol name), Sherlock, Snoop, Boris, Natasha, Nathan Hale, Donovan, Snoops and Sherlock again:) Amazing names and I love them all. I’m going to try putting some of the names into the text and seeing how they read.
Meanwhile, if you have a name to add, please send it along. If I choose it, I will put your name on the acknowledgement page and send you an autographed print copy when it’s released (i.e., Ancient Danger).
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Newsletter Contest Reminder
If you’re interested in receiving my newsletter click here to sign up. At the end of October one subscriber’s name will be drawn for a ten dollar Amazon gift card. My November edition will name the winner and have a blurb and an audio clip from Covert Danger, the first book in my Mata Hari series launching April 1st.