 We're shaken. My name's Cam. Welcome back to another video. There's one thing when it comes to writing that I have to confess, I never understood. I'm sure there's lots of things I don't understand about writing. I know. Smartass. But today, we're talking about multiple authors working on one story. Specifically fiction. Straight up, I just don't get it. I've written with other authors before in an anthology of horror short stories, but that is still us writing separately. I don't know. It's just baffling to me the idea of giving someone else or having someone else give equal creative input into a story that I am writing. Let me be clear. I'm not knocking it at all. On the contrary, it's actually super impressive to me and that's why I'm making this video. Not just for me, but hopefully, in case there's anyone else out there who also is a bit confused about the idea of co-authoring a book. I'm hoping that us together, we can try to figure it out. I've read books before that have had multiple authors. Good books. Illuminae comes to mind by Jay Kristoff and Amy Kaufman. There's also Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I admire it. I just don't get it, logistically speaking. Hey, let me know if you've ever co-authored something or let me know if you have any greater insight into this. So anyway, I did what I usually do when I'm having trouble understanding something. I went to the internet. Disclaimer, Google may not always be a reliable source of information, but hey, it's a start, right? Anyway, always be sure to check multiple sources. One of the first things I found that I suspected I would is that the experience of co-authoring a book can vary wildly from case to case. From pair to pair, from group to group. That makes a lot of sense, of course, but it can be different depending on who you are. Wasn't really a satisfying answer for me, so I dug a bit deeper. Let's talk about money, first of all. The most boring part of this whole thing, I know. You would think that the money part would be the most straightforward, right? Each author gets an equal cut, not counting for publishers and editors and marketing blah blah blah. Just talking about the authors, split down the middle. Well, the truth is, at least from what I read, is that that is the case at least most of the time. However, much like banging in the shower, it's complicated. It can be very, very different from instance to instance. It depends a lot on the literary agents involved. It depends a lot on who came up with what, which author was involved first. How the workload is being shared around. And also, it depends on the relationship between the authors involved. Most times, it's 50-50 because the authors know each other, and ideally, they like each other, and they agree that an equal share is what is fair. I tried to see if I could find any information on how co-authors of famous books have been paid in the past, but I didn't really find anything at least nothing that I feel confident enough talking about here. Which, let's be real, isn't that surprising? People normally don't really like talking about their paychecks, and when it comes to publishing, some people can't talk about their pay due to their contracts. So let's just assume that in most cases, it will be an equal split, money-wise. But that's the boring part. Let's talk about the fun part. Let's talk about how more than one author can actually write a story. I did find a lot of different examples and stories for this one from industry professionals or people who have co-authored books before. And let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, some of it is pretty damn interesting. Like the money side of things and like writing a bike naked, this can be pretty complicated as well. Again, it differs from case to case because it is so largely dependent on not just one, but multiple author's creative processes. I did find some examples, so let's take a look. So one of the methods I saw is that one author will do all of the outlining and the planning, while the other will do the actual writing of the book. Now to me, that sounds a lot like just getting a ghostwriter, but it's still pretty interesting. Or you could have both or more authors working on the outlining and the planning together before just one of them writes the book. I saw this one photo on a thread where multiple authors had been drawing on a whiteboard together and the whiteboard was full of bubbles and lines like it was the male conspiracy episode from It's Always Sunny. I can kind of imagine myself doing this one, although I feel like I would still be too stressed if I was the one writing the book because I would feel like my creative power there might create a product that the other author didn't really want. I make so many changes when I'm writing on the fly just depending on what feels right so I would be so worried the entire time that I was going in a direction that the other author wasn't interested in. Another method is that the authors will write a chapter each, one after the other. Now this one makes a lot of sense to me and it sounds like the easiest and most practical method if I'm being honest, although again I don't know if I could see myself ever doing this in a serious way at least. I have a lot of ideas for like author tube collabs with other author tubers, they just happen to be almost impossible to coordinate but one of them is to have like 10 author tubers write a tiny chapter each for a small goofy wattpad story just for laughs. I think that would be pretty funny and I still want to do that and I'm still planning to do that but again organizing it is like trying to start a fire by bashing your head against a rock so here's an interesting method and that is to let each author write the parts of the story that are to their strengths. For example if one author is better at writing like action and fight scenes while the other is better at writing romance and more emotional scenes then they would obviously each write those parts of the story. That just makes a hell of a lot of sense and I can imagine that might be how a lot of books have actually been written. There were parts of Illuminae where you could just tell that it was Jay Kristoff writing because his writing style is so recognizable and distinct which you know some people love and other people hate and then of course there is the method of just writing the entire story like together at the same time somehow I don't know I don't really get this one if I'm being honest maybe it's just my inexperience I mean we're likely talking about actual professional authors here but writing a book in tandem with someone else every step of the way sounds so mind-bogglingly difficult that I just really can't wrap my another thing I would be so scared of hating the other author by the end of the project you know like how they say be careful when you move in with friends I mean just imagine having your creative ideas shot down or replaced in real time while you're writing like the first draft by someone who has just as much creative control over the story as you I don't know it literally gives me heebie jeebies my guy I don't like it I just I can't foresee myself at least anytime soon co-authoring a book in a serious way anyway I doubt this video made co-authoring any less confusing to be honest like I said it's super complicated but at the very least now we know at least a few ways that it can work let me know if you've had any experience writing a book with someone else I'd be really interested to know how it went let me know if you've co-authored a book before or let me know if you would rather slam your head in a car door thanks for watching especially if you watched this far in the video I appreciate it thank you have a nice day catch ya