The New Collaborators

©The Editing Company, LLC, 2008

Just as the book has recently evolved from a analogue publication on printed paper and wrapped in a cover to an information text that is at the center of a vast array of interactions--- accessible to eyes, ears, and searches via paper edition, computer, electronic reader, pod cast, disc or memory card, and generating new information waves in film, television, video games, and chatter---
Just as the book has mutated from hand-held paper edition into a new and vital idea nexus, so the process of book creation has evolved from a single author working with a single editor to a more collaborative process.

In the acknowledgements for books of yore, you might find a kind note for an editor or long suffering mate. Now, look in any new published book, you will find agents, friends, readers, editors, reading groups, teachers, proofreaders, and frequently, other writers. There are reasons aplenty for this new group-write, not the least of which is that publishing houses are far, far fewer, and their hardworking editors are saddled with many, many more books. Several canonical writers from yesteryear would not get their manuscripts into print today merely because editors don’t have the time to spend teaching writers and transforming “promising manuscripts” into brilliant print.

So it follows that the writers themselves must find strategies for creating more immediately publishable texts. Collaborative writing is the new model of authorship. The new collaborators convene around a good idea or promising manuscript and develop it into a more immediately marketable text. This goes far beyond the assistance of a writing group or a college class or two. In this model, strength feeds strength moving toward a polished text: creative thinkers collaborate with wordsmiths; researchers collaborate with grammarians; spontaneous thinkers collaborate with organizers; and in the mix you may find marketers, illustrators, book designers, and webmasters.

The Editing Company is founded on this vision of the New Collaborators: we want to bring together writers with appropriate support. The purpose is to create this new book. Yes, it should be flowing prose, readable, contemporary, logical, grammatical, and if necessary, fact-checked; however, it should also be marketable and sent to the appropriate market in an appropriate form. Some books should be self-published, others need agents, still others will sell from proposals.

And now, your investment in creating your book is not just in hours spent writing and, with luck, agent’s fees, but in assembling your support team.

The Editing Company envisions new strategies for providing writer support depending on the degree of collaboration: hourly services to trouble-shoot manuscripts or to provide instruction; fee-based work on developing projects; shared royalty and shared credit when the degree of collaboration warrants it; or combinations of these.