[J.R. Thomson]

Wondered if anyone here has ever put together a "collaborative work" ebook from multiple authors? 

If so was it very complicated as far as paperwork and other legal stuff?

 

[54706]

Contact S.M. Reine on this board.  She did at least one that I know of and I think several others.  Very professional, contracts and all. 

 

[J.R. Thomson]

Contact S.M. Reine on this board. She did at least one that I know of and I think several others. Very professional, contracts and all.

Thank you... I've always wanted to do some type of collaborative work... inspired by this hilarious book:

http://www.amazon.com/Was-Dark-Stormy-Night-Bulwer-Lytton/dp/0140075569

Here are the 2012 contest winners to get an idea of the entries..

http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2012win.html

 

[swolf]

I'm in two:

Big Book of Smut
Big Book of Smut 2

I didn't organize them, but our purpose was to get them price matched to free, so we wouldn't have to deal with contracts. Either way, you have to be able to trust the person who's in charge.

By the way, one of the funny reviews for Big Book of Smut: (One-star) SHOCKED. I DID NOT REALISE THIS WAS A BOOK LIKE THAT, I HAVE REMOVED IT FROM MY KINDLE, NOT THE SORT OF THING I READ.

Yeah, that Big Book of Smut has a misleading title.

 

[Amanda Brice]

I've been the ring-leader for two. However, our goal was to get it price-matched to free specifically so that we wouldn't need to deal with issuing 1099s and paying out the royalties.

I actually recently wrote an article on legal/tax issues that writers should consider when doing a collaboration through self-publishing. It's going to be published in Romance Writers Report (RWA's monthly magazine) in January and the terms of that contract state that they bought first rights to the article, so I can't paste it here, but feel free to PM me if you'd like me to send you a copy.

(Yes, I'm an attorney, although not an accountant. However, the article deals with legal information, not legal advice.)

 

[Andre Jute]

Here's a page about one I am involved in http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,135226.0.html and here's the discussion about putting it on Wattpad as a free serial, http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,136396.0.html#new among other reasons to avoid formfilling hassles.

Of course ghostwriting is technically a collaborative venture, but I've found it goes faster and earns more money all round if I just make it up from the whole cloth. A good example was an Italian pol who wanted a cookbook of Mama's traditional cooking. Problem was, Mama's food tasted like dogpoop, so I just invented a whole new cuisine for her kitchen, and of course it soon became the "traditional cooking" of the region, served in all the "authentic" restaurants. I laughed all the way to the bank, and the pol became so popular with a populace (minus a few sourpuss nationalists with undistinguished palates who wanted to shoot the pair of us) who no longer had to eat Mama's dogpoop that he won the next several elections by landslides.

 

[tensen]

If so was it very complicated as far as paperwork and other legal stuff?

I've edited a few anthologies for myself and other publishers.

It can be as complicated or not as you depend. Most of the extra stuff in contracts done by publishers is to cover yourself in the case of something not working out.

The simplest is to write a contract that specifies:
1) what control you might have over editing or whoever is compiling it.
2) what each author is paid and when.
3) rights: i.e. if the material in the compilation is exclusive, or if the author can also use the material in their own compilation or sell separately.
4) how the author can get out of the contract. Whether it expires in a certain timeframe, and/or if they can give notice and how long before the material reverts after notice.

If it is a single piece of fiction that involves multiple authors working on it, then obviously the rights are a different issue since it will always be a combined work. I've also done a lot of this, and I do still suggest a contract, but it is a completely different entity.

 

[Kathy Clark Author]

How timely of a question.  I've had 23 traditionally published books and 1 direct to eBook / Paperback book published earlier this year when my huisband and I decided to formalize trhe collaborative effirt and now we have two new books bout under the pen name Bob Kat.  www.nightwriter93.com.  I wouldn't have done it without the full faith and word of a great marriage.  Trust is the underlying thing to make it work.  Good luck.