We wrote a book

This week, with two colleagues, I sent a book we had edited off to the publisher for peer review. This same week, I finished the first draft translation of another book. I’m working on that one with the author and a master’s student on placement with me. So in both cases, we were a team of three getting ready to send the manuscript to the publisher. These aren’t the first books I’ve worked on, and they won’t be the last, but some of the same things struck me in both processes. Here are my ten commandments for writing a book together.

1. Talk to each other

Face-to-face conversation creates responsibility and community – and gets things done. My co-translators are in the same country, but different cities, so we met offline, but not often. My co-editors are at the other end of Europe, and the writers of the chapters are on three continents. Start with group video chats, and whenever things got sticky, talk.

2. Read the questions

Like in an exam, reading the questions closely can save you time later. For the book I co-edited, we checked some guidelines quite late and had to tweak things at the last minute. For both books, I wrote a style sheet before we started, which the other two people in the team checked and used. Check or make your style guide early, and use it.

3. Set up systems

Use email only when you have to. We worked a lot in shared online drives. One of my co-editors was amazing at setting up checklists and steps so we knew what to do and when. One of my co-translators was fantastic at catching things to make sure we were consistent. In a team, you can take take on roles in your system that suit your strengths.

4. Share the good news

A whole book is a long slog, so short positive updates help you keep going. When a team member got good feedback from an author, I told her straight away. When someone wrote a lovely foreword, it boosted us to write a better introduction. When we submitted our edited book, the contributors started planning the launch… It’s never too early to celebrate!

5. Be flexible

If there are twenty of you, you can’t always have things your way. During the co-editing process, people had babies, moved continents, and faced serious illness. During the translation, I had to share my drafts early enough that two other people could work with them. Systems fail, circumstances change, things come up. You can adapt, and the person who has less going on can take more on.

6. Stet

Sometimes making no changes (stet, in editor speak) is the best change. People have very different ways of working, and writing. Some like to plan to the sentence level months in advance; others do their best writing as the clock ticks down to a deadline. Working outside your natural rhythm isn’t easy, but sometimes you have to leave things as they are and wait.

7. Give yourself time

If you want your editors to give you constructive feedback, you need to give them time to do it. So you need to give yourself enough time to write. You need to give people enough notice that a bit of text is coming their way. This has the advantage of letting the text rest, from your point of view, which makes it better.

8. Challenge kindly

Reviewing others’ work is an art. I try to do this kindly but don’t always succeed. Seeing how the other people on my book teams did it helped. I learned a lot. Giving constructive feedback makes the other person’s work stronger, and is a way of honouring them. When they do the same for you, your work gets better.

9. Let go

Good enough is good enough. Sometimes, when texts need input from many different writers, there isn’t time to revise as much as you’d like. It’s going to peer review, let the reviewers do their job. If something did not go to plan, but you found a solution, let go.

10. Rest

Like dough rising, a book needs to rest. And so do its bakers. Now our co-edited book is with the peer reviewers, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. When my translation is with the author, I can’t touch it. When your text comes back, you can knead it with renewed enthusiasm.

When those manuscripts come back, there’s always something that could be done differently. But remembering to talk and rest, and everything in between, makes the process better for everyone. Next time, I’ll have a different ten commandments. But when we meet in the same place (as pictured) there’ll still be cake. What works for you when you’re writing a book together?

new retreat dates – seuraavat retriitit