5 Reasons to Be a Collaborative Author When you Have Your Own Book or are Writing One

This is the third part in a three-part series about being a collaborative author. In this one, I'm sharing the five reasons to be a collaborative author when you have a book or are currently writing your own, or have been in a collaborative book (You can read the first two parts of this series where I shared about the three ways you’ll get left behind by NOT being an author and what to look for in collaborative book opportunities.)

I wrote my own book back in 2017. That was just seven years ago. But since then, I have been published 11 times: five times myself and six times as part of someone else's collaborative book.

The first book was my solo book. It's a program and a book called Dynamic You: The Nine Pillars of Being a Dynamic Woman. Then we've got the three Dynamic Women® Secrets Books: Success Secrets, Confidence Secrets, Trailblazer Secrets,  and ​​

Leadership Secrets is coming up in the next year. ​

Our first call for authors closes, April 17 at 11:59PM, where we have the opportunity for 18 women to jump into co-authorship with us. This is part of why I'm doing this three-part series.

On April 15, we also have a training called Collaborative Author 101: How to Explode Your Audience, Establish Your Authority, and Leave a Legacy by Entering the World of Co-Writing. If you missed it and would like a replay, please reach out to [email protected] as soon as possible so that we can see if we can get that to you. Depending on when you reach out, we might even be in our second call for authors or we might be able to squeak you in the first. We'll see. No guarantees. 

There are so many benefits to being in a collaborative book, and we offer so many bonuses when you’re in Leadership Secrets. 

Now, here are the five different reasons to be a collaborative author, even if you're already an author, or you're writing your own book. These are also for you if you were already part of a collaborative book. You might think, “Well, I'm already an author, why bother?” 

Well, there's actually a strategy for why to be an author. I've been part of collaborative books from other people, and even if they don’t have all the strategy pieces that I want, there’s still some benefit to it, and I still do it. You can read my previous blogs where I talked about what to look for in collaborative book opportunities and the previous one to is about the three ways you'll get left behind by not being an author. 

But today, I want to speak to those who have had a book, who are writing their own books, or have been in a collaborative book and are thinking, “Why would I bother being a collaborative author?” I'm going to talk through these five pieces. Because I'll tell you, I felt the same way. ​

Reason 1: It's a jumping-off point. 

Some authors who have been part of Dynamic Women® Secrets Books have used this as a learning opportunity to then jump off and do their own solo book. They’ve been able to build confidence as a writer and also be able to say, “Okay, I'm a collaborative author, and this is the first book and now I'm going to be a solo author of my own book.”  Then they go on to do their own. 

If you're writing your own book, now's a really great time to invest in this type of opportunity with us because you're going to be able to have our book come out, and then your book. Sort of like “Bam, Bam.” You get to leverage my network and our promo to then position your own book. 

Here's a little bonus tip: You can bundle the books when you go to sell them as a way to make even more money to get a double sale rather than just a single sale. 

If you already have a book that's out there, then you can use this opportunity to link it back to your book that you've already done. Cool, eh? 

Reason 2: To plant the seed. 

If you're currently writing your own book, then you want to plant the seed to the readers that your book is coming out. You can plant the seed forward to the next book or you can plant the seed backwards to a book that you've already done so that the people reading this collaborative book with us can go back and purchase the book that you've already done. 

Planting the seed for a future book, a past book, or a current book is a really amazing reason to be a collaborative author. I've done that a bunch of times. In one book, I talked about being a Dynamic Woman. Then I linked it back to the Dynamic You™ Book. I've also been in another one where I talked about the importance of celebrating our successes and linked it over to the Dynamic Year journal. 

You might even write your piece as something that will open up an idea that is then more thoroughly talked about in your own book or in another collaborative book.

There are different ways. I can even write in someone else's collaborative book about the importance of being a collaborative author and link it back to my opportunity. It doesn't even have to be directly to the book. It could be to other opportunities or offerings. 

Reason 3: To build your audience. 

How do you build your audience? Well, the obvious one is you’re building your audience with the readers who buy your book from you.

You're also building your audience by the other authors selling it to their audiences. 

Plus, you can build your audience by leveraging your own social media promotion before the book even comes out, and when it’s out. What you might not have thought about for your own book or even with a collaborative book is to share the content from other authors or commenting on their posts to gain more connections and followers.

What you might not have thought about for your own book is the power of the publisher, in this case it’s me, promoting you as an author to my network.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, you want to be looking for full promo from a collaborative book opportunity. It’s them promoting you and also giving you lots of promo materials for social media, emails etc. that they have designed personalized to you. That's a really key thing and strategy. That's something we teach in our book opportunity. 

Reason 4: Build your network. 

You might be like, “What's the difference between audience and network?” Well, if we think of audiences, these are people who could buy from you, who do buy from you and leads. 

Then we talk about networks. Yes, that could also be leads. Yes, that can also be potential customers. It can also be your audience. ​

But I want you to think of it differently in the way of network by connecting with a network of authors. You are an author. Now you have permission to reach out to the other authors. Obviously not a salesy or creepy way. You can be like, “Hey, I'm an author in the Dynamic Women® Secrets Book. I'm secret number 13. I see you’re secret number 28. Let's connect.” 

Now, you're connecting, not just as maybe an expert in your topic, but you're connecting as authors. Connecting on another level, and even though you've maybe already been part of a collaborative book, this is a new set of authors. 

Even if you've written your own book, this is now you connecting with other authors. It's always important to continue to expand your network, grow your network, and build your network, so that you can continue to build collaborative opportunities, joint ventures, affiliates, referral partnerships, all of these things to move your business forward. 

If you don’t grow your network, eventually, by having just the same group of people, you're going to hit some dead ends, and your lists are all going to start being the same. 

Reason 5: Being relevant. 

You need to continue to add to your achievements and your bio with a current book. I don't lean on the power and the success of my solo book back in 2017. I'm constantly putting out books or being part of books so that I continue to be relevant. I continue to be on people's radars like, “Whoa, you're an author again. Wow. Cool.”

The ability to say, “My latest book” is powerful, and then in selling this new book, you can bring in your old books and bundle them. 

Authors, if your book is over a year old, you need another book. You need some fresh readers. There's so much strategy that can be used here around being a collaborative author. That's why I continue to be a collaborative author, even though some of the opportunities don't hold all the things I really want in collaborative authorship opportunities.

Wrapping Up

These five reasons: a jumping-off point, planting the seed, building your audience, building your network, and being relevant - are game changers in your business, to get the message out there, to be able to bring business back to you, and really, to stand apart from other people in your industry. 

I hope you'll consider joining the Dynamic Women® Leadership Secrets book. Check in with us to see if we still have opportunities depending on when you read this and go back and read the other two parts of this series so that you can really get all of the information to make the right choices about being a collaborative author. ​

Also, invite your friend to be an author with you. That's a really cool opportunity as well as growth for you, your friend, and for your friendship as you both move up in the world in the same book and make a change in other people's lives. 

Read my other blogs:

1. 5 Ways to Cheerlead Other Women
2. Make Your Own "Snow Day" 
3. The Core Problem I See in Women