Bob Mayer on Collaborating
This is the second of our guest blogs from writers who have collaborated. Bob Mayer has collaborated with Jenny on two novels–Don’t Look Down and Agnes and the Hitman–but that’s not his only experience in working well (sometimes) with others. And thank you Bob for contributing to the D&G blog:
I’ve done several collaborations over the years and also had offers of others that never panned out. Early in my career the actor Steven Seagal called me and discuss writing a book. His last words to me
were “Come on out and let’s do it.” And those were his last words to me. Ever. He was with CAA at the time and when Ovitz jumped ship for Disney, a lot of CAA clients, including Seagal jumped ship and the little people’ brokering the deal disappeared. Which was probably a good thing since I wrote my first Area 51 book instead—the series has since sold over a million copies.
More recently, I was contacted about writing books based on the TV show, The Unit. I was actually standing on Broadway, outside St. Martins, waiting for my agent to go meet the editor to discuss the
book. Meg got out of the cab and her first words were: “Bad news. The deal fell apart.”
I’ve found that for every one deal that works, there’s 49 others that don’t. So that’s my doom message for the day. Back to collaborating.
I think the way Jenny and I do it, is pretty unique. A lot of collaborations, aren’t. A lot of times it’s a ‘big name’ author lending their name and the ‘little name’ author writing the book. Or
one author gives an idea and the other person writes it. Rarely is it actually two people writing. I think that gives our books a unique male/female point of view. Mine being the male. I think.
It also tends to make our plots very difficult to do. For DON’T LOOK DOWN and to a lesser extent, AGNES, we had to run two plots and make sure they merged. For WILD RIDE, which is in the planning stages, we’re trying hard to have one antagonist and one plot. Right.
I had a bad experience collaborating once, to the point where I pulled my name from the project. The problem was that the co-authors weren’t experienced writers and didn’t understand the publishing business. It’s a business that doesn’t make much sense and is extremely frustrating. Thus, I think it’s important in a collaboration for both authors to be at the same experience level. Both authors also must put the book first and egos second. There also have to be some sort of guidelines. One thing we agreed on was that each of us had last say on our POV characters. But compromise is key. Xavier was my secondary POV character in Agnes and I loved him. But we ended up cutting all his POV scenes for the betterment of the book. I even just cut my prologue from Jefferson Allegiance. (But I just put that info in later on, hehe).
I’ve learned more as a writer collaborating than I did writing alone. But it’s very, very hard. Don’t do this at home.
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Oh Bob - where have you been. We’ve missed the gloom (no pun intended). Nothing but good times ahead.
Dont you have a dog? I think all guest bloggers should have their dog in the header.
That’s a brilliant suggestion DUG - where is Hannah in the header?
Collaborating is definitely not for the faint of heart. The more you show us about the fine art of tightrope walking, the happier I am not to try this at home.
So Bob, Wild Ride done yet? (Oh come on, I had to say that).
Seriously though, While collaborations can be way more difficult, the books that come out of it are well worth it. If the two of you can keep from killing each other, you have a bright future.
Nothing but good times ahead.
It’s hard enough to get people to agree on a movie - getting people to collaborate on something they care so much about (since it’s their vocation) must be amazingly difficult. Kudos to all who try it, and especially those who succeed!
Congrats on the prologue, Bob! We’re definitely looking forward to Xavier, even if we don’t get his POV.
Xavier’s POV scenes will be up on the Agnes and the Hitman website. It’s our DVD: the extras.
How is collaborating two different from collaborating three?
More negotiation. No tie votes.
It’s hard to compare because Bob and I have done two novels over three years, and Krissie and Eileen and I did one, and now Krissie and Lani and I are doing one, so they’re different experiences entirely. Bob and I used to swap scenes using Track Changes mark-ups to show what we’d changed; we stopped doing that because it didn’t matter. If we could tell the change, it was okay and if we could, we’d fix it again. Krissie and Lani and I are really well-matched in temperment and skill, and pretty well matched in writing process, and flexible enough to stretch for each other when we’re not. But we’re going to be using Track Changes for a long time yet, the way Bob and I did in the beginning.
There are other differences in the two collaborations but the important things are the same. I know the people I’m writing with want the best book possible. I know nobody’s ego is going to get in the way of a good book. I know I’m going to have a good time writing with these people because I respect them and because they love the books we’re doing as much as I do, and the excitement we share really makes the work swing. It’s the creative energy of collaborating that I’m hooked on, and that’s in both the Crusie-Mayer collab and here in D&G. Well, you probably noticed it here already. I mean sometimes, we just giggle helplessly because we’re having so much fun. It’ll be hard work later, but it’ll be work we love, so we’ll slog through it together.