CollaborationsIf your agent's reasons do not make sense, though, you have a
problem. It may be that your agent places her control and income
ahead of your career. In that event, examine your options.
And remember: you come first (after your readers, of course).
PUBLISHERS
A great novel is a great novel, and if there is one thing publishers
want it is great novels, correct? Again, not necessarily.
Your regular publisher may feel threatened by your collaboration.
A new author and, possibly, a new agent have entered the equation.
Will they get to keep you? And if they do, how will they sell their
accounts on this new product line?
Collaborations can also embroil publishers in problems. Take the
issue of cover credit: whose name goes first? Don't laugh! This issue
is so troublesome that the boilerplate of most contracts already
addresses this point. (It gives the publisher control over the order
of cover credit.)
The stickiest problem for collaborators, though, comes when
their publisher does not treat them equally. Indeed, a publisher may
sign a collaboration team not because it is enthused about their
novel, but because it wants to add one of them to its list. Keep your
eyes open. If you feel you are being ignored in favor of your partner,
you may be getting squeezed out.
By now you may have decided that it will be easier to work alone.
Perhaps it is. Successful long-term collaborators are a special breed.
Still, you do not necessarily need to make a career of collabora-
tion. If you and your potential partner trust and respect each other,
you may discover that you can write both together and apart.
Will your collaboration be profitable? That is up to you both.
When all is said and done, readers do not care whether the cover of
your novel has on it two names or one. What your readers want from
your collaboration is what they want from any novel: a good story.