Joanne Taylor • Ajatar Editing

Co-editing and co-authoring a multi-author volume.

Thirty-six authors from around the world just wrote and published a book in less than ten months. And not just any book. We were the number one new release in Amazon’s advertising and marketing categories within days of launching. At the heart of this success was a safe, supportive, and forward-thinking community: Mark Schaefer’s RISE community for ethical, human-centric marketing nerdery. We’re proud of our book and our story.

So, how do you make a multi-author volume a success? What’s it like being involved in a community-based project? This is for you if you’re interested in writing, marketing, community-building, or personal growth.

1. The project: The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever
2. Gather volunteers
3. Enthuse & inform your team
4. Writing
5. Editorial team & prep
6. Supporting writers
7. Know your team
8. Recording the audiobook
9. AI-assisted cover design
10. Final copyediting
11. Page proofs anxiety!
12. Practical and emotional takeaways

The project: The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever

When Mark Schaefer, bestselling author of multiple business books, and Dan Nestle, seasoned editor and host of The Dan Nestle Show, came up with the idea of sharing the expertise and experience of the marketers in the RISE community by writing a book, our Discord community server lit up with excitement.

The idea was for volunteers to contribute a chapter each to a multi-author volume and self-publish on Amazon alongside Mark’s other bestselling books.

Gather volunteers

At the time, I thought I might be the only copyeditor in the community, so I tentatively volunteered to copyedit or proofread if needed. Before I knew it, I was invited to an advisory board meeting; no pressure, but would I like to be involved. Erm, YES! The RISE community had become a place I hung out, where many of my favourite discussions took place, and it was full of people I liked and respected. If there was a way I could help, I was in.

Enthuse & inform your team

With clear leadership and uncomplicated systems, everything went surprisingly – unbelievably – smoothly. People filled in their preferred topics of expertise on a spreadsheet. Topics were allocated and everyone took it in good grace if they didn’t get their first choice. The vision was shared with everyone on a call. (We only had about three all-author calls in the whole project!) This was great for making sure everyone was on the same page, shared the overall vision of the project, and was aware of the timeline and expectations. In less than four months, contributing authors had written and revised, and gone through editing with an experienced volunteer editor. Incredible.

Leadership was an essential component here. It was supportive, intentional, and honest. Do I think some conversations I’d struggle to have due to lack of experience and authority went on behind the scenes? Probably. But from what we saw, it was a thing of beauty.

Writing

Authors got on with it. They were experts, so the main challenge was getting their vast knowledge and experience down to only 1,500 words in 10 insights. They ran chapters by their friends and colleagues before submitting to the volume editor (Mark). It went back if it wasn’t quite there yet. Some people reached out to me, or their allocated editor (there were three of us), for advice or feedback early on and I didn’t mind the extra input because we were part of a community. We were in it together.

Some writers submitted early, well before any deadline (I know who you are and appreciate you to this day!). Some were so busy with their corporate roles I’m pretty sure they chose to work on Christmas Day. There were family emergencies.

On a side note, I remember thinking how I felt a deeper sense of connection with the people who asked me for help or confided in me that they were nervous. This was an important lesson for when I felt nervous and needed help later in the project. Instead of feeling like an emotional liability (my default response!) I reached out and asked for help immediately – something I’ve never really done before.

Editorial team & prep

The three editors (me, Dan Nestle, and Brian Piper of Epic Content Marketing, Second Edition, and jumping-out-of-planes fame) discussed style and writing guidelines. Dan and Brian were experienced editors and we all brought different things to the table. Brian suggested big-picture processes like how we’d operate in Dropbox and layout suggestions for the chapters. Dan made writing a delight to read with precision aim towards our readers. I like rooting through style guides to see how AP vs CMOS do things. We all wanted to support our authors to get the best chapter they possibly could in print.

As there were three of us, we had around 12 chapters each, and some were co-authored with two writers sharing a chapter. This was a lot of different voices to capture! And a lot of emails. A chapter of 1,500 words doesn’t sound like much, but editing 12 lots of 1,500 words takes much, much longer than 18,000 words written by the same person! I knew I’d have to schedule in a lot of time for communicating with writers, but it still took a bit longer than I was expecting. I learned a lot about effective email communication!

Supporting writers

So many of the authors made my job incredibly straightforward. They met the brief and deadline, had studied the sample chapter, and delivered a knock-out submission that didn’t require much work. Some were published authors already, but not everyone. There were the occasional bumps. I didn’t count on some people not quite hitting the brief first time and having an off-target expectation of what an editor does. I didn’t expect the crises of confidence (I mistakenly thought that was just me!) or people live tweeting about the movies they were binge-watching during the holidays when they’d missed a deadline for me (I’ll never tell 😉). There were even last-minute family emergencies.

This is where being members of the same community helped. Any challenge or wobble we faced, someone always stepped up to offer support, and community members who were not authors made valuable contributions and provided support. Everyone was prepared to go the extra mile for each other. I was happy to give extra time to people who hadn’t written much before and were putting in the hard work. That was the point of the book, to lift each other up, and to uplift our readers with our words.

For most chapters, writers wrote, we edited, checked with the author, then sent it to the volume editor, and it was done. There’s a misconception that this is what writing a book is supposed to be like, but it’s the exception rather than the rule. It’s not usually that easy! The much more usual process is further rounds of revision, and for some chapters there was more back and forth. That’s normal! Revision and rewriting are to make your work the best version of itself. Expect further work after your first and second drafts. Do as much as you can on your own, and then do some more, before you send it to your editor.

Know your team

When I’d submitted all of my edited chapters, and the volume editor was happy, I was done! Wow, I’d worked hard and got to know some amazing people a little bit better, but it was an anticlimax. All-author meetings were being scheduled, and my involvement was kind of over. Cue surprise email. Something had come up and did I want to contribute the missing chapter. The words “I think you can do it” swung it, and I said yes. We were cutting it fine for time though as recordings of audio chapters were almost due!

Recording the audiobook

While everyone else’s chapters were with the final copyeditor, authors had a short break. As soon as they received the final version of their chapter, it was time to record individual chapters for the audiobook. All authors recorded their own chapters, and many said it was more challenging than they were expecting!

Some chapters took several attempts in a recording studio or with a home set-up. Sometimes the volume editor returned them with feedback on how to make an audiobook-quality recording. When I’d written my chapter and had it approved by Mark (joy and relief!), I started looking for a podcast-quality mic. Wasn’t going to happen in time. As soon as I received my chapter back from the external copyeditor, I had an adventure to a semi-local music studio here in Sri Lanka to record my chapter. The guy there, Yohan, was so helpful. I do read aloud a lot for work but I’ve never thought about breathing while reading aloud before! It was a fun day once I got over my nerves, and my audio chapter was accepted first time because of Yohan’s expert set-up and good ear.

When all the audio chapters were complete, they were sent to a specialist audiobook editor. They said it was very ambitious to have 36 different author voices, but by the end, they were impressed with the project. There are accents from around the world and I’m proud to add my voice to such a great piece of collaborative work.

AI-assisted cover design

While we were busy crafting the words for The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever, another important aspect was brewing behind the scenes: the cover design. Frank Prendergast, a talented and creative community member – that doesn’t quite cover it: he’s a frickin’ genius – took up the challenge of utilizing AI for the design process. It was an exciting idea but could AI really create a visually stunning cover that would capture the essence of our book?

Throughout the journey, Frank shared his insights and progress with us in the community. Members offered feedback, and it was exciting watching the design evolve. Frank skillfully fine-tuned the elements to create a visual masterpiece. You can read about Frank’s design process in detail on his blog, and see some of the early images. The cover was a success due to his creative talents and eye for design, and it reflects the explosion of creativity that is our community book!

Final copyediting

After an edited chapter had been accepted by Mark, as volume editor and project manager, it went to the final copyeditor. I’ll happily admit I was not brave enough to volunteer for this task! They proof-edited every chapter individually and did an amazing job of ensuring everything was consistent within the multi-author volume with a professional level of polish. Self-publishing isn’t the DIY option it once was, and there’s no reason your book can’t have the same level of finish as a traditionally published book.

Our copyeditor was very experienced in business book publishing and did an exceptional job with the chapter-by-chapter approach, but providing the completed manuscript to your copyeditor all at once would be ideal. I recommend providing the final copyeditor or proofreader with the complete manuscript in a single file.

Page proofs anxiety!

When the layout came back from the typesetter, authors were asked to look over their chapters and were understandably excited! But I was anxious. I could tell there had been some last-minute changes and additions. I rearranged my schedule and proofread the manuscript with a triage approach, picking out only literals – blips that had been missed or accidentally introduced – and sending a short list of queries to the volume editor. Of course we wanted a top-quality finish, but nothing will ever be perfect, and seeking total perfection will stop you getting your message out into the world. I did what I could before the deadline and let it go. Together, we created something bold and beautiful, and that’s what matters.

Practical and emotional takeaways

The best thing about creating this book, apart from working alongside fantastic individual writers, was that it mobilized our community and brought us together. I witnessed exceptional leadership and collaboration. It was exciting and energizing. It was nerve-racking at times! But overall, it was amazing. This project only worked so well because we were all pulling in the same direction and didn’t want to let each other down.

Take everything a step at a time. When you’re writing, you think that’s the hard bit. Then there’s editing and rewriting, which is often harder! When you’ve done that, and sighed with relief, it turns out that recording the audio chapter is a lot of work! Well, we’re finished now, right? No! Writing and recording was the easy bit. Now you have to help readers who would love to read your book to find it! Marketing your book is a post for another day.

In future, I’d step up for more responsibility as this experience has given me a lot more confidence in my own abilities. I would also suggest that your project manager and volume editor are not the same person, as I can imagine that was a lot of pressure for Mark.

The experience of co-editing and co-authoring this multi-author volume exemplifies the power of collaboration, leadership, and community-based projects. Amazing things can be achieved when like-minded individuals come together, united by shared values and vision. What a roller-coaster. And I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.