Why Smart Leaders Choose Team Book Writing (And How to Do It Right)
- Barbara J. Mayfield, MS, RDN, LD, FAND
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
What is the biggest team project you have been involved with? How did it go? Was it successful in spite of the inevitable bumps and detours in the road? Or was it a disaster?
The largest team project I have been involved with, and had the privilege of leading, was the writing of Communicating Nutrition: The Authoritative Guide. That team consisted of myself, 57 additional authors, 27 reviewers, 10 educators who pilot-tested the text before publication, and a handful of editors and designers.
Read about how that book came to be and meet the original author team.
Working with that team was a resounding success and created a much better book than I could ever have written on my own as a solo author. I believe what I wrote in the title above – Smart Leaders Choose Team Book Writing.
Why choose team book writing?
Although I was knowledgeable about every area covered in the text, I was not an expert and lacked significant professional experience in many areas. I believed other voices would create a stronger text that would be more reliable and relatable.
Despite the extensive organization required, sharing the workload was a major benefit over working alone. Writing 42 chapters is a daunting task and having others contributing ideas, writing, reviewing, and revising made it much more manageable.
Getting to know the other authors was a joy and working together created new professional networks for everyone involved. The connections formed have led to other projects as well as friendships.
A final benefit was the creation of not only a writing team but a marketing team as well. Every author contributed to spreading the word about the book both before and after publication. The reach of nearly 100 individuals is far greater than a sole author.
For all these reasons, the second edition of the book is being undertaken by an even larger team of 60+ authors and counting. The second edition team includes both original and new authors. We met via Zoom recently and shared our goals and ideas for this version of the book, which promises to be even better than the first.
How do you do it right?
I was asked by a new author on our recent Zoom call how I managed to orchestrate such a team effort. My answer can be summarized as putting into practice the principles included in the text about successful teamwork and logistical planning.
Effective teamwork is covered in Chapter 3, on pages 45-46, and in Chapter 39, on pages 608-609. Several blog posts and a tip sheet summarize these ideas:
Logistical planning is covered in Chapter 33, Attention to Logistical Details Promotes Successful Communication, and several blog posts and tip sheets:
Can you organize random numbers? No. Can your planning be stress-free? Yes.
What creates effective communication? Plan for success and prevent failure.
Tip sheet 4 - Managing something BIG
Tip sheet 24 - 5 Tips for Logistical Planning
You too can be a smart leader who chooses working in teams over working alone, because…
“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot: together we can do great things.” ~ Mother Teresa
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