Co-Authoring Without Homicide by John Hedtke and Brenda Huettner

If you’ve heard any of John Hedtke’s other presentations on publishing, you know what a silly business being an author is and how much fun it might be to become part of it all.  By now, you’re probably already motivated to consider writing a book… but why on earth would you want to co-author a book, sharing the credit, the glory, and (most of all), the money with someone else?

This presentation, done with co-authors John Hedtke and Brenda Huettner, will show you the hows and whys of doing books and other large writing projects with a writing partner and living to tell about it afterwards. This presentation will answer the following questions:

• Why would you want or need a co-author?
• How should you go about choosing a co-author?
• How should you divide the work?
• What kinds of challenges are unique to co-authoring?
• What pitfalls are there when collaborating on a book?
• What kind of tools will make this easier?
• Should you co-author with your spouse?

Speaker bio - John Hedtke

John Hedtke is the award-winning author of 26 books. He has over 30 years in the software business, close to 30 years writing, and 7 years in technical publications management. John has developed and written documentation and books for many leading software products, and has received 26 writing awards to date. John regularly contributes articles to magazines such as Publish! and Accounting Technology. A complete list of books, articles, projects, and awards can be found online at his web site, www.hedtke.com.

John owns a company that offers writing and business consulting services for a variety of private, public, and governmental clients. John also does numerous radio and magazine interviews and frequently travels to do lectures and guest appearances at conferences and seminars. John was the last Region 7 Director on the Society for Technical Communication’s Board of Directors and is a Fellow of the Society. When not otherwise occupied, John writes magazine articles and sleeps late as much as possible.

Other Cool Stuff Worth Knowing:

• John has donated 85 pints of blood.
• John writes and sells buttons to a button company in California. Some examples are "I've suffered for my art; now it's your turn," “Stop me before I log on again,” “Death is nature’s way of telling you to turn off the computer,” “Failure is not an option—it already comes bundled with the software,” and “How’d you like to curl up in bed with the author of a good book?” It doesn’t pay the rent, but it’s a lot of fun.
• John has been playing banjo and guitar and singing for almost 40 years. He says he gets a lot of requests when he plays the banjo, but he goes ahead and plays it anyhow.

Speaker bio - Brenda Huettner

Brenda Huettner is an independent technical communication consultant who specializes in increasing her client’s awareness of the benefits of quality documentation.  For the past 25 years, she's worked as a writer, editor, trainer, and manager, for both software and hardware companies.  She is a Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication, a Senior Member of IEEE active in the IEEE Professional Communication Society, and a member of the Usability Professionals Association.  In addition to supporting the documentation needs of her clients, Brenda has published several books and articles, and presented half-day, full-day, and multi-day courses on writing, project management, usability, and career management.  Her most recent book is "Captivate 4.0: the Definitive Guide" available from Jones & Bartlett.  She also gives emergency preparedness and disaster recovery classes through the Red Cross, and is webmaster for a variety of organizations.

Schedule

6:30 - 7:00 PM: Networking and ordering
7:00 - 8:30 PM: Program and dinner

Meeting location

The Lion and Rose 

701 Capital of Texas Hwy S [map]
West Lake Hills, TX 78746
(512) 335-5466

www.thelionandrose.com/locations/westlake.php