Who can blame you? Let’s be honest: Before you partner with someone, you want to be fairly confident that it will be a good, productive experience.

That confidence often comes from experience working with your collaborator on other projects or in other ways. For that reason, starting small might be the best way to approach teaming up with someone else.

3 reasons to collaborate

But why would you do any of this in the first place? What’s in it for you? Here are three reasons I love author collaborations:

1. You can help/entertain/educate/inform more readers when you partner with others who already reach the people you want to reach.
2. It’s an easy and affordable way to expand the audience for your work.
3. There’s potential for you to learn, grow, and improve when you partner with a colleague who could be in a position to teach you about something you need to learn.

And, honestly, it’s just plain fun to work with smart people you admire or respect.

4 easy author collaboration ideas

“Entry level” author collaborations can take many forms. You might . . .

• Ask another writer in your genre to share information about your new book with her e-mail list in exchange for sending details of her latest book to yours.
• Organize a virtual authors event with a bookstore or library.
• Include another author as a resource when pitching an article idea to a magazine or newspaper or a segment to a TV talk show.
• Form a blog circle with other authors targeting the same readers. Link to the blogs in your circle from your site, comment on their blog posts, agree to contribute content to theirs — and vice versa — on a regular basis.

(Get more ideas in “5 ways to collaborate with other authors.”)

I seem to be leaning more and more towards collaborations in my own businesses. Sometimes I do it simply for the pleasure of creating something new with a smart colleague. Other times, it’s because I know that our combined efforts will do more good than the solo approach.

Start small

Whether I’m doing a blog post swap or creating a course with a colleague, the collaboration is nearly always mutually beneficial.

The trick (for me, at least), is partnering with people who will deliver. We both have to do what we’ve committed to.

That’s why I recommend starting with a small collaboration before partnering on something bigger — co-writing a book or creating a Facebook group together. Beginning with something that involves less of a commitment will help both of you assess whether there’s potential for a positive and productive longer term partnership.

Give it a try

Finding someone to collaborate with might take time, but the rewards are worth the effort.

Do you have room for this in your author life? If so, start small. It could lead to something big.

How do you collaborate with others to reach your readers or achieve other goals?

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2013. It has been updated and expanded.)