Authors are pairing up to write novels with a special quality that neither could produce alone
http://www.nynewsday.com/features/booksmag...ks-bottom-promo<snip>
'Franchise authors'
Clive Cussler, similarly a "franchise author" and self-admitted slow writer, says his publisher asked him several years ago to spin off a co-authored series from his popular "Dirk Pitt" high-seas adventure novels. ("Mutiny on the Bounty," by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, is a precedent.)
"From a publisher's standpoint, it's profit," Cussler says. "None of us are driven to do it. It's dollars and cents in the long run."
He agreed to it and later added another series with a different co-author.
"We work to come up with good plots and good concepts. I have to maintain my image." They write, and every month or so, he says, he edits.
But the Dirk Pitt novels had always remained his. Till now.
Later this month, he'll unveil "Black Wind," co-authored by his son Dirk, after whom the hero is named. "My hope is we'll work together on the next one, and then I'm out of it. I want to retire."