Attached Link: http://yukidoke.org/~mako/projects/collablit/

Hey Chuck - That's a pretty broad and complex topic. I know there are lots of collaborative efforts in the world of fantasy and science fiction, and suspect the same is true in other genre. Robert Asprin's Thieve's World is a good example, as nu-be points out. Also Anne McCaffery and Marion Zimmer Bradley both engaged collaborators in their latter years. I suspect the exact nature of the collaboration varies with each situation, and in the case of well established authors like McCaffery and Bradley, the big name gets the final say. I did find this paper (in PDF if interested) on the web: Models of Historical Literary Collaboration. The short description of it says "This short paper (~6 pages) explores the nature of literary collaboration employed in the creation of the King James Bible and the short stories of Raymond Carver." I co-wrote a technical paper once with two co-authors. The way that worked was one of us (me) was designated the primary author while the other two read, edited, and filled in on areas of their particular expertise. I would write up a draft, send it to them, they would edit it (using strike through fonts or changing font color) then I would re-write and resubmit. It was an iterative process. It also helped that we all sat within 10 feet of each other and could sit down at a moments notice and hash things out. I think a similar thing can be done over the web via e-mail and chat sessions. Also, the Wings User Manual was very much a collaborative effort. We set up a UM Project over at the Wings forum and started a thread for each command. Everyone could submit their take on things. We sent out requests for specific info (tutorials, for example) and when we got replies, I had to incorporate them into the whole. It could not have been done without the help of everyone who participated. Hope this ramble helps a little. jon

 
~jon
My Blog - Mad Utopia Writing in a new era.