Referring to coauthor

[Dembara]

In interviews what is the proper edict for referring to books that were coauthored (with equal work put in)? Would it be improper to refer it as 'my' book, or how should you do it? If someone could direct me to a source for the proper edicit, that would be ideal. Thank you, for any help!

Note: the book in question is more of a scholarly book, and I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this kind of thing.

[moderntimes]

Just say "our book" or "Karen's and my book" or similar. On the cover and in all references, say "Hamlet by William Shakespeare and Roger Bacon" and flip a coin (literally) to decide whose name is listed first. This is assuming, as you say, that the co-authors did equal work.

[Dembara]

... and flip a coin (literally) to decide whose name is listed first. This is assuming, as you say, that the co-authors did equal work.

I always thought, and have been told, (for naming in scholarly works) the edict was by alphabetical order (if equal work) so people seeing the authors, can tell that they either did equal work, or the first person did more. And this way they can tell if its out of alphabetical order, that equal work wasn't done.

[moderntimes]

I suppose that rule may be used for scholarly works. For a more informal book, such as a romance novel, random order of author names is fine. If the reference uses "and" it denotes equality, regardless of the names. So this is different:

by Karen Smith and Joe Jones

vs

by Karen Smith with Joe Jones

The former indicates equality, the latter shows that Joe assisted but was not equal.

Another way to indicate a hierarchy rather than an equality is of course using larger font for the first name and much smaller for the second.