I'm writing a book with a co-author, and we disagree on who to thank. So, we're thinking of each writing our own short acknowledgements sections. For context, assume the book is just a regular book with no particular conventions unique to the genre (so not an academic paper or anything special).
Question: Are co-authors writing separate acknowledgements unheard of or considered odd? Personally, I haven't seen it in any books I've read.
I have heard of, and seen, such a thing—although I can't think of a specific book at the moment. It certainly doesn't seem odd at all, especially if each author does want to express themself separately.
It would take the form of an "Acknowledgements" page with "Author A would like to thank . . .," followed by "Author B would like to that . . ."
The same kind of thing would happen with any biographical information about each of you.
Most likely, a publisher would limit the amount of individual information provided, but that would depend on the publisher.
I'm re-reading Conrad's Heart of Darkness at the moment, and the acknowledgements page has four paragraphs covering multiple authors. It might provide a useful model for you to follow.
The first starts "Owen Knowles wishes to record..." and has a second sentence "He is also indebted to...". Knowles edited the primary text and provided an Introduction and Notes.
The second starts "Robert Hampson wishes to thank...". Hampson edited the additional The Congo Diary and provided notes to that text.
The third and fourth are short collective acknowledgements:
Our thanks are due to Donald J. Shewan for the preparation of the map.
Warmest thanks are due to Louise Sladen for her help in preparing the manuscript.
