A Rock Star is an expert, and many are authors.
If you an author, you are automatically considered an expert.
(Author may or may not mean book)
And of course some of you will immediately revolt here, as you claim you do not know how to write or perhaps are a poor writer or maybe even hate writing.
And writing goodly ain’t dat hard!
First, few are as bad as I used to be.
English isn’t my first language although I write in English. Despite supposed fluency, I was put in remedial English in college (with people who barely spoke English and inner city kids who never had a chance to learn well). I think I got a B-.
If you hate writing (and you probably really do not, despite nasty flashbacks to school), there are ghostwriters who put your ideas into words.
Anyone Can Be An Author!
Anyone can learn to write, and besides, we know there are people called “Editors” and “Ghost Writers” who can help you.
For my first commercially published book I had a coauthor to help and a slew of editors.
Next you’ll tell me you need to be an expert to be an author. Bullshit!
Three Author Models:
- Be an expert
- Interview experts
- Research what experts have written, said, etc.
In my second commercially published book I interviewed 101 people with the appropriate expertise, and that was the book. And it was fun!
Now if you do not start as an expert, but you hang out and talk to lots of them, or maybe instead research their findings, doesn’t that help build your expertise?
Hell Yes!
Remember that “Expert is a Relative Term”
And remember that “Expert is a Relative Term” – you do not need to be the #1 or even #500 expert worldwide to be a legit expert and provide value!
A book will cement your expert status!
And it doesn’t have to be a book.
It used to be you needed a commercially published book (and that is till the “best”), but today, other forms of publishing are considered equally valid.
1) Expert with 1 Paper
I worked on one large software project in Asia, where we sometimes needed to change IP addresses on boxes. Should be easy, right?
Sometimes there were complex interactions with application software that made it screwy.
A young employee figured out the details (which wasn’t that hard, someone just needed to dedicate a little time), documented it, and shared it with everyone.
We considered him an expert, and not on just the technical details he documented. That just showed he was an expert without limiting areas of expertise. He WAS an expert
2) Expert via a short Ebook
A few years back, I wrote a shortish 40 page ebook on how to have an “Effective Internet Presence.” Yeah, I should have called it something cool probably, like “Google Me!”
Still, a number of businesses and individuals (not to mention the press) contacted me because of my “Expert Status.” It didn’t hurt that this free ebook also got 40,000+ downloads of course.
Errr, Check out this ebook if you haven’t already
3) Expert via a Poorly Written Book No One Read
A great guy you probably have heard of (he MUST stay anonymous here) self published a book.
He should have hired an editor for sure.
Some interesting ideas, poorly written, no sense of grammar, and almost no one read it.
But guess what? The fact that he had a book made him an Expert.
He would mail the book to people he wanted to work with along with a letter, and then call afterwards. Lots of people wanted to work with him because he had a book and hence was an expert.
(he really was an expert in my opinion, but he should have executed better – not that it mattered)
Look, I prefer you write something that rocks . . .
There are so many legit publishing choices today:
- Kindle Books (this one is BIG)
- Traditional Publishing
- Blogging
- Whitepapers
- Ebooks
- Audio books, podcasts, video casts, etc. etc.
A traditionally published book is still best today, but not the only choice. And traditionally published (i.e. “dead tree”) books may not even exist soon!
I can confirm that Ted was a horrific writer in College and hated writing, seriously. Man you’ve come a long way.
Any future “Dead Tree” book plans and do you really enjoy writing now?
Great to hear from you John – yes, I avoided ALL classes that required ANY writing. That meant science and math only! I was a horrible writer and hated it!
Yes, I do enjoy writing quite a bit now (although I still do not like deadlines – although they are a necessary evil to get things done).
Book plans for sure, but the way things are going, it may be electronic all the way.
That said, sometimes I prefer a physical book for sure. The feel and even smell of it – yup, old school in many ways
It is amazing how as soon as you write something, almost anything, people look at you differently, as an authority, as an expert.
I was “volunteered” to edit a newsletter on something I was fascinated by but a newbie at. I wrote a few random words to fill the spaces.
Suddenly, everyone thought I was an expert! In fact, I did build some expertise in editing and writing a bit for the newsletter, but is amazingly how this quickly this new found “respect” arose!
I always avoided writing whenever possible. Yes, I had to somewhat for work, but I limited it as much as possible forever. Finally I realized that writing isn’t that hard and yes, people absolutely look at you differently if you’ve written something, almost anything. It doesn’t take a lot of writing for people to notice and treat you in a different light (or is that see you in a different light? Still not a great writer you don’t need to be great to write and make a difference)
I always hated and avoided writing myself Geo!
Obviously U got over that; writing simply works.